Golfing tales from around the globe are filled with the most improbable events — multiple holes-in-one in the same round, different players scoring holes-in-one with consecutive strokes, holes-in-one that bounce off trees.
But at Tasmania Golf Club, not far from Hobart Airport, comes a tale that might be unmatched anywhere in the world.
Our story starts in 1982 when Peter O'Keefe had a hole-in-one at the eighth hole — a picturesque 159 metre, par three.
He used an Australian made five-iron — a Keith Knox DM 139.
On Peter's death, his clubs were passed on to his son Graham.
A decade after Peter's hole-in-one, Graham O'Keefe was playing at Tasmania GC and pulled out his dad's old five-iron on the eighth tee and hit the ball into the hole.
Two holes-in-one from a father-son combination on the same hole using the same club is a highly improbable feat.
This writer has never heard of such an occurrence, but while it is highly unusual, it is unlikely to be unique.
Surely some father/son or parent/child combination over the years, nay centuries, of golf, have had holes-in-one on the same hole using the same club?
But this story does not end here.
Several years after Graham's hole-in-one, he bought himself a shiny new set of graphite-shafted clubs.
Graham then handed his father's clubs down his son, Glen.
In 1999, Glen O'Keefe stood on the tee at the eighth at Tasmania Golf Club, armed with his grandfather's old set, and hit the ball into the hole.
After the round, he rang his father to celebrate.
"I told him I'd had my first hole-in-one. He said, 'congratulations, which hole?' I told him the eighth.
"He said, 'Oh fantastic, the same as grandad and myself.' He said, 'what club did you use?' I said, 'the five-iron' and there was some silence.
The National Hole In One Association (which provides hole-in-one insurance for tournaments) calculated a good club golfer who plays 5,000 rounds in their lifetime (that's twice a week for 50 years) has a 50 per cent chance of scoring a hole-in-one.
The O'Keefes were all good players, with single figure handicaps — therefore the chances of all three scoring at least one hole-in-one at some point in their life are about 12.5 per cent.
Assuming they played 80 per cent of their rounds at their home club, the odds of them all making a hole-in-one on the same course is six per cent.
And the odds of them all making a hole-in-one on the same hole in their lifetime is about 1,000:1.
But the odds of three generations of golfers making holes-in-one on the same hole using exactly the same golf club is incalculable.
"I haven't even heard of two [generations], let alone three," Graham said.
Glen said he would be very surprised if any other family on the planet had matched the feat.
"I'd love to have a chat to them if they did, but I'd be really surprised if it's ever been done before."
An ordinary Keith Knox DM139 five-iron is valued at less than $10, but don't expect to find this particular club at a garage sale anytime soon.
Glen O'Keefe plans to frame it.
