It is now the first of week of April and I already have three rounds of golf under my belt. Not bad, though none of these took place in Calgary. I had two in Phoenix and one in Vancouver in March. As I look out the window today, I know I am not going to be golfing here for some time yet.
My third round of the year was in Vancouver at the Fraserview Golf Course. This public course was redesigned a few years ago and is a nice track. A little up and down, and most of the fairways are lined by old trees.
On the 460 yard par 5 4th hole, I made one of the rarest shots. I scored a "2" on that par 5. Such a score is known as either a double eagle or an albatross. The tee shot was uphill, and I used my driver to get it out about 220 yards; which I was quite pleased with because of the elevation change. I used a three wood with my second shot, and hoped to get it close.
The green was below the fairway, and I could only see the top of the flag. I figured I was short of the hole, but in the middle of the fairway. I hopped into the car with my playing partner and we went to play his ball. As I came up to the green, I couldn't see my ball anywhere....and that made me mad. So I started searching, walking back towards where I hit it, looking in the first cut and rough...nowhere to be found. I was pissed.
Then all of a sudden one of my playing partners says, "what are you playing?" I said, Titleist ProV, #3. He said; its in the hole!
I was in shock! My three partners were speechless! We just saw an albatross...no wait, we didn't see it go in...but it was in. It was surreal and we were not sure what just happened!
So we went to the next tee, and guess what...I had the honours. So I teed off using the same ball. Immediately, I realized that I should not be using that ball. But it was too late....I had already hooked into the bush.
I spent the next 10 minutes looking for it, and I found it to great relief.
At the conclusion of the round, I ended up shooting an 86. Not all that great when you score a 2. But I'll take it. One of my playing partners sent me an email the next day with some interesting stats from an article he saw in Golf Digest. An albatross is the rarest shot in golf. You have a 1 in 13,000 chance of scoring a hole in one; a one in 6 million chance of scoring an albatross. They had some other stats; in the past 20 years on the PGA Tour, there was 632 aces, and only 56 double eagles in the same 20 year period.
I wish I could say that I was intending to do that, but I admit it was a lucky shot. My only regret is not seeing it go in, but a minor disappointment to a major accomplishment for sure!
