Lucky Simon Bell was up to the challenge when he sunk a virtual hole in one at Clubhouse SG on Saturday. The prize? A methusalem (6L) bottle of champagne worth over $1,000!
The surprised 49 years old who plays off a handicap of around 14 was playing a quiet game with a friend when he hit the shot of his life!
Simon, who hails from the UK, was playing his virtual round on the famous St Andrew's course when he aced the 11th hole to the delight his watching friend. They were enjoying a morning round whilst the venue celebrated the Australia Day weekend with the venue hosting a special free flow promotion that the venue has become renowned for in recent times.
Clubhouse SG based on Robinson Road had been offering the huge star prize in partnership with the competition sponsor Angra Wines & Spirits. Anyone that managed to hit a hole in one on any of over 100 courses that are available to play on the state of the art simulators would win the 6-litre bottle of Champagne.
The prize had remained unclaimed for over a year without a winner due to the difficulty to achieve the feat. A hole in one on a simulator is even more rare than on a real course so the chances of winning were estimated to be close to 1 in 100,000.
The venue staff were ecstatic to finally be able to celebrate the feat having actually withdrawn the competition at the end of 2020 as the grand prize remained illusively out of reach, as owner Jonathan Miles exclaimed...“We ran the hole in one comp for over a year and nobody had won it… to be honest we thought it was maybe impossible, so at the end of December we withdrew the competition. But when we heard that Simon had hit that shot, we felt that it was only right that we had to honour the prize and reward him with the bottle of champers”.
