Curtis Luck has lived up to his surname with a brilliant ace on the Australian PGA Championship's party hole, his wedge spinning sharply left to roll into the cup and ignite the second-round action.
The only downside was that he did it on Friday morning, in front of a sparse crowd before the rowdy punters arrived to fill the 3000 capacity Royal Queensland arena later in the day.
The 27-year-old still earned warm applause and gave his ball to Theo Smith, the son of Luck's caddie Duane.
"The only thing you're thinking is ... don't go long," Luck reflected of the 17th hole post-round.
"You just want to knock it somewhere, hopefully around the pin but keep it somewhat towards the middle of the green.
"Once I saw it land, I was pretty confident that it was going to stick pretty close and then I think it might have just spun back a little bit back into the hole.
"So, pretty electric stuff."
The hole-in-one proved a handy spark in Luck's round of 67, two birdies on his final three holes pushing him to eight under and giving the Korn Ferry Tour member a brief share of the lead.
"From hole 16 through nine I had good looks the entire way," Luck said.
"I think it would be fair on my part to say I could have actually ended up going a bit deeper.
"I had a lot of putts ride over the edge of the hole, but having a hole-in-one and kick-starting it back on track when you're one over (for the round) in pretty tough conditions was what I needed."
