Saturday 31 May 2014

Weekly golfathon update - <2 weeks to go

I did give you fair warning that there was a good chance the regularity of updates would fade as time went on - it's been nearly two weeks since the last entry and, with the event creeping ever closer, it's time for some more info.

Main news has been the astonishing progress made on sponsorship, particularly in the last 48 hours. Having ambled along our 'Road to £10k' since kicking off the requests for cash, there was a genuine concern that we might fall embarrassingly short. Thankfully, those fears are proving to be unfounded, due to the generosity and willingness of so many people to dip into theit pockets and support this fabulous cause.

A flurry of individual donations took us through the £1000 barrier early on Thursday, followed by the first of the matched funding pledges from team member's employers. I must say a massive thank you to the folks at Santander and Legal & General for their extraordinary donations which, along with further individual support has pushed us very close to the £4000 mark. We are all so grateful for everyone who has donated although we still have a long way to go to hit the target! The fundraising page is www.bmycharity.com/golfathon and anything you can spare goes a long way.

The other news is publicity - I would also like to thank EM Acoustics, the excellent loudspeaker manufacturer, who very kindly provided us with somewhere in the region of 1000 professional flyers to hand out & post through letterboxes. The folks who run EM have been great supporters of my absurd charity golfing ventures and their generosity on this occasion is fantastic - thanks!

Now on to the topic of practice - since our 27 hole get-together at Farnham Park a couple of weeks ago, little has happened from a personal perspective until right now, where I am midway through a two day, two round trip to Royal Birkdale. With (yet another) trip to the US due next week, this represents the last chance for any semblance of practice before the off.

Ah.

Anyhoo, the Sussex folks took it upon themselves, having had a second 27 hole day immediately after ours, to get some night golf practice in on Thursday. The feedback was that it was an 'interesting' experience, made all the more challenging with the lack of glow sticks on the flags and, additionally, glowing & flashing balls that didn't - or at least, not for very long. Some equipment challenges to test us to the very last minute then.

The final thought for this entry is a bit of a dilemma (a rhetorical one really - please don't write in) - I discovered late yesterday that, on the same day as the golfathon, there will be another group completing the Macmillan Longest Day challenge (72 holes in the one day) at Colmworth GC. I don't believe there will be a logistical problem in terms of getting in each other's way, but I am concerned about the impact on the attention & awareness that having two golfing marathons running simultaneously will have. I have put this situation to the while team and, interestingly, there is a groundswell of opinion towards bringing all three teams together in the one venue in Sussex.

Clearly there is a logistical hurdle or three to overcome (not least the publicity associated with Colmworth and not wanting this potential change to come across as a dummy-spit) but it's an unexpected topic to mull over and, even after sleeping on it last night, I am no clearer in my mind or nearer to a decision about what to do.

I am the Part-Time Golfer

Monday 19 May 2014

Weekly golfathon countdown - 3.5 weeks to go

Yet again I have failed in my self-flagellatory task of maintaining a weekly update for the blog, so this is a bumper two-and-a-half week edition!! 

OK, fine, so it'll be pretty much the same as all the others, just more than a fortnight since the last one. Stop whining, for feck's sake.

Nutshell update: 

Sponsorship has a bloody long way to go, corporate matched funding notwithstanding - there have been some conflicts for the various members of Team Never Up Never In, with rival charity events vying for the hard-earned funds in people's pockets, but this week is the time to really push on and make some progress, particularly towards the key thresholds at which matches funding from corporates will kick in.

36 hole practice day was planned for Sunday at Farnham Park GC, nr Slough; two-thirds of the team (eventually) met up yesterday afternoon for a hit in the blazing Berkshire heat. Sincere thanks are to be extended to On Course Foundation for their kind provision of the banner and the orange golf shirts, which certainly help us to stand out from the crowd. Additionally, our friends at Pernod Ricard have very kindly donated a set of Ballantine's Championship IJP Design shirts & jackets - both these equipment donations are incredibly generous and make a big difference to the success of the event. In the picture below, Dave & I are sporting the orange OCF shirts, whilst Gary, Simon, Pete and Graham are modelling the Ballantine's gear

Media coverage is starting to pick up - we had articles published on the Golfmagic & Golfing for Charity websites plus we have James Corrigan from The Telegraph & Golfshake also preparing to write about our venture. Our expectation is that this additional coverage will help to drive attention, support & sponsorship so please look out for these articles and help us reach out target.

A number of equipment supplies are still required, with many a begging letter going unanswered. We have a desperate need for night golf gear, with a couple of promising leads not yet coming to fruition. If anyone is involved with, or knows of contacts for, suppliers of energy bars/drinks and night golf equipment, please reach out to us!

So all in all, lots still to achieve before we can get cracking with this event and not very much time left in which to achieve it



I am The Part-Time Golfer

Thursday 1 May 2014

Weekly golfathon countdown - 6 weeks to go

One could describe the passing of the T-6 weeks barrier as entering the final lap; the home stretch before completion. In reality, the sense we have as a group is that we're only just getting started. We had a 'committee' call last night where some final details were planned out and agreed.

We have our sponsorship emails written and ready to hit inboxes around the world. This means that if your email address is known by anyone in the group, you'll get a beg for some of your money. We shan't apologise for it. The financial target we have set ourselves is punchy, to say the the least, and, whilst we do have some matched funding avenues from various employers, extracting the maximum benefit from these schemes is only possible with the generosity & support of our friends, family & colleagues. Our sponsorship page is www.bmycharity.com/golfathon and anything you can spare would be gratefully received.

Publicity is the next hot topic - I mentioned previously about our contact at The Telegraph and Dave was able to confirm that their initial coverage will kick off following our practice day on 18 May (venue tbc). We are hopeful that this will accelerate the interest in what we are attempting, plus boost the support in terms of equipment, supplies and even cold, hard cash. There are a couple of other avenues to explore and these will be followed up over the next week.

Practice - you may remember, way back in the depths of winter, we had some grand ideas about an iterative and escalating practice/training schedule, building us up nicely to the main event. The harsh reality of a myriad conflicting events & commitments has led us to a new position of 'Ah, feck it - we'll be ok' - we are going to get together to play some golf on the 18 May, but it won't be 72 holes and, in all probability, it won't be 54 holes either. I am expecting to do 36 holes at a 'fresh' pace - to have a slight element of practice, we should be aiming for 2.5-3 hours per group. Time will tell if that is feasible.

Finally, the topic of equipment was raised, particularly what we would need for the two (or more) rounds we'll be playing in the dark. We are still hopeful of having an enthusiastic & generous sponsor to assist with night golf gear but, in the eventuality of that avenue not coming to fruition, we've drawn up a list of items to beg, steal* & borrow to get us through those holes.

And so what lies ahead? Well, I am back off to the US next weekend (with at least one round of golf to enjoy - did I mention it will hopefully be at Pebble Beach!) &, on my return, we have the practice day. The big kick-off creeps ever closer....

I am the Part-Time Golfer

*this is a figure of speech, clearly