Golf: Seve nails Tickler | Hawkes Bay Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Hawkes Bay

When your  nickname is "Seve" then trying to emulate golf in the mould of the Ballesteros class can become a handicap.

Last Sunday all that changed for Murray "Seve" Severinsen when he sank a hole in one at the Ongaonga Golf Club.

The 53-year-old relieving teacher used a five iron to tame the 172m, par-3 15th hole, The Tickler, while playing in a club day competition with three others, including club vice-captain and bar manager Tony Weber.

"I suppose I'll just have to live up to my nickname now. I've been known as that for years and I play a bit like Seve - going off the fairways quite a bit," says the 4.9 handicapper who claimed his first ace in two decades of ploughing the fairways and replacing divots.

A country member at Ongaonga but belonging to the Takapau Golf Club, Severinsen said he saw the ball bounce and roll on to the green.

"It was a dead straight shot but I didn't see it go in. It starts getting a little blurry when you get a little older," he says with a laugh.

Having teed off first, he waited until the others had got off the mound before walking up to the hole.

"I didn't believe it until I got up there."

With a $100 bar tab for the hole in one, Severinsen put on another $100 as 20 members celebrated his achievement with a few drinks.

Weber said it was the first ace at the course in three years.

Severinsen has ticked scoring an ace of his bucket list.

What else is there to achieve in golf?

"I still have to get my handicap down a bit more," he says, although he didn't think he had the makings of getting to scratch after being on a three at best.

Severinsen changed his swing three months ago to gain a bit more draw from his shots. "It's working but I have to be a bit more accurate and confident to play the shots," he says, emphasising the need to lose bad habits.

"When you start developing something you have to play it more because you don't go out to practise bad habits, do you?"

For the record, Severinsen doesn't believe his shot was a fluke.

"It's always accuracy.

"I was always aiming for it and it was dead straight, bouncing in front of it and rolling in," he says although mindful an element of luck when the ball can bounce off a tree or some object before rolling into the cup.

Severinsen is a former Hawke's Bay indoor bowls representative who was among the losing national mixed fours team in Napier in 2002.