Swing for the Wright stuff- Emerald’s Brian Wright has scored three holes-in-one since Novembe

By Paul Pickering
EMERALD golfer Brian Wright never used to like par threes, but that was before he scored three holes-in-one in four months.
The 71-year-old Emerald resident lived every golfer’s dream when he aced the par three 12th hole at Yallourn North Golf Club on 30 November.
The 30-handicapper knocked a three-iron out of sight towards the sunken green while playing in a pairs challenge match for his beloved Paradise Hotel Social Golf Club against the host club.
Wright knew he’d caught it clean, but doubted that he could make the 185m downhill journey.
“We were walking up to the green and couldn’t see it anywhere,” he recalled last week.
“The guy from Yallourn North said, ‘it must be around somewhere, I’ll have a look in the hole’, but I didn’t think I could even make the green.”
Wright, who took up golf after migrating to Australia from the United Kingdom in the 1960s, could hardly believe his eyes when he saw that the ball had come to rest in the cup.
“I didn’t even think to put the ball in my pocket, and on the next tee I hit it straight into the water,” he laughed.
He managed to fish the memento out of the dam – not knowing that he’d have a collection of the trophy balls before long.
Wright’s next success came the following weekend, when he knocked a five-iron onto the 23rd green at Drouin Golf and Country Club.
This time he eyed every metre of the ball’s journey, watching it pitch on the putting surface and trickle into the hole.
“I can tell you, it’s much better when you actually see it go in the hole,” he reflected.
“Everyone was jumping around and going crazy.”
Wright’s crowning glory came at the picturesque Warburton Golf Club on the first day of Autumn, when he launched another crisply-stuck iron shot up a steep incline to the ninth green.
He was gob-smacked when he found it resting against the pin, and so were his playing partners.
“One of them said, ‘if you do that again, I’m going to belt you’,” he recalled with a laugh.
Wright reckons he must be one of the luckiest weekend hackers going around, but he’s still taken some confidence from the recent run of sparkling iron-play.
“I leave the woods at home now,” he said.
The confidence has even cured one of his chronic swing faults.
“I’ve got a terrible habit of lifting my head (mid swing), but recently I’m making sure that I keep my head still,” he said.
If only it was that easy.