Jahkobi Harris' hole-in-one at Sherwood Park on Saturday was an accomplishment the 10-year-old has been aiming for since he can remember, but getting it on his parents' 11th wedding anniversary was cause for double celebration in the family.
"He's always said that he wanted to get a hole-in-one and I've always
said `sure, son, one day maybe,"' his father Joe said yesterday .
"Of course I never really expected him to do it, well not for years anyway and to see him do it was an amazing thing. I think I was more excited than anyone there," he said.
It took Joe 40 years to get a hole-in-one - something most golfers will never achieve - but his son scored his first just two years after recording an official handicap for the first time.
Jahkobi was worried he wouldn't get the ball anywhere near a marked circle around the hole, with the par-3 14th set up as a betting hole for a fundraising tournament on Saturday - somewhat ironically for the club's junior golfers. Competitors made wages that they could put their tee-shot in a one-metre circle around the hole and trebled their money if they did.
"Dad just said focus, so I did and the ball dropped just outside the circle and kept on rolling until it went in [the hole] ... I thought I was daydreaming," Jahkobi said.
But with his dad jumping around the young golfer knew that he'd scored an elusive "ace".
The 10-year-old was the only player out of more than 100 golfers in the tournament to collect on the hole. He won $6 for the $2 coin his father put up but the club will mount the ball and present him with the traditional prize for a hole-in-one that the aspiring golfer wants to put next to his dad's in the kitchen.
Joe's enthusiasm for the game has helped turn his son into a talented young golfer and he was selected in Golf Northland's emerging players academy squad this year.
He has taken him out on the course ever since he was a youngster and along with his wife, Dorothy, run coaching courses for the club's juniors.
