The world’s most exclusive golfing club has a new member.
Alongside greats such as 2023 Open winner Brian Harman, English professional golfer Dale Whitnell and — depending on your faith in North Korean propaganda — former North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, we must now add Gavin Bourne, from Droitwich.
On Sunday the heating engineer scored two holes in one in a single round.
It is an achievement that the overwhelming majority of professionals will never experience, and with odds that comfortably exceed that of winning the lottery. Or as Bourne, 47, put it on realising that he didn’t need his putter for the second time in one day, “I was like, ‘No way. You’re having me on here’.”
Bourne was playing a 36-hole final for his club championship match at Droitwich Golf Club in Worcestershire. He hit a perfect shot on the third hole, and then another on the 15th, crowning him champion of his club.
“Every golfer’s dream is to have a hole-in-one and then to have two in one round is just absolutely incredible,” he told the BBC.
Bourne is a seasoned golfer with more than 30 years of experience and a 0.4 handicap. His last time to hit an ace in a competition was at the junior level.
After exchanging wins with his partner Tom Ainge at the first and second holes, Bourne struck a decisive ball.
“We saw it land but you can’t really see the green. Walking up, there was a pitch mark about three foot in front of the hole, but also Tom’s ball five feet away from it.
“I said ‘Am I going to look a bit daft if I walk up to the green without my putter?!’ And we got up to the hole and there it was!” Bourne told England Golf.
When he repeated the feat just 12 holes later, the golfer was at a loss for words.
The club captain, who was refereeing, watched Bourne’s ball drop into the hole but kept quiet until both players had teed-off. Then, “arms waving”, the referee shared the good news.
The odds of two holes-in-one are often quoted as 67 million to one.
Although the true calculation for an individual player on an individual course is impossible, this number seems to be based on figures calculated by the US National Hole in One Association.
The association has good data on holes in one, as many clubs offer lavish prizes to members who score one — and then take out insurance to offset this risk.
Luckily none had to pay out on the most impressive recorded performance in history. On his first ever game, Kim Jong-il is reported to have scored 11 holes-in-one.
Skill plays a part but, unless you are a brutal Communist dictator, luck remains a factor even at the top level. In calculating insurance premiums actuaries assume a professional golfer has a chance of about 1 in 2,500 over the course of a game, while an amateur has a chance of about 1 in 12,500.
For someone like Bourne, 1 in 5,000 is reasonable. If you assume that a hole-in-one is only possible on a par three hole, of which there are four on a typical course, then you can calculate the chance per hole, and show that the probability of getting two holes-in-one is about 1 in 67 million. With half a billion games of golf played a year in the United States alone, such a feat should happen several times a year.
Even so James Crampton, director of the England Golf Championships, said: “Gavin’s achievements are astonishing — especially considering it was in a club championship final.”
The second hole-in-one secured the championship win for Bourne. It also means that he will play his club’s champion of champions match with Welwyn Garden City Golf Club, the old course of former professional golfer Nick Faldo.
Bourne celebrated his win with a bottle of whisky and some drinks with friends.
“I wish someone would have told me the odds before I played — I would have had a quid on that,” he said.