By Liam Wyllie
“Good things come in threes” proved true for Darren McCallum, who recorded three holes-in-one in the space of three weeks across three different golf courses.
A member of Bannockburn Golf Club 30 minutes west of Geelong, McCallum made his first-ever ace on Sunday April 12 at Ocean Grove Golf Club, backed it up just two days later at his home club on April 14, before completing the remarkable hat-trick on Sunday May 3 at The Sands Torquay – exactly three weeks after his first.
“I’ve been playing golf regularly for about three years and had never really gone close,” McCallum said.
According to the National Hole-In-One Registry, the odds of an average golfer making an ace are roughly 12,000-to-1, making the chances of three in three weeks almost impossible to comprehend.
“I picked a few lottery numbers last week, but I don’t think any of them got up,” he laughed.
A builder by trade with a 10.8 handicap, McCallum represents Bannockburn in Division 5 Pennant – the format in which he recorded two of his aces – with the first dropping at Ocean Grove’s par-3 10th.
“I hit a 9-iron a foot past and it sucked back in, much to my surprise because, generally speaking, I don’t clean my wedges and nothing spins backwards,” he said.
“I’d been cleaning my grooves and made a little note to myself that I should do this more often.
“I’m not right up with all the etiquette around holes-in-one, so I just kept playing with the ball and put it out of bounds two holes later.”
Three hole in ones in three weeks for Darren McCullum.
Two days later, his second ace came during a midweek competition at Bannockburn, although his playing partners missed the moment while looking at their phones.
“I’ve hit it, watched it go in the hole and not said anything; they’ve all got their heads down in their phones,” he said.
“I said, ‘I just hit another hole-in-one,’ and sure enough, they didn’t believe me.
“They walked down and their hands were up in the air – they couldn’t believe it.”
A trip to New Zealand meant he missed a week of golf before returning for Pennant at The Sands, where he completed the unbelievable treble.
“It was a punch-and-run 6-iron and it went over a ridge, so I couldn’t see it,” he said.
“My opponent was a bit taller than me and he said, ‘It’s gone in.’ I said, ‘I’ve had two of these in the last two weeks – it hasn’t gone in,’ and he goes, ‘No, you’ve had another one.’”
Despite achieving the near-impossible, McCallum said golf still had a way of keeping him humble.
“I know it sounds odd, but what was going through my head was, How can I be playing such bad golf and have this all happen in the same period?” he added.
“Because in between this, there was just absolute rubbish getting dished up.”
The streak finally came to an end when he teed it up again the following weekend.
“People who are good putters say to me, ‘You’ve got to believe every putt’s going in.’ I’ve just taken it one step further now and stand on the tee believing it’s going to go in,” McCallum joked.
“It hasn’t worked – we played Saturday and I don’t think I hit a green.
“It’s got to the point now where we’re on the par 3s and blokes get their phones out.
“Really, I need the circus to stop running, to be honest.”
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