Sydney golfer Kris Clelland has produced an extraordinary back-to-back feat, making an albatross on one hole and a hole-in-one on the next at Lynwood Golf and Country Club.
The sequence on Saturday saw the Scotsman complete the 16th and 17th holes in just three shots, finishing five under par across the two holes. Clelland said the combined odds had been estimated at one in 72 billion.
Clelland, who works in artificial intelligence, was playing what he described as a “bang average” round by his own standards when he reached the par-five 16th at the course in Pitt Town, in Sydney’s north-west.
With the wind behind him, he drove down the fairway before hitting a four-iron from about 228 metres. One of his playing partners thought the shot might have gone over the green, but Clelland could not find the ball until he looked in the hole.
He had holed his second shot for an albatross — three under par on a single hole.
“I just started laughing,” Clelland said. “The rest of the guys came onto the green and congratulated me.”
Moments later, he faced the 175-metre, par-three 17th into a strong headwind. Clelland selected a five-iron and joked to his playing partners: “This could probably go in.”
His prediction came true. The ball landed about 30 centimetres short of the hole, bounced once and disappeared into the cup.
“You make those jokes all the time but for it to then happen, it was pretty surreal,” Clelland said. “As soon as I hit it, I called to the group, ‘be good’.”
He said the excitement left him shaking as he stood on the 18th tee, despite rarely feeling nervous on a golf course.
“The adrenaline going through my body was stupid,” he said. “It was a strange but very rewarding end to the round.”
A hole-in-one is estimated to occur once in every 12,500 attempts by an average golfer, while an albatross is considered roughly 500 times rarer, at about six million to one. Clelland had already recorded an albatross and two holes-in-one before his latest achievement.
Originally from Ayr in Scotland, near Royal Troon, Clelland began playing golf at the age of two and has lived in Australia for 13 years. He plays off a plus-five handicap, placing him among the country’s stronger amateur golfers.
Clelland changed balls before playing the final hole, keeping the Titleist Pro V1x that produced the two remarkable shots as a souvenir.
The achievement was followed by an afternoon of celebrations at the Lynwood clubhouse, where Clelland said he bought drinks for many of the people who had returned to hear about what had happened.
“Hole in ones you hear quite a bit. But you very rarely hear about albatrosses,” he said. “Two Guinness led to five, then led to 10 and a few more. It was an early bedtime.”
By Sunday, Clelland was still responding to messages from golfers struggling to comprehend the feat.
“I reckon you could play for three lifetimes and never see that again,” he said.
