For most 10-handicap golfers, eagles are few and far between on the scorecard. Birdies even constitute an accomplishment worthy of fist-pumps and minor on-course celebrations. Albatrosses, a score of three-under on a single hole, are a faint dream.
Someone forgot to tell East Bay 10-handicapper Kevin Pon that. During a recent round, Pon accomplished one of the rarest feats in golf, so rare that there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of it. But it wasn’t an eagle or even an albatross.
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According to a report from The Mercury News, Pon recently made a condor during a round at his local course. What is a condor, you ask? It’s when you score four under on a single hole.
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On most courses, the only possible way to make a condor is with a hole-in-one on a par 5, something not even Bryson DeChambeau would dream of doing on Tour (though amateurs have aced par-5s a few times in history). But the course Pon was playing had a quirk that made the feat at least a little bit more likely. But not much.
At Lake Chabot Golf Course, the 18th hole is a doozy: a 700-yard par-6. Par-6s are not unique to Lake Chabot, but they are exceedingly rare. Also aiding Pon in his feat was the fact that the hole runs dramatically downhill from the tee box to the green.
Pon’s first shot was key. With the help of the downslope and most likely the cart path that weaves through the fairway, his drive finished an incredible 540 yards away from the tee, leaving him a 120-yard blind wedge shot to an elevated green. The pitch, of course, went in for a truly unlikely 2. Oddly, no one witnessed it, not even Pon.
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“I still can’t believe it,” Pon told The Mercury News. “I didn’t even see the ball come to rest on either of those two shots … It’s like I’ve been telling people, ‘You know, this has been a weird year.'”
You can read the full report from The Mercury News here.