The Douglas Bader Foundation - » The BADER CUP 2012

The BADER CUP 2012 – A “Hole-in-One”!

Friday, August 10th, 2012

The Regional Finals for the prestigious BADER CUP, a mixed Greensome Stableford Competition, are being played and we’ve just received news of a “Hole-in-One”!

Many congratulations to Sue Evans from Les Mielles Golf Club in Jersey (Channel Isles) on this excellent achievement, accomplished during the Regional Final at Piltdown Golf Club in Sussex.

Sue Evans is an 8 handicap player and Lady Captain of Les Mielles Golf Club in Jersey. She holed out at the 7th hole a 149 yard Par 3 at the regional final held at Piltdown Golf Club on 8th August 2012. Although scoring 34 points with her partner Nick Plain who is the Club Captain they did not make the winning score to go on to the grand final in Portugal in November, which was won by Sue & John Hope of Hollingbury Park Golf Club who scored 41 points and won on count back from the competitors representing Nizels & Meon Valley Golf Clubs.

The Douglas Bader Foundation is extremely grateful to Sue and all the other competitors, the participating Golf Clubs, and our generous and loyal sponsors, Monarch Airlines, The Tivoli Lagos Hotel and the Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort. Also to John Southwick and his partner, Pat, for running such an enjoyable and successful competition. The BADER CUP is now recognised to be Europe’s largest national mixed golf tournament and annually raises a considerable sum for the Foundation helping to enable it to continue its important work on behalf of amputees and other disabled. Without you all there would be no BADER CUP.

* For more information about the competition you can click on the link to visit the bespoke Website or click on the photograph of Sir Douglas to visit the Bader Cup Page on the Website *

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For anyone not in the know, here is a bit more about “holes-in-one”:

What is a “hole-in-one”?……

(From Wikipedia:)

In golf, a hole in one or hole-in-one (also known as an ace, mostly in American English) is when a player hits the ball directly from the tee into the cup with one shot. (It is not necessary that the ball go directly into the cup. It may hit other objects, or the ground, on its way.) This is most possible on a par 3 hole. Longer hitters have accomplished this feat on shorter par 4 holes. Nearly all par 4 and par 5 holes are too long for golfers to reach in a single shot; a hole in two on a par five (or a hole in one on a par 4) is known as an albatross, and is significantly rarer than a hole in one on a par 3.[1]

Hole in ones are extremely rare, and while it depends largely on the golfer’s skill, there is often also a great element of luck involved, although skill definitely increases the probability.[2]

Occasionally special events host a hole in one contest, where prizes as expensive as a new car, or cash awards sometimes reaching $4 million are offered if a contestant records a hole in one.[3] Usually such expensive prizes are backed by an insurance company who offers prize indemnification services. Actuaries at such companies have calculated the chance of an average golfer making a hole in one at approximately 12,500 to 1, and the odds of a tour professional at 2,500 to 1.[4]

Among the memorable holes in one, one occurred in the 1973 British Open when at age 71, Gene Sarazen made a hole in one. Bobby Charlton also made a hole in one in a celebrity charity game^[clarification needed^]. Earl Dietering of Memphis, Tennessee, 78 years old at the time, is believed to hold the record for the oldest person to make two holes in one during one round.[5] Kim Jong-il is alleged to have scored holes in one on a regular basis when he played, scoring 38 under par on his very first outing, which would necessitate a large number of holes in one. Kim Jong Il claimed five aces in that round.[6]

…and what are the odds of getting one?

(From About.com/Golf:)

Question: What Are the Odds of Making a Hole-In-One?

Some people seem to make aces left and right. Other golfers go their whole golfing careers without one. Just how hard is it to make a hole-in-one? Exactly what are the odds? The odds vary, it turns out, depending on who you ask, but we’re willing to bet that the odds aren’t as long as you might expect.

Answer: The odds of making a hole-in-one do vary somewhat, depending on the source and the numbers used for calculating the odds. One problem is that nobody knows the true number of aces made every year. There are numerous organizations that track holes-in-one, but not every ace that is made is reported. And, as we all know, not every ace that is reported was actually made!

In 1999, Golf Digest reported, “One insurance company puts a PGA Tour pro’s chances at 1 in 3,756 and an amateur’s at 1 in 12,750.”

That same issue reported that the “odds of an amateur making two holes-in-one in a round are 9,222,500 to 1.”

Ireland’s National Hole in One Club puts the odds a little longer for one ace: “The estimated odds of acing a hole with any given swing are one in 33,000.”

And an article in the magazine Navy Newsstand, citing Sports Illustrated as its source, put the odds at 45,000 to 1 for “scoring a hole-in-one on a typical par-3 golf hole.”

What about the insurance companies that sell “hole-in-one insurance” to tournament promoters? They must know the odds, right? One such company, SCA Promotions, says the odds of a golfer holing out from 150 yards is somewhere from 10,000 to 15,000 to 1.

But as close to an official source as exists on this topic is Golf Digest. That publication has provided “acer odds” since the 1950s, and in the year 2000 hired Francis Scheid, Ph.D., the retired chairman of the math department at Boston University, to calculate the odds using the latest and best information available at that time.

The odds Scheid came up with were lower than any others cited above: 5,000 to 1 for a “low-handicapper,” 12,000 to 1 for an “average player.” If you are a low-handicapper and play 1,000 rounds in your life, according to Scheid, you have a 20-percent chance of recording an ace. If you play 5,000 rounds, your odds are 1:1.

The Golf Digest study provided many great nuggets of information, even breaking the odds down by quality of play: