Rob Clement’s Ace for the ages at GolfWA Div 5 Pennants

With: Phil Ryan

Our Cottesloe Club Round 4 Pennant report covers the Division 5 Pennant clash at Sun City Country Club, Perth, on Sunday 30 June 2024 where Cottesloe Division 5 defeated WAGC 4-2.
However the headline story was the amazing 14th hole that was halved in aces in the match between respective number one players Rob Clement (Cottesloe) and Ian Gompertz (WA Golf Club).
Ian stepped up first and dropped in a 5-iron ace and then was followed in with a matching ace by Rob, who rolled in his 6-iron for the ultimate half in hole-in-ones.

Play was from the 10th tee so the 159-metre par 3 14th was the players fifth hole of the day. Cottesloe’s  Division 5 Pennant Manager Chris Keay was happily at the rear of the green and had a birds-eye view as the excitement unfolded. Chris said the Sun City greens were in fabulous shape and speed and for the players the actual hole was not able to be seen from the tee, being on the rear plateau and the hole measured 156 metres as it played on the day.

WAGC’s Ian Gompertz had the honour and his 5-iron rolled up the slope and over the crest and into the hole. Because the players at the tee could not see the hole, Chris Keay reports he started waving madly and then got a response from the tee in acknowledgement. Cottesloe’s Rob Clement then stepped up and hit a six-iron that got to the crest of the back slope and started rolling back down  to the pin and Chris said he thought “This might be going in!”. And in it did go, gently settling on top of Ian’s ball in the hole. More mad waving followed and there was excitement all round.

Division 5 matches are head to head singles, but to assist fitting more players on course, play is two matches in a group of four. The other pair were Cottesloe’s Adam Duff playing WAGC’s Peter Wilson and Adam reported that he then had to play after the Aces and while hitting an acceptable 7-iron to 15 feet, couldn’t land the trifecta! Adam did capture the lovely pic at the green with Cottesloe’s Chris Keay who saw it all, pictured in the background.

At the green the group of four playing in front of the Ace-shooters came over and shared the excitement and just for the moment the pennant contest was secondary.

Ian Gompertz is on a 2-handicap and Rob Clement a 3-handicap, both are obviously very good players however neither had had a previous ace, so it was a shared special debut ace joy.
Quite often the score becomes secondary after an Ace however the standard remained very high. 3-handicapper Rob Clement was actually 4-under the card in ultimately winning 4&3 and Cottesloe prevailed 4-2 over WAGC in the team result across six matches on the day.

So what are the chances of that?
The PGA suggests it  is considered the chances of an ace in a round might be around 5,000 to 1 for a low handicapper like Ian and Rob, so they were well overdue for their first. The odds for two players in the same foursome acing on the same hole considered about 17 million to one. One player making two in the same round around is 67 million to one and notably that was achieved this week on Saturday on the big stage by Frank Bensel Jnr in the second round of the US Senior Open at Newport Country Club. Bensel actually made them in consecutive holes and were his career 13 and 14th, so he knows the space. PGA report here:

Frank Bensel Jr. makes back-to-back aces at U.S. Senior Open – PGA TOUR

Reports on Aces naturally flood the internet and The Guiness World Records have a pretty rigorous proof requirement for validation and they report the following two amazing ones:
Three couples have had husband and wife Aces on the same hole playing 4BBB (now that is playing together and staying together!) and one lucky punter Patrick Wills in 2015 has a certified three in one round and remains the solo certified record holder there.

Our congratulations to our member Rob Clement and opponent Ian Gompertz, a dine out for life story from the course.

As news of the matching Aces feat spread, GolfWA got out to the players and their report is here:

GolfWA Report HERE

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