Monday, October 08, 2007

muncholesen by proxy

ESPN.com story about a woman who "possibly" has fabricated stories of hitting 16 holes-in-one in six months:
She's practically a neophyte, new to the game five years ago, and now at age 47 has reported more holes-in-one in six months than most PGA Tour players make in a career. By one count, she did the 16 in 118 rounds this year. That comes to a hole-in-one once every 30 swings on par 3s, a rate of success that causes Dean Knuth, creator of the U.S. Golf Association's Slope Rating System and a Golf Digest contributor, to blurt this assessment: "That's impossible." David Boyum is a math guy with a Harvard Ph.D. and co-author of What the Numbers Say. He puts the odds of Gagne's feat at "1 in 2,253,649,101,066,840, 000,000,000,000,000, 000,000."
Update: The golfer has posted a maniacal response to the story on her blog.

2 comments:

Chip said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chip said...

On occasion I wonder about the potential for sociopaths to infiltrate golf at high levels - I think golf and Ultimate frisbee are really the only sports that rely on the competitors to police themselves - and the rewards are much greater in golf.
The self-policing system in golf is impressive, but surely vulnerable to a shrewder and more subtle operator than Jacqueline Gagne.