What sort of fool pays for hole-in-one insurance? Well possibly you

Companies sell all kinds of bizarre insurance policies - from the insurer who was said to have provided £1 million cover for Ken Dodd's teeth, to the insurer that has been selling alien abduction insurance for years. You'd be forgiven for rolling your eyes and wondering who would pay for something so off-the-wall, but you might not have to look far, because there may be some surprises lurking in your own home insurance policy.

Did you know, for example that according to Defaqto, 11% of all home insurance policies come with golfing hole-in-one cover as standard?

It could pay off

It sounds bizarre, but if you're a fairly average golfer, this could be more useful than you think. There are now 4 million golfers in the UK, and 57% of hole-in-ones are hit by golfers in the mid-handicap.

For the average golfer, the chances of getting a hole-in-one stand at 12,000-1, compared to a professional who stands a 3000-1 chance. A hole-in-one, however, is achieved somewhere around the world once in every 3500 rounds of golf, so it is not as rare as you might think.

In most clubs, if you get a hole-in-one, you have to buy a drink for everyone in the bar. If it's busy, this could cost you a small fortune, so insuring against it might be wise.

According to Defaqto data, the lowest level of pay out for hole-in-one cover comes in at £100 and goes all the way up to £1000, averaging at £529 for the policies offering the cover as standard.

If you are a golfer, it's worth checking if you have cover, and how much you have, because were you to hit a hole-in-one at Gleneagles golf course, the average UK cover would buy you 42 cocktails for those waiting back at the bar. You would have to hope it was a quiet day at the bar should you have the lowest level of cover, with £100 only stretching as far as eight cocktails.

Of course, if you don't play golf, then you're paying for something you don't need. The good news is that a hole-in-one is considered such an unlikely possibility, than the cost of the cover is going to be a tiny fraction of the total home insurance premium - and it's a snip compared to the cost of insuring against alien abduction.