eli5: Probability of 4 holes in one in golf

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I read in a paper that the chance of getting a hole in one are 12,500 to 1. The article continued that to get 4 holes in one is (1/125000) to the power of four.

Why does the chance decrease per attempt? The universe doesn’t know you’ve had one or two or three results already so why are increasing holes in one less likely?

I see that intuitively this might be the case, but I’m not fully convinced. Part of me believes that the chance of getting any number of holes in on should be 12,500 to 1.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

You are correct in that any single swing will have it set probability. The universe doesn’t care what happened before or after it.

However, to have that rare occurrence happen four times in a row becomes less and less likely each time you add an occurrence.

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