West End's captain Carman proves ace '“ on three occasions

The 56-year-old’s remarkable streak began at his home course, where he has been a member for four years, in last month’s medal at the 161-yard par-3 fourth.

“The pin was at the bottom and the ball pitched on the front of the green, took two hops and a gentle roll in. It was never going anywhere else, to be fair,” said Carman, for whom this was a third hole-in-one. His fourth came in his next round.

He did not play for 11 days as his clubs did not travel with him on a family holiday to Majorca.

Carman said: “We came back on the Tuesday and the next day I played in what we call a ‘captains’ friendly’ in which local captains of eight to 10 clubs play simply to cross-fertilise, shall we say, in a very friendly and non-competitive way. We were away at Halifax (Ogden) and I managed a hole-in-one on the second hole there – it’s 117 yards – with a 50 degree wedge.

“That one we didn’t see go in because it’s an uphill par-3, but I played the tee shot, up it went, and someone in the group said, ‘I’m sure the flag’s just moved’.

“We got up there and we could only see two balls. What’s happened to me before is you think, ‘it’s gone in, but I don’t want to look a pillock and assume it has and it’s actually in a bunker somewhere’. So you find yourself casually walking past the pin and you have a glance down. For 99.9 per cent of the time you’re disappointed, but there it was in the hole, so that was good fun.”

What followed were “a relatively quiet five rounds”, as Carman described them, until six days later when he played in an open week competition at Halifax Bradley Hall.

At the fourth, 128 yards into a stiff breeze, he hit a nine iron for “the flukiest of the three”.

“It shot down a bank onto the green and a guy I was playing with said, ‘That’s gone in the hole’,” he said. “So up we go, casual glance into the hole, and there it is.”

Carman aceing was becoming so common that he said his partners’ eyes rolled “as if to say, ‘that’s enough, be sensible’.”