{"id":180102,"date":"2025-12-12T11:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/180102\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:21:09","slug":"on-the-up-young-golfer-josh-beckham-gets-surprise-slam-dunk-hole-in-one-at-fundraiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/180102\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Up: Young golfer Josh Beckham gets surprise slam-dunk hole-in-one at fundraiser"},"content":{"rendered":"

Golfing runs in the family \u2013 his mum, dad and brother all played at the club.<\/p>\n

His mum also achieved a hole-in-one at the same hole about a year ago. <\/p>\n

Beckham said it was \u201ckind of crazy\u201d it had happened twice.<\/p>\n

After the shot , Beckham said he turned around to see the five people he was playing with cheering. <\/p>\n

North Golf club development officer David Mullan said Beckham had represented the Northland junior team and the men\u2019s Northland team at tournaments. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo he\u2019s one of our sort of stars.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mullan described Beckham as someone with a bright future.<\/p>\n

Becoming talented at a sport took \u201chours and hours\u201d of dedication, which Mullan also credited to Beckham\u2019s parents. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of costs associated with getting that good, the coaching, the time, the travel,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mullan said the odds were \u201cvery slim\u201d to nail a slam-dunk hole-in-one as an amateur, about 12,500 to one. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey usually bounce in,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Even more impressive was the fact this wasn\u2019t his first hole-in-one \u2013 it was his third. <\/p>\n

The moment follows more good news after a Northland trio, including Mullan, managed to pull off a Guinness World Record<\/a> for the longest barehanded catch of a golf ball hit off a tee at the same club. <\/p>\n

Former Black Caps batter Lou Vincent, Northern Districts all-rounder Joey Yovich and David Mullan set the record of 261.7m at the Pines Golf Club in Whang\u0101rei Heads last month. <\/p>\n

Mullan said he was grateful to the Pines club for supporting ongoing initiatives.<\/p>\n

Rugby League Northland chief executive Robbie Johnson said the fundraiser aimed to reduce costs for young players. <\/p>\n

Johnson said many people loved the game but weren\u2019t involved, so the fundraiser was an opportunity for more outreach. <\/p>\n

They had managed to raise about $13,000 at the event. <\/p>\n

That would go towards reducing costs for youngsters, such as giving them the ability to attend tournaments throughout the country. <\/p>\n

He was grateful to those who \u201cdig deeper\u201d into their pockets to support young sportspeople. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey really do make a difference,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery bit helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said Beckham\u2019s shot had added a bit of excitement to the fundraiser. <\/p>\n

Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whang\u0101rei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golfing runs in the family \u2013 his mum, dad and brother all played at the club. His mum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114742,1975,4498,38017,40371,6276,46612,114741,1433,44406,111,139,69,6644,90,22257,114740,213,88,5163,223,1961,810,686,1869,4741],"class_list":["post-180102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-12500toone","tag-at","tag-beat","tag-beckham","tag-fundraiser","tag-gets","tag-golfer","tag-holeinone","tag-josh","tag-managed","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-odds","tag-on","tag-score","tag-slamdunk","tag-sports","tag-surprise","tag-teen","tag-the","tag-this","tag-up","tag-week","tag-whangrei","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}