Fiona aces Merc test
Lucky 13 for Sanctuary Cove golfer’s long drive
IN her 20 years of playing golf, self-professed middlerange golfer Fiona Francis has hit three holes in one.
The third won her a $55,000 Mercedes-Benz.
“For the past five years over Easter, Sanctuary Cove Golf Club have run a competition where if you hit a hole in one on the 13th hole on the Pines course, you win a Mercedes-Benz,” she said.
“It was Easter Monday and we were playing in a mixed event, I was with my husband and another couple.
“The 13th hole is a par three, but it’s probably the hardest par three of the course because you have to hit the ball over a big lake and on to the green, which is right at the edge of the water.
“The two boys went before me and both hit it into the water, so all I was trying to do was make it over the water.”
The mother of three said it was just a mixture of a good hit and mostly luck to find the hole from 154m away.
“We were so far back so we couldn’t see where it landed,” she said.
“Because there was a car at stake, Sanctuary Cove had a spotter watching the hole and we’re sort of looking to see where the ball went and the spotter started waving his hands around and that’s when we realised.
“Oh we celebrated! We hugged and cheered and they brought out champagne. “It’s still a little surreal.” Mrs Francis will finally be behind the wheel of her Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 Shooting Brake this week.
This is the second time Sanctuary Cove and Mercedes-Benz Gold Coast have given away a car in this fashion and decided to make it a little tougher after the first vehicle went off with a shot from the women’s tee.
All golfers now have to hit from the men’s tee 30m further back. “Because it was that far back I didn’t think I had any hope so I grabbed my driver and just hit it the best I could,” Fiona said.