On October 10, on a sunny spring day, as a cool river breeze drifted over Royal Queensland Golf Club, 62-year-old Father Adrian Farrelly of St Agatha's Catholic Parish, Clayfield, landed his first hole-in-one on the course's eighth hole. A miracle, claimed all in attendance that glorious day.
"It's definitely not a miracle," urged Fr Farrelly. "You've played enough golf with me over the years to know if there was any connection between the way I play golf and any omnipotent being, I would embrace atheism!"
Exactly three weeks later on his regular Monday morning off, Fr Farrelly took a steady tee swing on the course's 11th hole, a testing Par 3.
"It's not the easiest hole," he said yesterday. "It's flanked by bunkers. I just hit and I thought, 'Oh, that's good, it's going inside', and it just hit the green and bounced once and went in the hole."
A miracle again, claimed all in attendance.
It was no miracle, insisted Fr Farrelly. It was, in fact, a mix of luck, course knowledge, a hefty chunk of skill and some 34 years of hacking golf clubs.
"All that God does is sustain me in existence," he said. "I'm a 17-handicap player. What I achieve on the golf course is just up to the vagaries of golf."
After the first hole-in-one, Fr Farrelly had the prized golf ball mounted by a local Albion trophy maker, bearing the name of an extremely trustworthy witness to vouch for the feat, retired Sunnybank priest and long-time friend Father Ray Kearney. The second shot was witnessed by the esteemed Robert Mulholland, QC.
"It came time to collect the first trophy and I said, 'Look, I'll get you to make me another one because I just hit a second hole-in-one'," Fr Farrelly said. "I picked the other one up this morning and the lady said, 'Will we see you again?' I said, 'I'm not sure'."
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