Golf
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
AMATEUR golfers who are yet to tick a hole-in-one off their sporting bucket list would be best advised to get down to the Griffith Golf Club as soon as possible.
The local course has seen a flurry of players pulling off golf's holy grail so far this year at a rate not seen in Griffith for quite some time.
Griffith builder Brian Grandi was the latest to record the feat on Saturday, grabbing an eight-iron on the 141m par three seventh and letting loose with a shot that landed around eight foot from the pin and rolled in - much to his amazement.
"It was a pretty good feeling," said Grandi, who has been waiting for his elusive hole-in-one opportunity for more than 30 years.
"It was just a dead straight shot.
"We heard the rattle of the pin but we didn't know until we walked up there. The guys at the other tee watched it go in.
"I've never had one before - it's one of those things all golfers strive for and I've done that now."
Not bad for Grandi's first round of golf in over a month - and while the rest of his round was "ordinary", there was no wiping the smile off his face.
Grandi became the third player in less than four months to achieve a hole-in-one at the Griffith course.
The year started with a bang after Martin Sweeney nailed one on the 11th hole in January, while Jim Dickie also tasted glory on the seventh just a few weeks later.
Not a single hole-in-one was recorded last year and it is not uncommon for several years to pass without the local course bearing witness to one.
"It's every golfer's dream but they can be pretty scarce," Griffith Golf Club manager Wayne Moat said.
"There's been quite a few over the years but to have already had three this year is quite strange."
Indeed, at least in Griffith, holes-in-one tend to come like buses - not at all, and then all at once.
The Area News' long-time golf correspondent John Bortolazzo's first of two aces in his career came on the same day a rival player also joined the club's elite with a one-shot wonder.
But he said it's not as if the course itself is doing local golfers any favours.
"In fact, the fairways have had so much water on them after the rain that there's no run on the course," Bortolazzo said.
"The greens have gone through a stage where they didn't roll the rubbish grass that was growing so a lot of them aren't good at all - they'll come back, but not at the moment.
"Now we've had three holes-in-one in a short period of time - it's a bit unusual.
"Last Wednesday there were three Eagles in one day, and I've never heard of that at the Griffith Golf Club either."