The hole-in-ones have been flying in at Hurlston Hall

May 7 2009 by Our Correspondent, Ormskirk Advertiser

LIKE the tale about buses, you can wait for a while and nothing happens and then two arrive together.

We are talking golf here and specifically holes-in-one.

So golfers at Hurlston Hall have suddenly produced a double.

The first new ace holder is Kevin O’Brien, a self-employed events manager from Aughton, who began playing golf about 15 years ago starting at the Southport municipal before joining Hurlston Hall in 2005.

On the 12th of the month, at the 12 hole, 200 yards from the white tee, O’Brien, handicap 15, hit a 9-wood.

Telling of his first ace he says: “The sun was in my eyes so I did not see the ball land but I knew it was going straight towards the hole.

“When we got to the green there was no sign of the ball and I thought it had gone over the back and then I walked back across the green and there it was, in the hole. “I was over the moon.”

Holes-in-one are not common. Indeed one calculation puts the odds against as almost 43,000-to-one for the average golfer.

But a couple of weeks later Richard Henwood, a retired schoolteacher, also scored an ace, his second, in the 15 years since he started playing golf. His first came in a seniors open event at Fishwich Hall, near Preston.

In Hurlston Hall’s Chairman’s, a team event, three men and a lady, he hit a 6-iron at the par-3 second and reports: “I could not actually see the bottom of the flag but it felt good and then the lady in our team actually saw it go in and was jumping up and down.

“I value this hole-in-one more. It was a good par-3, about 175 yards.”

His golf handicap is 19 and he has had an operation on both hips. “So I am a new man.”