Carpet dealer Alan bags Las Vegas trip with ace

Feb 19 2008 by Harold Brough, Liverpool Daily Post

MOST GOLFERS play a lifetime without a hole-in-one and those who are that talented or lucky usually receive no more than the congratulations of their pals and maybe a pint when they reach the clubhouse.

But Alan Harvey, who has been playing golf for only about nine years, has been celebrating his first ace . . . and the reward of a trip to play in Las Vegas later this year.

Also, possibly, the best is yet to come. Once in America, he will have the chance of winning one million dollars.

Alan, aged 67, from Gateacre in Liverpool, who has a carpet wholesale business in Bootle, was on a golfing break in Majorca with his brother Ray and other friends. He was playing at the Bendinat course when he won the island’s stage of the Million Dollar Hole-in-One competition.

The competition, now in its seventh year in Europe, offers players the chance to win a trip to the United States to play for the million dollar prize.

When he arrived at the club he did not know the competition was being held there.

The memorable moment came when he stepped onto the tee at the par-3 12th with his 8-iron in hand.

“There was an out-of-bounds on the right, water on the left,” he recalls. “The ball went over the flag, stopped and then spun back into the hole.”

Alan, a former soccer player and manager with Aintree Villa, began playing golf at the Aintree Driving Range before joining Lee Park.

He also plays with his friends in the Liverpool-based Carpet Traders Golf Society and together they visit Portugal each year. He will have his supporters when he goes to play in Las Vegas in November, competing against others winners in the competition from around Europe and America for the big prize.

The challenge is immense.

If he is going to win the million he needs another hole-in-one.

The chances?

“A million to one, I suppose,” he says.

But then even if he is less fortunate this time, he has a memorable ace and a super, expenses paid, golf break in America.

He also has the golf ball.

It has been mounted on a plaque and, he says: “It’s looking at me now.”