Tee-mendous! Pat’s a hole-in-one heroine

But for keen golfer Pat Smart, that’s not quite true.

Pat was left stunned after sinking not just one, but two hole-in-ones at the Lytham Green Drive Golf Club.

Pat, 61, from Winston Avenue, St Annes, struck at the sixth and 13th holes on the course during a round with friend Marie Anderton.

She said: “I was elated.

“I’ve been playing 18 years and never had a hole in one before.

“Having got that one I thought ‘that’s really good’ – then I got one on the 13th.

“I was a bit shell-shocked.

“Marie couldn’t believe it! I thought the shot had gone through the back of the green until she saw it in the hole.

“When the second one went in we looked at each other and said ‘they’ll never believe it’.

“That was it, we were all gobsmacked.”

Pat, who works at Sainsbury’s pharmacy in St Annes, was playing in a Captain’s qualifier when the miraculous feat occurred on Wednesday.

Asked how she celebrated her achievement, the former ladies’ captain at the club said: “I bought some of the senior members in the bar a drink, then spent the evening answering the phone and I had lots and lots of emails.

“We’ve a major competition in two weeks called the Clifton Rose Bowl and I explained I would be buying the drinks there.

“The course was in fantastic condition and I think it must have helped because the greens were so good.”

According to the Royal and Ancient Golfer’s Handbook, there have been only 14 previous known instances of golfers scoring two holes in one during the same round in the history of the sport.

The first occurrence was recorded in 1907, while the last known instance before Pat completed the feat took place at Chigwell, in Essex, in 2011.

In that case 75-year-old Peter Wafford, who had only recently taken up the sport, beat estimated odds of 67 million to one to achieve the feat.

The record of youngest player to achieve two holes in one goes to 14-year-old Christopher Anthony Jones, who aced the 10th and 17th holes at the Sand Moor course in Leeds.

Brothers Eric and John Wilkinson managed the unusual phenomenon of both scoring a hole-in-one at the same hole while playing a round together in 2001.

What was sure to be an unlikely claim was verified by the club’s vice-captain, who saw both balls go in.