Morse on course with his third ace
GOLF EDGE Hill golfer Marcus Morse knows a thing or three about hitting a hole-in-one.
Last Saturday afternoon at Half Moon Bay, Morse achieved every golfer’s dream of, sinking an eagle on the par three ninth hole.
But in a feat that would make him the envy of golfers around the world, the shot was the third ace of his amateur career.
Playing in the weekend’s Volkswagen Scramble, Australia’s largest pro-amateur teams event, 76-year-old Morse decided to tee off with his trusty rescue club which he describes as a hybrid between a wood and an iron..
“It’s one of my favourite clubs – well, it is definitely my favourite now,” he said.
“It’s equivalent to a four or five iron, distance-wise.”
From the tee box, Morse smacked the ball greenward and, alongside teammates Frank Nissen and Evan and Candy van Cleef, watched on as the ball sailed 149m toward the hole.
“We didn’t have anyone on the green at that point and it was quite windy, hitting into the breeze off the ninth,” he said. “And, of course, there’s water on the left there – which I’ve been known to go into.
“But I pumped my ball in, and we all thought it was pretty close.
“My playing partners thought it might have rolled off the green, but when we got up there, we couldn’t see it anywhere. “We found it in the hole.” Morse said his heart “jumped a few beats” when he realised he had hit the third ace of his career – his first in competition.
“It was very exciting,” he said. “To have a hole-in-one in an event like that, it was a real privilege.
“Afterwards, my wife and five daughters were all so rapt.
“It was a very good day and something I’ll remember for a long time now.”
Originally from Tasmania, Morse started playing golf at the age of 34 and hit his first ace at Hobart’s Kingston Beach Golf Club about 10 years later.
His second hole-in-one came in the early 2000s at Alyangula Golf Club on Groote Eylandt, where he was working as a maintenance officer at the time.
Part of another rare golfing feat, Morse’s hole-in-one last Saturday came just seven days after fellow Cairns golfer Craig Warren slotted his own oneshot wonder at the same course, hitting an ace on the par-three third.
With holes-in-one being hit on two consecutive Saturdays at Half Moon Bay Golf Club, manager Greg Ferry said he expected members to be out in full force again this weekend.
“It’s surprising, we get maybe five or six holes-in-one a year so having two in a row is pretty amazing,” Ferry said.
“It’s good to see – the members must be in form at the moment.
“It’d be great to see another member knock one off this weekend and get the trifecta.”