Golf: Hole-in-one leaves constable smiling

Senior Constable Trevor Bolt will be back at work today with a tale to tell his mates after he holed in one at the national amateur championships.

Bolt, 44, a police dog handler in Dunedin, played his perfect shot yesterday with a five iron at the par-three 159m ninth hole.

"I'd had a triple bogey the previous hole," he said.

"I was thinking to myself that the only way to answer that was with a hole in one - and it happened. "I'm thrilled to bits. It's my first, and it's not a bad tournament to get it in."

Bolt, who plays at the Otago Golf Club and was a standby player for the tournament, did not learn until Sunday night that he would be playing. He took up golf 13 years ago after a lengthy senior cricket career.

He recently played for the New Zealand Police team against the Australian Defence Force in Shandon. He won both his games, but the New Zealanders went down 6 1/2 to 8 1/2.

Bolt, who is adapting to a new set of clubs, shot 76 and 79 and missed the cut for the final two rounds of strokeplay today.

For the policeman of 27 years, it's now back to work and his partner, his dog Carne. "I only had time off until I finished in the tournament."

- NZPA