It must’ve been something in the water in Sydney’s north over the weekend.
First up it was Cromer’s Shane Floyd who did the all but unthinkable signing for a magical 58 off the stick, or 48 Stableford points, in the Saturday comp at Cromer.
Then on Sunday, Tony Dight and Jenny Lemon, playing in the same group, went one-two with an ace each on just their second hole of the day at Avondale Golf Club.
Floyd, playing with his regular playing partners, began his regular Saturday comp game with four straight birdies. Sensing the nerves would start to play their part, the 55-year-old wasn’t that optimistic about it continuing.
“I started well … but you get nervous,” Floyd told Golf Australia’s Inside The Ropes Podcast.
“I was just thinking, ‘Don’t wreck this round’ and just stay under par.
“I thought,’This will stop soon, and I’ll be lucky to keep parring holes.’
“But it got out of hand.
And continue it did.
Eleven birdies and an eagle later, notwithstanding a lone bogey, Flloyd’s round was as good as the course record.
Sadly for Floyd, the remarkable effort wasn’t enough to grab the daily prize. He and his partner came up a couple of points short.
Sunday was going to be an otherwise relaxing but uneventful day for Dight and his regular Sunday group including Jenny Lemon. That was until the second hole of the afternoon of course.
Dight, a former Eisenhower Cup representative and a board member at Avondale was first away and calmly slotted his tee shot from 140 metres into the hole for an ace.
Jenny, who was up to play shortly after Dight’s ace, was quick to wonder about her chances of repeating the effort, and whether there would be enough room for two balls in the bottom of the cup.
She soon found out there was!
The back to back ace is a rarity in golf, but not the first time it has happened in Sydney in recent times.
Concord Members Brian Ashmore and Neil Dobbs, playing in the same group in the members midweek at Concord, managed to do it at the par-three 14th back in July 2017.
The feat of two in a round by a single player has happened more than once recently as well. The odds of achieving the feat, some estimate, is about a five-billion-to-one
Noel Moran, a 12 marker at Terrey Hills, managed to pull off the remarkable, acing the club’s 12th and 15th holes a year or so ago, while Shelly Beach golfer Greg Wall pulled off the feat back in 2017. Hall’s second of the round done most amazingly, right in front of the clubhouse.
