Over £22,000 and counting has been raised for Prostate Cancer UK after The Big Golf Race proved a roaring success at Helen’s Bay Golf Club.
Organised by Gordon Rea, 32 players took to the fairways at Helen’s Bay with a shotgun start at 5am with the aim of completing 72 holes before darkness with the hope that donations given would help fund lifesaving research to diagnose prostate cancer in men sooner.
A target of just over seven and a half thousand pounds was set and that barrier was smashed with £22,385 being donated at the time of writing.
“We’ve done it a few times before, we hadn’t done it for six years and it’s grown. We try and do it as a club event so there is a social aspect to it as well as the fundraising piece. The intent is to close the course for the day and people are able to come down” said Rea.
“We raised over £20k we didn’t have a forecast of what we were going to get but £7,000 seems a long way away but there were 32 of us doing it in the end. That was way beyond what we were hoping for.”
There was something for everyone at the Big Golf Race. Participants could choose from a range of options including the half marathon (two rounds, 36 holes, 13 miles in a day), the marathon (four rounds, 72 holes, 26 miles in a day), or the ultra marathon (5.5 rounds, 100 holes and 35 miles in a day).
Rea himself doesn’t have a direct connection with Prostate Cancer UK but some of the participants on the day would have and he has been the chief organiser of various events for charities since 2009.
“The first time we done it we had a connection to McMillan and eight of us did it in 2009. In 2018 we thought that we should do it again. The second time we had 18 and we had a perfect day so we decided we would do it again with Prostate Cancer UK.
“Word of mouth got more people interested in it so we had to cap it at 32. You played with three different people every round and we ran internal competitions to keep people interested.”
There was a great turnout from the Helen’s Bay members with participants ranging from 18 years old to the 60s. Rea was keen to make the day a social event with family and friends welcome to join the golfers in the evening in the clubhouse for a celebration.
While Rea organised the event he was delighted with the team effort from friends and family and those who work in the golf club who delivered a great occasion.
“It’s not me, it’s 32 people going out who reached out to friends and colleagues to raise the money. It was a real team effort. We had a lot of help and a lot of people at the club pitched in. I co-ordinated it but the amount of people contributing and helping during the day to men the event successful was huge. It wasn’t an individual effort, we were a team.
“For the club, everybody enjoyed it and it showed the golf in a really good light, it is a friendly club and that was a great example of that on the day.”
Participants: Nolan Andrews, Andy Bates, Michael Bell, Alan Boston, Chris Cochrane, Sam Corbett, Darren Cromey, Dave Currie, Jonny Eakin, David Graham, Lee Griffiths, Jamie Irwin, Tim Jebb, Alex McComb, Ben McCord, Stuart McDonagh, Garth McGee, Shane Meharg, Andy Morgan, Chris Mullin, Mark Leinster, Neil O’Hara, Dale Orr, Merv Poli, Gordon Rea, James Rea, Gary Robb, Dave Saligari, Colin Small, Michael Smith, Philip Smith, Andrew Smyth and Stephen Van Houten.