An amateur golfer has beaten astronomical odds and was one putt away from entering golf’s record books after achieving eight birdies in nine holes.
Allan Harrison, 64, achieved the feat at Fairhaven Golf Club, while competing in the Silver Pheasant. He made seven consecutive birdies and eight in nine holes, falling one hole short of the nine-in-a-row that stands as golf’s benchmark.
“I was four over after the front nine,” Harrison recalled. “I went into the halfway house, had a pasty and a drink, and the lads laughed when I said I’d start the back nine fresh.”
On the 10th tee, Harrison stiffed his approach to six feet and rolled in the first birdie. His playing partner, a good friend, grinned: “That’s a good start.”
The par-five 11th brought another after a neat chip to four feet. At the 12th, he holed his longest putt of the day, a 12-footer that “just dropped in the can”.
Eyebrows went up. Harrison, never one to waste a moment, couldn’t resist. “I joked that I’d had seven in a row before, about 18 months ago at Southport & Ainsdale. They looked at me like: ‘Really?’”
That earlier run had consequences. One of the group that day, a 14-handicapper, was so impressed he asked Harrison to partner him in the next four-ball. Harrison agreed – and failed to make a single birdie. “He was a bit disappointed in me,” he laughed.
Back at Fairhaven, the 13th fell. The 14th, with its tricky front-to-back slope, was tamed with an approach to three feet. On 15, a tidy chip left another tap-in.
Then came the 16th, a long and demanding par-four. A pure four-iron to ten feet, putt holed. Seven in a row – matching his own Southport & Ainsdale run. By now his partners were fully invested. “They were cheering me on, saying I had a chance at eight to break my own record.”
The 17th, a 157-yard par-three, came agonisingly close. His seven-iron pitched a foot from the hole but ran six feet past, and he misread the putt – the only blemish in the sequence.
“My playing partner pointed out the pitch mark and said I must’ve nearly holed out. But it ran six feet past and I misread the putt.”
The 18th delivered one more, and it was the hardest-earned of the lot. Having avoided newly-placed bunkers, Harrison found himself blocked by a tree and had to manufacture a back-foot long iron, leaving 60 yards over a trap. He clipped a lob wedge to a foot.
“Ian Crowder, an ex-England player, was laughing by the pin saying how unbelievable it was — ‘He’s got another one!’”
No regrets
The fireworks left Harrison leading the Silver Pheasant on 40 points, but he finished runner-up after a flatter second day.
Running two businesses, he had spent the morning chasing accountants over payroll errors. “I was sending emails on the bench at 10, trying to get wages sorted. I double-bogeyed 10 and 11 because my mind was on work. My coach gave me a rollocking — saying I know I do better when I concentrate.”
The four dropped shots proved costly, but he insists the right man won. “If anyone deserved it, it was Bryan Hughes. He won the British Amateur in 2017 and it’s been tough for him since with his health. I don’t begrudge him at all.”
A lifetime of moments
Harrison’s golfing life is dotted with the extraordinary. He once shot 68 at Wallasey in the Frank Stableford. In his 40s he made nine consecutive twos at Southport & Ainsdale – birdieing all four par-threes in two straight competitions, then drawing a crowd on the third attempt to see whether he could do it again on the 1st. He did.
He was also Tommy Fleetwood’s scratch foursomes partner at Southport & Ainsdale. “No one ever beat us. I saw Tommy a few years ago and joked, ‘I see you got better, and I’ve got worse.’”
Worse is relative.
Why eight in nine is astronomical
A streak like Harrison’s is vanishingly rare at any level, professional golf included.
England Golf data from between January and July 2026 shows that golfers with a handicap index below 0.0 – Harrison’s is 0.4 – average 2.74 birdies per 18 holes, or roughly 1.37 per nine. On that basis, the odds of his back nine were better than 1 in 455,000. Across all golfers, the figure climbs to 1 in 322 billion.
For context, the PGA Tour’s birdie-average leader typically hovers around 4.8 to 5.0 per 18 holes – about 2.5 per nine. Harrison had eight.
The Tour record for consecutive birdies is nine, set by Mark Calcavecchia at the 2009 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey and matched by Kevin Chappell at the 2019 A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier. Both were spread across the turn.
Seven straight, eight in nine – a back nine that will live long in Fairhaven folklore. For most golfers it would be the story of a lifetime. For Allan Harrison, it’s just another chapter in a career full of them.
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