An amateur golfer has achieved two of the sports most unlikely feats – on successive holes.
Sydney-based player Kris Clelland pulled off the extraordinary at the Lynwood Golf and Country Club in Pitt Town, produced a double act all but unprecedented in golfing history.
First, he lived every golfer’s dream with a stunning albatross on the par-five 16th green, hitting a four-iron estimated at 228 metres down the fairway and into the hole.
Just minutes later, on the 17th, he stunned his playing partners even further with another once-in-a-lifetime act – a hole in one.
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“I just started laughing,” Clelland, who was born in Scotland before moving to Australia 13 years ago, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“The rest of the guys came onto the green and congratulated me.
“As soon as I hit it (the hole in one), I called to the group, ‘be good’.
“The adrenaline going through my body was stupid. It was a strange but very rewarding end to the round.
“I was literally shaking. I could barely stand over the ball on the 18th tee. I never get nervous playing golf.”
The amateur golfer said he calculated the probability of the remarkable feat at “about one-in-72-billion”.
An average player’s chance at a hole in one has been estimated to be roughly 12,500 to one – about five times higher than a professional.
Meanwhile, the odds of an albatross are significantly slimmer – at as much as 6 million to one.
However, Clelland is far from a weekend hacker.
The artificial intelligence worker plays off a handicap of plus five, while he had previously hit an albatross as well as two holes in one at Sydney’s iconic Moore Park course.
Adding to the unlikeliness of the act is that he had preceded the heroics with bogeys on the 14th and 15th.
“Golf was created by Scots to drink and socialise, and that defo happened after 5 under in 2 holes, 3 strokes total to play a par 5 + par 3 haha (stupid game),” Clelland wrote on Instagram.
“Including 18th (also a par 5), my last 3 holes were completed in 7 strokes lol.”
It has turned Clelland into an overnight celebrity, telling the SMH he spent the weekend replying to messages from fellow golfers in awe of what he had achieved.
“I reckon you could play for three lifetimes and never see that again,” he said.
Clelland’s double act matches that of then-16-year-old Thai golfer Conor Kelly at a 2018 American Junior Golf Association tournament, where he nailed a hole in one before an albatross on the next hole.
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