Two hole-in-ones at different Whanganui golf links over the weekend were slotted in very eerily similar circumstances.
The first came during the Balance Chartered Accountants Doig Bowl tournament at the Wanganui club at Belmont, while the second was on Queen's Birthday Monday at Castlecliff during a five-person Ambrose tournament.
Bothwere scored on the respective par three 9th holes, both golfers won their respective tournaments and both were slotting their first aces.
The Belmont hole-in-one was shot by John Taylor with a nine iron, while the Castlecliff ace was shot by Ron Gowan with a recovery wood to counter a stiff sou'easter blowing accross the track.
Ironically, Taylor is CEO and part-owner of the Doig Bowl sponsors, Balance Chartered Accountants, so essentially it cost the 11.7 handicapper on two counts - a cheque to cover sponsors costs and a substantial cheque to cover the cost of the traditional shout in the 19th.
"This was my first hole-in-one and was 44 years in the making," Taylor said.
"Achieving it during a tournament we were sponsoring that featured about 60 golfers is not the time to score an ace, it cost a fortune in the bar afterwards. It was nice to win the tournament as well."
Meanwhile, Gowan was on an 18 handicap and his ace was nowhere near as costly after a rule change at Castlecliff years ago.
"Thankfully we changed the rules years ago so they shout you if you manage a hole-in-one and that's the way it should be," Gowan said.
"If the rule hadn't changed it would have cost me about seven hundred bucks because there was 145 golfers in the tournament. Our five-person Bark & Boulders team was lucky enough to also win the tournament. The team featured myself, Dennis Dorgan, Kaye and Kerry Dixon and John Endersby. Normally Jo Campbell plays in our team, but she was working," Gowan said.
