Four captains: Richard Westergreen-Thorne, Justin Thomas, Chris Ellis and Ixie Akpan
Richard tees off on the first hole of the 54-hole challenge
Senior Captain Richard Westergreen-Thorne reports on the Longest Day Challenge
On Friday 21st
June I set off, just before 8.00am, with the other three captains of Justin
Thomas (Club Captain), Chris Ellis (Ladies Captain) and Ixie Akpan (Junior Captain)
to complete the 54 hole challenge in aid of the Club Captains charity of
Macmillan Cancer Support.
It was a hot
day when we set off and got even hotter as the day progressed, but we were in
good spirits and well provided for with drink and sustenance. Gordon had laid
on Bucks Fizz on the first tee and some very loud stirring music to inspire us
– sorry if you were woken up in Potton! One of the tunes was the music from the
film ‘The Longest Day’ and I spent most of the first round trying to get it out
of my head.
First up was
4BBB on JOG with Justin and I taking on Ixie and Chris. Ixie has a handicap of three and hits the ball
a very long way so a pattern was soon established of us teeing off and then the
rest of us attempting to get past Ixie’s first ball with our second shots.
Impressive stuff. Aided by birdies on 5 and 6 by Ixie (yes 5 and 6) it was a
very tight match won by Ixie and Chris on the last green.
A quick
lunch and we were off on Carthagena for a Foursomes in the same teams. I
decided to give Justin some bunker practice on the first few holes but we held
on for a long time before Ixie and Chris pulled ahead to win.
It got very
hot on the second round so, after a short break, we decided we should keep
going rather than stopping and seizing up and so we quickly moved on to JOG for
Greensomes in the same pairings. Thankfully a breeze gradually sprung up and
some clouds appeared to offer some partial shade and Justin and I sprung to
life to win the game. As Justin and I thought we should play this round ‘double
or quits’ we tried to believe that the match ended all square.
It was a
good feeling walking up the 18th for the last time (yes I did walk
all the way round) and also to receive the well wishes of fellow golfers
throughout the day. A good experience for a very good cause.
Thanks to
the contributions of many seniors I have raised around £1,700 towards the Club
Captains Macmillan Cancer Support charity which is a very pleasing achievement
for such a worthwhile cause.
Thanks to
everyone who has supported the 54 Hole Challenge and over to you Tony for next
year – it’s a doddle!
Richard
Westergreen - Thorne
No comments:
Post a Comment