Well, tickle me with a feather and call it a miracle! In the golfing world, where dreams and drama collide like nowhere else, the Ham-Howes family and stepdad Paul Soares have cooked up a story thatโs part Cinderella, part Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
It all kicked off after a stirring day at The Open at Royal Troon, where the golf was so good it practically dared you not to pick up a club afterwards.
Carl Ham-Howes, a dapper chap of 49, and his sprightly 18-year-old son Lewis, found themselves soaking in the Loch Lomond vistas at Cameron House, a haunt as scenic as it is steeped in golf lore.
They initiated their game at The Wee Demon, a course whose benign name belies its challenging and feisty nature.
On the 17th hole, a modest 151-yard par 3, Carl Ham-Howes, who has been playing golf for 36 years and swings both right and left-handed (as uncommon as silence in a bustling market), finally achieved a milestone.
A smooth swing with his 6-iron sent the ball bouncingโa hop, skip, and a jump into the cup.
First hole-in-one for Carl, who couldnโt have hit that shot better if heโd been remote-controlled by a spirit of Old Tom Morris himself.
But the plot thickens! Fast forward three weeks, and in steps Paul Soares, the stepdad, wielding his clubs at St Clements like Excalibur at a knighting ceremony.
On the 5th hole, another par 3 but just 134 yards, Paul watches his ball vanish into the hole. His first ace, and wouldnโt you know, the familyโs second in less than a month.
Now, with two aces up their family sleeve, Lewis wasn’t about to be left in the clubhouse. During the Jersey Golf Junior Festival at St Clements, he stares down a 275-yard par-4.
Most would play it safe, but Lewis, fuelled perhaps by the audacity of youth or the inspiring antics of his elders, decides to defy the conventional wisdom.
With a crack of his 3-wood, he sends the ball soaring, clearing a hazard, kissing the fringe, and rolling straight into the hole for an albatross. Thatโs not just any hole-in-oneโitโs golfโs equivalent of a royal flush.
An England Golf spokesperson summed it up with a sparkle: โAchieving a hole-in-one on a par-4, at those odds? Itโs miraculous!
This familyโs flurry of aces isnโt just a happy coincidence; itโs a rollicking good tale of inspiration, one that tells every golfer out there to keep swinging, because you never know when the extraordinary might just tee off with you.โ
There you have itโa family that’s living proof the golf gods have a sense of humour and a soft spot for the spectacular.
Their story, a delightful triple scoop of hole-in-one glory, reminds us all why golf is the most maddeningly miraculous sport there is.
