It was tough but myself, Bill Whittle, Steve Hirst and Nathan Lamey finished our 7th consecutive round of golf on the stroke of 6pm on the 18th green to complete our 24 hour charity golf challenge. We each walked over 35 miles and took more than 75,000 steps.
The final scores for our 4ball were:
Total stableford points - 725
Number of balls lost - 54
Number of birdies - 23
In our defence, the pin positions were tough and the light up golf balls are hard to find once the light has gone out and Bill had won the medal with a nett 62 the week before so he'd been chopped 2 shots! (We lost 20 of the light-up balls and found 15 of them next round!)
Mark Wheatley had the best 'guests' score with 38 points and Mark Ferguson had the best night golf as he shot 80 in the pitch black which I can tell you is quite impressive.
I've just got over a few days of jet-lag (or rather golf-lag) from the event but it was a great experience and made all the better by sharing it with the other fund-raisers and especially all the involvement from the membership. So many thanks to all the helpers, golfers, ball spotters, spectators and cooks and of course for all the donations. You may be glad to know that it was, at times, the most random thing I've ever done - especially playing throughout the night with light up golf balls and head torches, and also one of the hardest - not quite as tough as running a marathon, but not far short of it at all.
Your support for the Birmingham Children's Hospital, Macmillan Cancer and the Donna Louise Trust means that between us we'll have raised over £6,000 so thank you very much on their behalf.
Here's some pictures of the challenge:
If you want to see an example of dedication, look no further than our putting green of late. Mike Dewsbury sustained an injury during Open Qualifying and can't play or hit shots at the moment - so I counted he spent 30 hours on and around the practice putting green last week, including during the hottest July day on record, working on his putting and chipping.
On Friday he had his alarm set for 3am to join us and caddy for a round during our 24 hours challenge, but in the end he stayed for the rest of the day and caddied for 4 rounds. He said he felt like he was going on holiday and then couldn't switch off afterwards!
The Captains weekend went very well including the Captain playing electric guitar with Dave Day and his band on Friday night and the Captains Day Medal was won by Peter Reed with a score of -3. I predicted level par or even over par would win as the pin positions were purposefully sooooo tough! Good luck to the Lady Captain for her day this Wednesday.
We also have a shirt amnesty whereby you can bring an old golf shirt into the shop and trade it in for a £10 discount off a new shirt in stock.
We have Ashworth and FootJoy men's and Glenmuir ladies so take action and make some room in your closet with some 'out with the old and in with the new'.
The Open Championship starts at St Andrews next week and we have a sweep running in the Pro Shop, £3 per ticket with £50 going to the winner, £35 for second, £25 for third and £10 for the worst score each day.