2014 Golfathon

So, having successfully completed the 2011 Macmillan Longest Day Challenge with Ash, Pete & Geoff (finishing a very credible 22nd out of more than 330 teams, thank you very much), I was on the lookout for something similar to get my teeth into for 2014.

As a regular Twitter user, I often discover some extremely interesting people to follow - late in 2013 I came across the On Course Foundation, a charity that, through a programme of golf skills & training, plus a network of partner golf clubs, helps wounded, injured & sick ex-services personnel to find new careers in the golf industry through work experience placements.

History of On Course Foundation

John Simpson, the Founder, visited the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court in June 2009 and was moved by what he saw and heard.  John spoke to the patients, many amputees, about the opportunities in golf and related this to his own life experience.  As a child he had polio and, as a result, has only one fully functioning leg.  He has played golf to a good standard since the age of 14 and maintains a successful career in the golf industry.

Many patients were enthused and were excited by the opportunity to participate, compete and work in such a sport.  An initial pilot golf skills scheme took place in September 2009, run in collaboration with the staff at Headley Court, and this was a great success.

All this was the genesis of the charity and John set out to formalise the position.  His aim was to create a charity (On Course Foundation) to offer injured Servicemen, women and veterans the opportunity to participate in golf on a level playing field with everyone else, either as a player or through employment in the golf industry.

The On Course Foundation was officially launched on 2 July 2010 at the Royal Household Golf Club at Windsor Castle.

The Challenge

Once I established the charity to support, the next decision was what form the golfing challenge should take. Having decided that completing 72 holes in one day, as done for Macmillan in 2011, wouldn't be sufficiently challenging enough (really?!), I toyed with a number of concepts (for example, regulation par for a pro tournament is 288 shots - completing 288 holes in four days anyone?!) before settling on a golfathon - play as many holes as possible within a designated time period.

But what should that time period be? 12 hours? Bit samey. Available daylight hours? Chicken feed. How about 24 hours? Now, that's what I'm talking about. So that's where we are - a 24 hours golfathon, completing as many holes as physically possible. Bring it on.

With the format done, the next stage was to recruit some like-minded folk to take the challenge on with me. A few calls & texts later and I was joined by Ash Patel & Pete Mullins (two founder members of Team Never Up Never In), Dave Peacock, Simon Maskell & Graham Agg (Sussex-based friends of Pete's) to form a hardened group of six. This team was then expanded when we were joined by another three - Gary Holder, Simon Pugh & Murray Barnett (with the added bonus of Gavin May in reserve)

The Targets

Clearly there are two targets to cover here - the physical & the financial. We believe it to be possible to complete somewhere around the 150 holes mark for each team of three. In counting the holes completed by each member of the team towards a cumulative total, it should be feasible to get somewhere around the 1200 holes mark. Only time will tell whether we will achieve this goal. As far as a financial target is concerned, we have set ourselves the lofty goal of raising £10,000 for the On Course Foundation - please take a look at our fundraising page www.bmycharity.com/golfathon and, if you are moved to donate, every penny makes a difference!

As time as goes on, I will be updating the main blog page with developments, progress and news about this challenge - I will also be posting on Twitter so do stay tuned!