A hole in once in a lifetime

On June 5, 2013, 60-year-old Richard Kavanagh of Kimberley, B.C. accomplished something he’d been trying to do for 45 years—getting a hole-in-one.

“It was great,” said Kavanagh. “After this many years, it’s kind of unexpected. You’re just kind of resolved to the fact that you’re not going to make one... It was rather surprising.”

The long-awaited accomplishment took place on Wednesday night Men’s Night at Kimberley Golf Club on Hole No. 3, a 164-yard par three. The green on the hole slopes down toward the pond on the left side, an obstacle that often causes players to need to pull out a ball-retriever. Not on Kavanagh’s round, though—he teed off with his 7-iron for a clean shot, to achieve something that the average golfer only dreams about. Apparently, however, Kavanagh didn’t even initially realize that he had made the shot.

“Actually, the people I was playing with, they saw it go in, but I didn’t,” he said, “but we knew before we even left the tee box.”

Kavanagh was very excited about his accomplishment, and it was something that he had definitely earned after a lifetime of playing the game. Just goes to show that years, or even decades of persistence can really pay off.