Champion’s winning ball lands Galway golfer a hole-in-one

Golf balls may travel a longer distance than ever these days – but it would hard to find one to beat the ball that embarked on a 2,200 kilometre journey from Austria and ended up in a hole in one for a golfer in Tuam, Co Galway.

The ball was used by a European Tour player on his final round as he went on to claim the Austrian Open and several days later it ended up in the hands of a Tuam golfer.

When Paddy Coyne from Weir Road in Tuam produced the Titliest Pro V1 on the first tee of the President’s Prize at Tuam Golf Club, he surprised his playing partners Eamon Clarke and John Ger Davin by telling them it was the golf ball of a European Tour winner.

Recently the Austrian Open was won by Swede Mikael Lundberg and after his victory he decided to get some treatment.

Paddy’s son Daryl Coyne has been a chiropractor with the European Tour for the past eight years and happened to be on hand when Lundberg finished his round.

The winning golfer then presented Daryl with the golf ball that he completed his round with and signed it as well.

On his return home to Tuam, Daryl gave the golf ball to his father who decided to use it in the recent President’s Prize in Tuam.

On the seventh tee, a par three measuring 150 metres, Paddy took out a seven iron which he duly dispatched and it ended up in a hole in one for the 17 handicapper.

It was the first ever hole in one for Paddy during his long association with Tuam Golf Club and it is one that he will never forget.

“That ball is now placed between the photograph of John F Kennedy and the Pope and underneath the sacred heart lamp in the house,” he quipped.Read more in this week’s Connacht Tribune