Riley Bacon has excelled on the football field, as a snow skier and, more recently, as a golfer when he scored his third career hole in one.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
A Kyabram golfing prodigy who has been a member of a renowned Melbourne golf course for the last 15 years is continuing to turn heads with his prowess in the sport.
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Now 30-year-old Riley Bacon, who is playing off a handicap of two, recently scored his second competition hole-in-one (the third if you count one he scored in a practice round) - on a 270 metre par four hole at Bright Country Club golf course.
He drove the ball straight into the hole, Happy Gilmore style, on the par four 15th hole which is separated by a large bill in the middle of the fairway.
Bacon, the son of Kyabram’s John and Rosie Bacon, started playing golf at Parkland as a 12-year-old and was on of three juniors from that club to earn scholarships to The Metropolitan Golf Club.
He was the only one, however, who took up the option to become a member and has continued to play at the club regularly while working in Melbourne in the environmental science space.
Bacon has also served on the membership committee of The Metropolitan Golf Club
Two years ago he moved to Oxley with his English nurse girlfriend, which is part way between Wangaratta and Bright, allowing him to pursue his other great passion - snow skiing.
Bacon is a prolific snow skier and following secondary school completed a gap year at Timbertop.
A week earlier Bacon had parred the course at Wangaratta, where he does a majority of his work with young clients through his NDIS business.
Riley Bacon (35) playing with Bright last season, one of the many sports he has excelled at in his decade and a half sporting career.
Bacon has also excelled on the football field and has played in four grand finals since 2019 - missing only in the COVID interrupted season of 2021.
This year he was Bright’s best player in its losing grand final to Greta in the Ovens & King Football League.
He kicked two of his team’s six goals in the grand final, having also had a strong finals series in the 2023 season.
In 2022 he started the season in Tongala’s senior team and ended up playing in a winning grand final with the reserves.
In 2019 he played all 22 games with the Blues senior team as it shocked the Murray League by reaching the grand final.
This year was his 13th at senior level, having played six senior games with Kyabram as a teenager way back in 2012-13.
Bacon maintains a strong connection to Kyabram through his parents and every four or five months comes back home to play at Valley View or Parkland.
His parents are currently travelling to northern New South Wales where they are visiting their daughter and grandchildren.
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