For Bishops Stortford GC member Mike McCarthy, his first hole in one was worth the wait.
More than 40 years after taking up the game and, after two years away from golf because of health problems, the 82-year-old aced the 200-yard 17th.
And the 25-handicapper, who is the cousin of US Tour pro Denny McCarthy, did it with his driver.
“While I was laid up I was reading some instructional stuff and realised I was not turning my shoulder enough on my backswing,” said Mike. “Since I have been working on that, I have been playing pretty well.
“Funnily enough in the run up to the 17th my putting was very erratic and I missed a lot of holable putts.
“The tee shot on 17 went pretty straight but we didn’t see it finish and to be honest I didn’t think it had quite reached. We were looking around the green for my ball but thankfully one of the greens staff saw it go in and shouted over to us to ‘look in the hole’.”
Mike and playing partner Dr Michael Trippick are part of a group of Thursday morning regulars and it was champagne all round once they completed their rounds.