Golf often throws up many surprises and, at the Aramco Team Series Shenzhen, we saw just that as, in the final stages of the second day, back-to-back groups made hole-in-ones at the very same hole!
Playing a two-tee system on Saturday, the group of Gabriella Cowley, Laura Fuenfstueck and Emma Grechi teed off the 10th hole at 10.10am local time, with Diksha Dagar, Moa Folke and Xinyu Cao also off the 10th 12 minutes after at 10.22. At their 17th hole of the day, the par 3 eighth, we were treated to a rare moment at Mission Hills...
Although the moment wasn't captured on the broadcast, it was reported that Grechi had made an ace at the 126-yard hole, with the Frenchwoman reportedly using a 9-iron to achieve the feat.
It was the first of the tournament and, just 10 minutes later, it was then revealed that Folke, who was in the group behind, had also made a hole-in-one at the par 3 eighth, with the Swede opting to use a pitching wedge.
The ace for Folke helped move her to five-under for the tournament and into a share of 23rd going into the final day on Sunday. For Grechi, the 26-year-old finished four-over-par and two strokes back of the two-over-par cutline.
Like other Aramco Team Series events, the team portion is decided on the second day, with the individual standings being decided on Sunday. In regards to the final result, the Team of Chiara Tamburlini, Lee-Anne Pace, Qianhui Lin and amateur Yanxuan Peng secured a one-stroke victory, as captain Tamburlini birdied the final hole to steal the win from Celine Boutier's quartet.
Along with Folke and Grechi's back-to-back hole-in-ones, it's amazingly not the first time we have seen it happen in 2024. Back at the US Senior Open, Frank Bensel Jr created a piece of golfing history as he made holes-in-one on consecutive holes! The odds of it happening have been reported as 67 million to one, with Bensel Jr producing the moment at the 184-yard fourth hole and 203-yard fifth hole.
