Golf: Teenager Jack hits hole-in-one after two weeks at club

8:31am Thursday 14th August 2008

MOST players wait a lifetime and still can't achieve it but a 13-year-old golfer has struck a hole-in-one just two weeks after joining his local club.

Jack Middleton, from Oakworth, sank a 192-yard drive on the par three second hole at Branshaw Golf Club on Monday.

The teenager, pictured left, didn't even know what had happened until his playing partner told him.

"I teed off and it bounced in front of the green and rolled in but I was looking away," he said.

"Then my friend said Well done' and told me it had gone in. I believed him because I couldn't see my ball.

"Some people have been playing for ages and haven't done it so it is something I'm quite proud of."

Simon Jowitt, the pro at Branshaw where Jack receives coaching, was stunned by the Holy Family School pupil's shot, which was witnessed by a greens keeper.

Jowitt said: "I've been playing 15 years and never had one so I was completely shocked that a lad playing golf for such little time could achieve a hole-in-one.

"It is a pretty tricky par three, simply because of its length and the green is well protected by bunkers.

"We've held nearest pin competitions in the past and from 100 gents none have even hit the green."

Jack's mum Sharon was delighted that her sport-mad son, who plays rugby union for Keighley and cricket for Haworth West End, had hit a hole-in-one.

"I didn't believe him when he told me but I'm not surprised, he does fair whack the ball," she said.

"He loves all sport and hopefully he'll carry on playing golf as well."

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