Dan Bradbury set his sights on eclipsing DP World Tour great Miguel Ángel Jiménez after making his third hole-in-one of the season in round three of the acciona Open de España presented by Madrid.
The Englishman made a final round ace at the 17th at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in January and added another - again at the 17th - in the second round of the SDC Championship two months later.
His hat-trick came on the third at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid - a hole on which he was four over across the week last season - as he holed a four iron from 226 yards as part of a front nine of 29 in a brilliant 63.
The last person to make three in a season was Spaniard Jiménez, whose ace at the second in round three of the 2015 BMW PGA Championship was a record-breaking tenth of his career.
Bradbury still has a long way to go to match that all-time mark but insists he will be going all out to hit a record-breaking fourth perfect shot in one season over the rest of 2023.
"Now I know that I'll be aiming at all the par-threes, that's for sure," he said when told of the record.
"Front nine was fantastic, I got off to a hot start. I've made a few holes-in-one now and it's the first time I've kept it going so that's nice.
"It was a good number and this one was a perfect golf shot.
"226 was the number, which for me is normally a four iron but it's hot and there's a bit of altitude here.
-7 thru 9 holes @DanJBradbury 🔥#AccionaOpen pic.twitter.com/lnz13MrMaE
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 14, 2023
"I was convinced a four was long and my caddie (Paul Drummond) said he didn't think a five was enough so I hit the smooth four and it couldn't have been any better."
Bradbury's appearance here last season on an invite was just his second DP World Tour appearance and in his next at the Joburg Open, he lifted the trophy for a life-changing victory.
"This was the start of it," he said after reaching ten under in Madrid. "I got my next invite in Joburg probably off the back of a good performance here.
"Last year just gave me the confidence, I shot 29 on the back last year in the final round on Sunday and that gave me a lot of confidence that I could play at this level. Nice to shoot 29 on the other nine today.
"The past few months haven't been my best golf, I feel like I've been playing a lot better than I'm scoring so today was the first time I've seen my name on the leaderboard since Belgium so it's nice to be back up there and in the mix."
