A charmed life on the links

It was reported in British newspapers this week that a 75-year-old amateur golfer had a hole-in-one at his local club, Stoke Rochford - his seventh in 31 years. Maurice Pugh has achieved the feat so often he has insured himself, at a cost of £2.50 a year, against the cost of a traditional round of drinks for members, expected to be bought by scorers of a hole-in-one at his club.

The veteran golfer, who has been playing the game for 40 years and still plays off a handicap of 13, describes himself as "an average club player with a lot of luck".

He got his first hole-in-one at the 124-yard 12th in 1970, and he followed that in quick succession in 1973, 1974 and 1975. It was 22 years before he repeated the feat in 1997, before acing once in 1998 and again last week.

The odds of this happening were set at a million to one. Advice? Go buy a lotto ticket.