Enniscrone Golf Club is among the latest Irish clubs to hold a Play in Pink day in aid of the National Breast Cancer Research Institute.
Charging €120 for a team of four – and an additional €10 per person to compete in the nearest the pin and long drive competitions – and with a raffle to accompany, a total of €13,600 was raised for the charity that sits close to the heart of just about every Irish family.
“It was a collaborative approach,” said Enniscrone Lady Vice Captain, Elaine Doherty, who spearheaded the organisational side of the event. “We all rolled in together, and we all worked together and had a very supportive management committee behind us.
“They facilitated the day and allowed us to run it and we ran it as an Open Competition, and we charged a very low entrance fee.
“It was only €120 for a team of four on the links course, and then we had an additional €10 per person that included longest drive and nearest the pin competitions, so a lot of the teams would have paid the €160.”
Local businesses and societies from within Enniscrone Golf Club were generous in their support and Doherty wished to acknowledge and thank them for their contributions to the event.
“The ‘Ladybirds society’, that’s ladies over the age of 55, gave us a donation from their day and the ‘Doom society’, that’s the men’s equivalent, gave us a donation as well. We also had every tee sponsored by accountants, doctors, solicitors, chemists, businesses like that. We kept away from the ordinary sweet store, newsagent etc. because they’re always getting hit, but the raffle brought in a nice bit of money as well.
“One optician in the town, Joe Gavin, sponsored two pairs of designer sunglasses – RayBans for the men and Kate Spade for the women – and we had another pharmacy, Mollys in Ballina, sponsor a hamper with lots of luxurious products. Connacht whiskey was another and our main prize sponsor on the day was Complete Beauty by Sandra who gave us €500 that we split into four $125 vouchers for the winners.”
As an added touch and to add a big splash of colour, a pink double-decker bus was brought in for the day and it was extremely eye-catching in the May sunshine.
“One of our members drives buses, so he asked the owner if he could bring it down,” Doherty added. “It was a scorching day on May 11th, and it was picture perfect. And having a team of two men and two women win the competition was ideal.”
A common refrain coming from clubs who have run successful Play in Pink days is that the organisation has been very much a team effort, and Enniscrone’s experience is no different.
“We raised €13,600 which was a lot of money, and everything came together. I cannot stress enough that it was a team approach. Michael Moy the Vice-Captain, Jim Brown the Captain, Martha McNulty the Lady Captain, the entire committee were very supportive.”
Running the event as an Open Competition as most clubs tend to do allows support from neighbouring clubs and Ballina, Castlebar and County Sligo Golf Clubs in particular were heavily represented in the field, as were the Connacht Rugby referees association.
If you haven’t Played in Pink yet it’s very simple to get involved – just pick a day at your club, register it on the website and a member of the Play in Pink team will get in contact with you to help you with prizes and fundraising ideas. So if you haven’t looked into it before or are considering getting your club involved (or even just playing in one of the scheduled events) then visit www.PlayInPink.com for all the information or email hello@playinpink.ie.