Golfers tee up for €1,000 ace

A FAMOUSLY challenging Irish golf course has become the first club in Ireland and Britain to take advantage of liberal new cash-prize rulesgoverning the amateur game to offer a cool €1,000 to any player who bags a hole in one.

Until January 1, cash incentives for amateur golfers were forbidden by the Royal & Ancient, the organisation responsible for the game’s rules.

But a change of heart now means clubs can stump up unlimited cash prizes for the rare 43,000/1 hole-in-one feat and the superb European Club in County Wicklow’s Brittas Bay — where Tiger Woods holds the course record — are the first to provide the opportunity.