Long-time Mid-Kent member Ian Arrows created a remarkable piece of history on Saturday as he recorded two holes-in-one within 30 minutes of each other.
The 67,000,000-1 achievement has only ever been achieved on the PGA Tour three times but never at successive par threes. The 68-year-old managed his at the fourth and the seventh playing in an unofficial club competition – ‘The Saturday Swindle’.
In one day he doubled his tally of aces – he also managed to hole out at the Gravesend course in 1992 and 2020 – although didn’t see the second one go in at the seventh as he was walking back to put his club in the bag.
The retired Gatwick Airport employee thought he had pushed his eight iron too far to the right. Even when his playing partners – Danny Underwood and George French – were trying to convince him he had holed-in-one again, Ian did not believe them until he looked in the hole.
“As I was stood on the tee, George said ‘Come on then ‘Arrows’… let’s have another one.
“I jokingly said ‘ok I’ll see what I can do’. Anyway I hit it well again but it was going about two metres to the right and I said ‘ok well that’s the second hole-in-one done with’ and just walked back towards my bag.’
“At which point Danny started saying ‘Arrows! Arrows! ARROWS!
“He then says ‘It’s gone down the hole Ian. It’s gone down.”
The player refused to believe it, firstly thinking a knot on the nylon rope surrounding the green was his ball. Even when that theory was quashed he continued to dispute it.
“At that point I was convinced it had gone through the green. The green does slope from right to left but I thought it had to have been travelling too fast to break quickly enough. George and Danny kept saying it had gone in and then I eventually looked in the hole… and they were right. It was insane.”
Just a few minutes earlier the trio were celebrating ace number one at the 165-yard fourth where Ian did watch it drop – with his previous two in 92 and 2020 he had not actually seen the ball disappear.
He added: “I hit a really good shot and it bounced right on the edge and curved in from left to right. Danny started going mad and I just said ‘that’s alright then.’
“The funny thing is when we got to the green all I could think about was the fact that Danny, who was already five points ahead after three holes, had got three points for his par and my five points meant I was still three points behind.”
In fact Ian only managed to collect 30 points overall despite nine of them coming via his two holes-in-one.
RELATED: The 22 best moments of 2022
So what about three in a row? How close did he come?
Well the 14-handicapper did not have to wait long to try. There are four par threes on the front nine at Mid Kent and his next opportunity came at the long ninth (188 yards)… but it was not to be. He hit driver and it went to the right before he chipped on and three-putted for a five.
“I think it was all starting to get to me at that point. Mind you, you can’t be too greedy can you.
“I do feel pretty lucky as well in that Mid Kent is a fantastic club and really down to earth. Everyone is really nice and the pro Mark Foreman and his assistants Ashley and John are a great team to have around.”