Oakland Golf Course Still Buzzing About Extremely Rare “Condor” Score

By Brian Stites
February 17, 2021 at 5:18 pm

OAKLAND (KPIX) — Before December 10th, Castro Valley’s Kevin Pon never imagined taking selfies with perfect strangers would be part of his routine when he goes to the golf course. In less than an hour at the driving range three different people approached him. ... “They’ll ask, ‘Are you the guy that got the condor?’” Pon said of the countless new social interactions he’s navigated. “Yes I am,” he says.

Like a fish tale, Pon’s story has spread around Bay Area golf courses since management at Lake Chabot Golf Course posted on Facebook what many consider to be the impossible in the game. Four under par on one hole – fittingly called a condor. ... “Most people don’t know what it is because it rarely happens,” Pon said.

He’s just the fifth golfer in recorded history to get a condor, and the first to do it on a par six like the 650 yard 18th hole at Chabot. Pon got his condor in two strokes on the monster downhill finishing hole. The other four condors occurred with an ace on a par five.

“The conditions were ideal that day,” Pon said of the warm December afternoon that enabled the fairway to allow maximum roll. How else does anyone explain a 550 yard drive? That’s over 200 yards longer than a bomb from Bryson DeChambeau, the heaviest hitter on the PGA Tour.

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According to the PGA of America, the odds of an average golfer getting an ace is 12,000-to-1. Most weekend hackers go their whole lives without getting one – including Pon. ... An albatross (three under par on one hole) is even rarer at 6,000,000-to-1, and because a condor is so rare, no mathematician has even bothered to calculate those odds. ... To put it into proper perspective, there are 60 times more endangered condors in the wild as there are on a golf course.

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