“It was the first ever hole-in-one this golf ball had ever achieved,” claimed NCG Top 100s podcast host, Dan Murphy.
How does a shot you didn’t even see end up in the hole of one of golf’s most historic closing holes in links golf, with one of the game’s biggest social media stars looking on? All sounds a bit far fetched, doesn’t it?
But it was the reality for Murphy, who is a familiar voice on the NCG Top 100s Podcast. He recalled the time he made history on the 18th at North Berwick.
Speaking on the latest episode of the podcast, he told the story of how this unlikely feat was recorded on the biggest golf YouTube channel in the world. Not only that but he has one of the most recognisable faces in the sport cheering him on, in Rick Shiels.
“It was fluke, it was a mistake and in all truth I didn’t see it go in,” Murphy admitted. “It was in the evening, anyone who has played at North Berwick will know the sun sets behind the clubhouse.
“The green was in shadow and so I wasn’t aware that it had gone in.
“I actually thought it was a wind-up from the people in front. I thought it had clearly run through the back. I’m not going to respond to this and it turns out the ball was in the hole.”
Fellow podcast host, Tom Irwin, joked about how Nike golf balls have a tendency of making historic moments.
“It’s quite an amazing story, not least because it was with a Nike golf ball which puts it a moment in time,” he said.
“It’s the second most famous thing a Nike golf ball has done.”
“It was a Nike press trip and the launch of the Nike Platinum golf ball,” Murphy added. “So it was the first ever hole-in-one this golf ball had ever achieved.”
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Shiels, who was well on his way to becoming one of the key figures in YouTube golf, managed to capture the moments Murphy found out he could put his putter away.
“Rick Shiels was also on the trip and he was in one of the groups in front,” he explained. “We were the last of four, four balls and he was hanging round after finishing up on the 18th when all this happened.
“His group were hooping and hollering, in a way those trendy YouTubers do. Not really behaving with the decorum you would expect at a place like North Berwick, but god forgive people enjoy themselves playing golf.
“I thought it was the most obvious wind-up ever with the ball being in the hole.
“To my amazement it was the only hole-in-one (on the 18th) anyone knew about. I spoke to lots of people at the club, the starter, who had been there for many years, and the historian who didn’t have any record and to my knowledge still don’t.
“The hole is very similar to the last at the Old Course, a shorter version of that. The most intimidating bit is the fact the road is very tight down the right with cars nosing into the fence.
“So you’re terrified if you let one go you’re going to be going through someone’s windscreen.”
Listen to the NCG Top 100s Podcast
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- NOW READ: Why Trump International has climbed into our top 10 rankings
- NOW READ: The North Berwick ranking everyone is arguing about
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