Burlington golfer sinks albatross on par 5 at Copetown Woods

It’s difficult to find anything Tiger Woods hasn’t done on a golf course, but Burlington resident Jake Allman managed to do something that has eluded Tiger’s score card for his entire career. 

Allman hit an albatross – three under par – on a 496 yard par 5, the first hole at Copetown Woods golf club, west of Hamilton on April 27. After his tee shot, he sat approximately 220 yards from the hole and pulled out a 4 hybrid. 

“I line up my ball, I know the pin is at the back of the green,” Allman said. “I’m envisioning my shot, aim to the right and hope to fade the ball just toward the pin. I swing, and it’s exactly how I imagined it.”

The odds of hitting an albatross on a par 5 are – on a good day – 1 million to one and can be as high as 6 million to one. The odds of sinking a hole in one on a par 3 seem comparatively easy at 12,500 to one for amateur players. 

Allman and his father, Joel, looked for the ball for a few minutes, as his dad joked that it could be in the hole. 

Not really expecting the ball to be in there, Allman checked in the hole and sure enough, turned around with the biggest grin on his face. 

“I was in shock,” Allman said. “I told my dad when you golf, you go for holes in ones, eagles, and birdies. I’d never thought in a million years an albatross would be in the question for my level of game.”

The two started golfing together when Jake was nine years old, but he didn’t catch the bug until he was home from college. They went into Golf Town together, picked up a set of Cobra King F6 clubs, and have hit the links as regularly as they could for nine years now. 

“I was so happy for him,” Joel said. “It’s such an incredible achievement, a combination of skill and luck. I’ve never had a hold in one, or an albatross. But we have had a situation where we both eagled the same hole.”

The luck factor was high on Allman’s radar that day, as he had his girlfriend draw some designs on his Kirkland golf balls before the round. She drew a bumblebee, a bomb, and a cherry. 

As the cherry was Allman’s favourite, he picked that one out of his bag first and put in on his tee for the first hole. 

“I’m never going to play with it ever again,” he said. “I’m sticking that thing in a frame and it’s going to stay there.”

The father and son even had two more friends lined up to play with them, but both cancelled at the last minute due to weather, and a scheduling mix up. Joel has a saying – it never rains on the golf course. Although it was spitting a bit as the two arrived, the clouds parted just as the ball went in the first hole. 

Both of them added if there were two more players on the course, Allman likely wouldn’t have made the albatross in the first place. 

“I told them thanks for not coming,” Allman said.