New research has identified when golfers are most likely to score a hole-in-one.
Golf is more popular than ever, with last year setting a new record for the number of rounds played. Younger players are engaged, too. Junior golf club membership surged by 34%, and that shows the sport’s appeal spans generations.
While the love of the sport is at an all-time high, securing a hole-in-one certainly isn’t par for the course. The odds of an amateur golfer hitting a hole-in-one stand at a humbling 12,500 to 1, taking an average of 24 years to achieve.
But the odds go down dramatically on certain days of the year. Golf insurance provider SportsCover Direct has analyzed 14,000 social media posts and discovered the luckiest dates in the calendar to hit a hole in one. Amateur golfers are statistically most likely to hit a hole in one on July 4, and the month of July also comes out as the luckiest month overall, followed by August and September. The full top 10 luckiest dates are July 4, July 10, August 16, July 23, September 14, May 6, March 3, July 30, October 11, and July 20.
While cracking the code on timing is one thing, there’s another dimension to the hole-in-one that every golfer needs to be prepared for. Tradition dictates that the moment the ball drops, the drinks are on you.
Different clubs will have different interpretations, but at most courses, you head straight to the ‘19th hole’ and buy a round for everyone in the clubhouse to celebrate. At a busy club or during a competition day, that bill could run into the hundreds, which can be a nasty financial sting in the tail of an otherwise crowning moment.
Chris Trotman, Underwriting Manager at SportsCover Direct: Most golfers spend years dreaming about hitting a hole in one, and then the moment it happens, someone in the group immediately reminds them they’re buying the drinks. The number of golfers who don’t realize they can be covered for these always surprises me, and it’s worth making sure your golf insurance covers them. The whole point of the cover is that you can enjoy the moment without doing mental arithmetic at the bar. The last thing you want to be thinking about is your bank balance.
What many golfers don’t realize is that some specialist golf insurance policies cover the cost of that celebratory round, typically for the group, covering drinks for those present in the clubhouse when you arrive. So while the tradition of buying for all remains intact, the financial hit on the celebratory golfer doesn’t have to.
