One-armed golfer makes hole-in-one

Contributed Photo/Albert Garcia

For a normal golfer, meaning no disabilities with arms and limbs complete, the odds of making a hole-in-one is often considered a million to one.

The odds for someone with just one arm healthy may increase twice as many or even a hundred fold.

Paolo Olives, a single-handicapper despite having just one normal arm, scored his first hole-in-one Saturday.

Olives, who belongs to a family of golfers, finally got his first ace after eight years of playing on the 12th hole of the Ayala Southlinks course in Las Pinas.

He was playing in the Adboard Cup tournament with his father Albert Garcia and Bingy Lopez when he aced the hole with a XXIO Forged 9-iron and Srixon ZStar XV #2 ball.

For his feat, Paolo won a Meister watch and a gift certificate from the host club.

“This is great, I’ve been playing for so long I thought this would never happen,” he said.

The 5-foot-9 Olives now plays to a handicap of 9 after reaching as low as 6 several years ago.

He was born with a congenitally short left forearm and uses his right arm to whack the ball to a distance of more than 200 yards, a lot longer than those with complete arms.

And while most of them are still dreaming of their first hole-in-one, Olives finally nailed it.

With just one arm. CFC