Matthew Vigurs, an amateur golfer from Droitwich, achieved a remarkable feat by sinking a hole-in-one from 411 yards (376 meters) during a league match at Great Barr Golf Club on July 25. The shot is estimated to have a one-in-six-million chance of occurring.
Vigurs' achievement narrowly missed the Guinness World Record for the longest hole-in-one, which is held by Robert Mitera. Mitera recorded a hole-in-one from 447 yards (408 meters) in 1965 at Miracle Hills Golf Course in Nebraska, USA. Despite being 36 yards short of that record, Vigurs described the moment as a close second to his wedding day in terms of life's best moments.
England Golf, the national governing body for amateur golf, believes Vigurs' shot could be a national record, though this has not yet been officially confirmed. Vigurs admitted that the rarity of the event made him feel "stupid" when he initially searched for his ball.
"We all hit good shots but I didn't expect it to go anywhere close to the green and I didn't know it had until we got up there," Vigurs stated. "We were looking for the balls but mine was missing. Everyone else was about 40 yards short of the green and we even had a look over the back of the green."
Upon double-checking the hole, Vigurs found his ball at the bottom. "I just double checked the hole and unbelievably I froze for about 10 seconds when I noticed the ball in the bottom. I rolled it over and saw my markings and we all went mad. It was surreal," he added.
