We’ve seen plenty of wild hole-in-one celebrations over the years. We’ve seen tears, we’ve seen laughter, we’ve seen disbelief. We’ve seen hugs, club hurls, air guitar solos, jumping jacks, and beer chugs. But never before have we seen the glorious, unhinged mania of Jay Hartard, a golfer enjoying his 15 minutes of fame this week following one of the great hole-in-one cellys of our time. Behold.
Incredible scenes. You have the Olympic javelin hurl of a club toss. You have the Joker-like cackling. You have Hartard wheeling away to the corner flag to celebrate with the away fans, hitting the knee slide like a wiley ol’ number nine. All of which is hilariously on cue considering the filmer is a bloke by the name of Harry Isted, a goalkeeper for Luton Town FC in the SkyBet Championship, the second-tier of English professional football, just below the Premier League.
You might think making a hole-in-one is no big deal to a professional English footballer. Their entire lives are built around pressure-cooker moments. Even if they’ve never made an ace, they’ve won trophies, escaped relegation, and had thousands singing/cursing their name, sometimes at the same time. To Isted’s credit, however, he seems just as excited for his friend’s ace as he would be for his own. Well, not quite, but close enough.
So there you have it, the best hole-in-one coronation we’ve seen in a good, long time … or at the very least this week. Enjoy it and be patient. One day it will be your turn, so keep those cameras rolling.
