– By Bev Mortimer
St Francis Links Golf course is now making more good news than ever as an albatross has landed at this Jack Nicklaus designed course in St Francis Bay in the Eastern Cape of South Africa!
This is besides the fact the this five-star golf course is holding the prestigious DP World and SDC championship – and attracting crowds of viewers on the course and countless on the box or online around the world.
But a Dutch Pro golfer at the Links playing in the championship, Joost Luiten, on Thursday (16 March) this week has made history by having one of the most incredible achievements , with his two great and extremely rare shots – an albatross on Thursday morning at the Links’ 13th hole!
And his Dutch sponsors were there at the right time and place, as well as just-in-time to see Joost become a legend back home in Holland. Joost’s magnificent shot has had more than 20k viewers in two days of the video, sponsor, Caroline van Wezel, took!
An elated Caroline told me she and her husband , Frank, had just arrived at the Links and were taken in a golf cart to where Joost was playing to watch him. She started a video of him playing and the pair could scarcely believe it that Joost scored a “2 ” on a par 5!
The odds of the average golfer making a hole-in-one are 12,500 to 1, according to the US National Hole-in-One Registry. And the ‘Albatross’ or ‘Double Eagle’, according to the PGA , US, is achieved when a player either aces a par 4, or scores a “2” on a par 5.
An ‘albatross’ in golf is certainly rare, far more rare than aces, as a golfer has to hit two great shots – a feat of about 5-million to 1, or more!
To achieve an albatross a golfer needs to have length and ability, says former senior director of the handicap department at the USGA, Dean Knuth,. “Only a small percentage of golfers, less then 10% percent, ever reach a par 5 in two. So 90% of golfers don’t have a chance of making one.”
However, the absolute rarest shot in golf is a ‘Condor’, that is, “1” on a par 5, which amazingly has happened . There are 5 recorded ‘condors’ in history.
See the Caroline’s video took of Dutch golf Pro, Joost Luiten, achieving an albatross at St Francis Links in South Africa here:
https://www.facebook.com/575192803/videos/pcb.10159745259407804/753270169481702
St Francis Chronicle 