Long-time golfer nets her 11th hole in one
Waiohiki’s lucky No 7 strikes again for ace Roberts
Evergreen Napier golfer Janice Roberts may be taking it a bit easier on the golf course these days, mainly nine-holes at a time, and three days a week — at the age of 80.
But it hasn’t stopped her adding yet another notch to her list of holes-inone which may now be a national women’s record, claiming her 11th at the Napier Golf Club’s Waiohiki course on Friday.
Having started the round at 8.30am in a threesome with clubmates Kay Glenny and Lesley Jones, it was straight down the middle with her hybrid set’s 7-wood, onto the green and into the cup at lucky No 7, the hole where six of the other aces have happened over the years. Two others have come on the 138-metres 11th, and the other two on the 152-metres 15th, all dating back to a bit of a flourish when she got two holes-in-one in 1999, something she matched in 2008.
The excitement doesn’t wane, and the news spread quickly enough for usual 18-holes match partners Jo Free, Lis Stringer and Lynda Ellingham to venture back from the eighth to share their congratulations. It was with Stringer that she won the 2015 New Zealand Women’s Autumn Foursome at Waiohiki.
She first played at the age of 11, she said after one of her other aces in 2013, and has now been playing for 68 years.
Scoring holes-in-one can be a costly business, with shouts at the bar continuing despite the number of times, and Roberts said, as she celebrated at a friend’s home early on Friday evening, that she would be shouting the Wednesday golfers next week. A search will go on to establish whether any other woman has shot 11 holes-in-one, or more, Roberts having traded shots with Marton golfer Jenny Ritchie, but now thought to have surged ahead.
Californian golfer Norman Manley is said to have claimed 59 over the 15 years from 1964 to 1979.