Sandor Kovacs: Supplied
A local golfer has won a cool R100 000 for acing the par 3 17th hole at the St Francis Links at St Francis Bay.
Sandor Kovacs made only his 2nd hole-in-one in 35-years of playing golf on Wednesday when he holed-out with a perfect 184-metre shot downwind using a 9-iron.
Run independently through a private betting company, the betting man's option to win big at the 17th is run through the Zapper app and is a permanent feature on that specific hole.
A camera on the tee and behind the green run continuously to record the action and to naturally verify any claims at a hole-in-one.
46-year-old Kovacs told AlgoaFM Sport that he has been a member at the St Francis Links for about 6 months and that he always puts down a R100 wager on acing the 17th.
"You bet 20 bucks, you'll win 20-grand and 50 bucks gets you 50-grand and I always put down R100," said Kovacs. "Its all a bit of fun really and gets the juices flowing nicely when you stand on the 17th tee. There was quite a strong south-westerly blowing today and I struck a very sweet 9-iron into the right portion of the green and then watched as it fed beautifully down and across the green and into the hole - just the way 17 is supposed to be played."
Kovacs is a low handicap golfer with an index of 3 and joked that he'll have to share his windfall with his better half.
"My wife lets me play a lot of golf so I guess she's going to have to get a healthy percentage - its only fair. The company that runs the initiative has already made contact with me and we'll be doing one of those giant cheque handovers in due course - just like they do with the professionals."
