When Joanne Hill achieved a hole-in-one at the Brockley Hill Golf Park, Stanmore, six months after taking up the game, she couldn't celebrate in the traditional way with drinks for all the centre is waiting for its liquor licence. And so it was coffees all round!

Joanne, 36, was running out of holes when she came to the eighth on the nine-hole par three course. Normally 119 yards, it had been reduced to 109 with a temporary tee during the recent heavy rains. She hit a good tee shot and made tracks for the green. Said Joanne, who lives at Laurel Gardens, Mill Hill: "My friend, Jane Furlong, and I searched for the ball, thinking it was hidden behind the pin. It was a great shock when I realised it had gone straight in the hole.

"When I told my husband Mark, he thought it was a joke. He asked: "What were you aiming for?"

Their son James, 10, is a keen golfer and plays regularly at Brockley Hill Park on Saturday mornings.

"When I called at the club to take him home, he suggested that I should give the game a try.

"I hadn't a clue how to hold the club until the professional James Reynolds showed me ," said Joanne. "He gave me a club to take home and told me to to practice in the garden. I missed with the first swing and played two air shots with the next two." Now she's the proud possessor of a 'hole-in-one' certificate.