Golf histories around the world are replete with the most improbable events – multiple holes in one in the same round, different players scoring holes in one with consecutive shots, holes in one bouncing off trees.
Key points:
- A Tasmanian family achieved a unique golfing feat: three generations holed up on the same hole with the same club
- The 5 iron they used is worth less than $10, but for Glen O’Keefe ‘it’s priceless’
- The odds of grandfather, father and son all shooting the same hole in their lifetime is estimated at 1000:1
But at the Tasmania Golf Club, not far from Hobart Airport, a story unfolds that might be unmatched anywhere in the world.
Our story begins in 1982 when Peter O’Keefe hit a hole-in-one on the 8th hole – a picturesque 159 yards, par 3.
He used an Australian made 5 iron – a Keith Knox DM 139.
Upon Peter’s death, his clubs passed to his son Graham.
A decade after Peter’s hole-in-one, Graham O’Keefe was playing Tasmania GC and pulled out his father’s old 5 iron on the 8th tee and hit the ball in the hole.
Two holes in one of a father-son combination on the same hole using the same club is a highly unlikely feat.
This writer has never heard of such an event, but although it is highly unusual, it is unlikely to be unique.
A father/son or parent/child combination over the years, if not centuries, of golf, surely had holes in one on the same hole using the same club?
But this story does not end there.
Several years after Graham’s hole-in-one, he bought himself a shiny new set of graphite clubs.
Graham then passed on his father’s clubs to his son Glen.
In 1999, Glen O’Keefe stood on the tee on the 8th hole at Tasmania Golf Club, armed with his grandfather’s old set, and hit the ball into the hole.
After the round, he phoned his dad to celebrate.
“I told him I had my first hole-in-one. He said, ‘Congratulations, what hole?’ I told him on the 8th.
“He said, ‘Oh fantastic, like grandpa and myself.’ He said, ‘what club did you use?’ I said “5 iron” and there was a bit of silence.
The National Hole In One Association (which provides hole-in-one insurance for tournaments) has calculated that a good amateur golfer who plays 5,000 rounds in his lifetime (i.e. twice a week for 50 years) has a 50% chance of scoring a hole-one in their lives.
The O’Keefes were all good players. Therefore, the odds of all three scoring at least a hole-in-one at some point in their lives is around 12.5%.
Assuming they’ve played 80% of their rounds at their local club, the odds of them all hitting a hole-in-one at the same course is 6%.
And the odds of them all making a hole-in-one on the same hole in their lifetime is about 1000:1.
But the odds of three generations of golfers hole-in-one on the same hole using the exact same golf club are incalculable.
“I haven’t even heard of two [generations]not to mention three,” Graham said.
Glen said he would be very surprised if another family on the planet had matched the feat.
“I’d love to chat with them if they did, but I’d be really surprised if it had been done before.”
A regular Keith Knox DM139 5-iron is priced under $10, but don’t expect to find the club at a yard sale anytime soon.
Glen O’Keefe plans to frame it.