Phil Walker deals pair of aces in same round

Nov 20 2007 by Harold Brough, Liverpool Daily Post

HOLES-IN-ONE are not so unusual during the busy season.

But the electronic calculator would go into overdrive trying to work out the odds against the ace deeds of Wirral pharmacist Phil Walker.

Research in America has suggested that the odds against one hole-in-one are almost 43,000 to one for the average golfer.

But what about the odds for two holes-in-one? And during the same round? And when the golfer is restricted to playing with only three clubs?

Yet this was the astonishing achievement of 18-handicap Walker at Cheshire club Mollington, on the outskirts of Chester.

Club competition secretary Jim Ashcroft put the thoughts of many into words when he said: “This is a hard course and I have been playing golf for 35 years and never heard anything like it. It’s an incredible feat.”

Vice captain David Edwards said he was sure golfers could count on one hand the number of players who have scored two holes-in-one in the same competition and added: “Phil’s feat is all the more amazing when you consider he only had three clubs in his bag.”

Walker, who celebrates his 49th birthday this month, began playing golf at the municipals on Wirral and played some rounds with friends at Wallasey before he joined Mollington as a founder member about 10 years ago.

He has never had a hole-in-one in more than 30 years playing golf.

But that changed with his extraordinary round in a three- club competition to raise money for BBC TV’s Children in Need Appeal. In addition to the obligatory putter, he selected a 5- wood and an 8-iron.

His first hole in one came at the 155-yard sixth named ‘Boardman’ after the comedian Stan, a Mollington member.

Phil said: “I used the only club available which was an 8-iron and watched the ball clear the bunkers at the front of the green and roll on.

“I thought it had rolled through the green, but when I approached the green I could not see the ball anywhere. It was then I realised it had gone in the hole.”

His second ace came on the 122- yard signature hole, the 17th ‘Island’ green where so many, including Phil in the past, have put the ball in the water.

But he reports: “This time there was no mistaking the ball had gone in the hole. I again used the 8-iron and saw the ball go straight in the hole, no bounce, no roll, straight in!

“I could not believe it. I’ve never had a hole in one before even when playing against friends in a social round and then in this competition it was like the proverbial bus....you wait ages then two come along.

“It is unbelievable, I would think especially in a three-club competition.

“I think people have had two holes-in-one in the same round before but I don’t know about in a three-club competition . . . .”

Despite two aces he did not win the competition. But then, reasonably, he says: “I think it just threw me.”

All golfers have their ambitions, But how does he follow one of the most remarkable golf performances of this season?

“People are amazed,” he says. “Now I will probably never score another hole-in-one in my life.”