‘One in 72 billion chance’: Sydney golfer does unthinkable with back-to-back albatross and hole in one

A hole in one is the golfing equivalent of winning the lottery. Most weekend hackers spend a lifetime chasing one, only to finish their careers without ever experiencing that magical moment when a ball disappears into the cup.

An albatross – three shots under par on a single hole – is even rarer.

To achieve both in a lifetime is remarkable. To pull them off on consecutive holes is nothing short of absurd.

That is precisely what Sydney golfer Kris Clelland managed at Lynwood Golf and Country Club on Saturday, producing a sequence of shots on the 16th and 17th holes so improbable that even the Scotsman, who works in artificial intelligence, struggled to find another example in golf’s centuries-long history.

The odds of an average golfer making a hole in one are estimated at 12,500 to one, while an albatross is considered roughly 500 times rarer at six million to one. Combining those figures produces astronomical odds.

“We looked up the stats and I think it’s about one-in-72-billion chance for that to happen on back-to-back holes,” Clelland said.

And the most extraordinary part? Clelland was having a “bang average” round by his lofty standards.

Not that he is stranger to great golfing feats. He had previously made an albatross on the par-five 16th at Moore Park, as well as two holes in one, before Saturday’s heroics.

Originally from Ayr in Scotland, near Royal Troon, Clelland took up golf at the age of two and has spent the past 13 years in Australia. He plays off an impressive handicap of plus-five, putting him comfortably among the country’s better amateur golfers.

After carding a one-under-par 34 on the front nine, Clelland made back-to-back bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes at the course in Pitt Town, in Sydney’s north-west.

With the wind at his back on the par-five 16th, Clelland launched a driver down the fairway, leaving himself about 228 metres to the flag.

His four-iron sailed straight towards the pin, but one of his playing partners thought it might have gone over the back of the green. When the ball was nowhere to be found, Clelland checked the hole and discovered he had achieved golf’s rarest feat: a two on a par five.

“I just started laughing,” Clelland said. “The rest of the guys came onto the green and congratulated me.”

As Clelland teed up his ball on the par-three 17th, preparing to hit a five-iron into a fierce headwind on the 175-metre hole, he turned to his playing partners.

“This could probably go in,” he joked.

Sure enough, it did, to the shock of everyone.

Clelland’s ball landed about 30 centimetres short of the hole, took a hop and disappeared. Two holes, three shots and five under par.

“You make those jokes all the time but for it to then happen, it was pretty surreal,” Clelland said.

“As soon as I hit it, I called to the group, ‘be good’.

“The adrenaline going through my body was stupid. It was a strange but very rewarding end to the round.

“I was literally shaking. I could barely stand over the ball on the 18th tee. I never get nervous playing golf.”

Clelland’s achievement belongs in the company of some of golf’s most extraordinary statistical feats.

In 2024, American Frank Bensel Jr made back-to-back holes-in-one during the US Senior Open in Rhode Island.

In 2018, teenage golfer Conor Kelly reportedly achieved the reverse of Clelland’s feat, making an ace on a par three before holing his second shot on the following par five.

Meanwhile, Irishman Rowan McCarthy, playing off a handicap of 20, made a hole in one on the 12th at Wembley Golf Course in Perth in 2022 before recording an albatross on the 15th hole.

There have been other instances of golfer making two hole in ones in the same round.

Clelland, meanwhile, had the presence of mind to change his ball on the 18th hole, keeping the Titleist Pro V1x responsible for his two moments of magic as a souvenir.

Then came the celebrations.

The Scotsman headed to the Lynwood clubhouse for a few pints of Guinness, although the occasion quickly turned into an expensive afternoon.

“I had to buy most people in the club a beer. There were quite a few people who came back,” Clelland said.

“Hole in ones you hear quite a bit. But you very rarely hear about albatrosses. Two Guinness led to five, then led to 10 and a few more. It was an early bedtime.”

By Sunday, his phone was still buzzing with messages from golfers struggling to comprehend what he had achieved.

“My whole day has just been replying to people on social media,” he said. “I reckon you could play for three lifetimes and never see that again.”