SEVENTH HOLE IN ONE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27018, 18 April 1953, Page 6

SEVENTH HOLE IN ONE

SOUTHLAND WOMAN GOLFER’S RECORD

FEAT IN EACH OF FOUR SUCCESSIVE ROUNDS

(New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, April 17. Four successive rounds of golf and four holes in one—that is now the record o’f Mrs F. Small, of Invercargill.

During a round at the Queen’s Park course she performed the almost incredible feat of holing in one for the seventh time since January 15. In company with her husband and Mrs A. P. Bulman, Mrs Small holed her tee shot at the shortest* hole on the course, Westward Ho. It was her first round after her return from holiday on Thursday. She had holed in one in each of her last three rounds before her departure. , Tonight, Mrs Small said she was not over-excited, but wondered when other Invercargill players would start holing their tee shots. Mrs Bulman commented: “Seeing is believing—it's uncanny.” „, , Mrs Small is a 61-year-old grandmother. She has now holed her tee shot at each of the four short holes on the Queen’s Park course—Waihopai (190

yards), Polygon and Feld wick (135 yards), and Westward Ho (114 yards). She has holed-in-one twice at Waihopai, the longest of the par three holes on the course, and three times at Westward Ho, the shortest hole on the course. Mrs- Small’s record of holes-in-one is as follows January 15 Westward Ho; March 5, Waihopai; March 12, Westward Ho; March 25, Waihopai; April 1. Feld wick; April 3 r Polygon; April 17, Westward Ho. Neither Mrs Small nor any other golfer in Southland can explain this amazing performance. She has been playing golf for five years only. Her handicap is 17. Alex Herd (who died in 1944) holed-in-one 19 times, and this is the greatest of such feats ever recorded by one player. The odds against holing-in-one are tremendous. Some indication is given by a competition which took place at the Salisbury Club, New York, in 1932 at a hole 129 yards from the tee. Tw*o hundred and seventeen professional and amateur golfers, all of whom had at one time or another holed in one, deliberately tried to accomplish the feat. Each competitor had five shots, and they all failed. The nearest approach to the hole was within 25 inches, and only 24 of the 1085 shots were within 10 feet of the hole.