A fantastic day greeted members and guests for Surrey National’s 2018 Charity Day on Thursday. The day had been switched to a more convenient day, and surely increased the chance of some better weather. Central London hit 29 yesterday and Surrey National surely must have been in mid20s. Course was in great condition, recent mild weather (without the rain), let the greenkeepers really push on with it’s presentation. Great job.
This year we were supporting two fantastic charities, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Disabled Golfers Association (their website has a domain prob, so please visit their Facebook page).
Traffic problems on M23 or M25 saw the start put back 20mins, more chance for the coffee and bacon rolls to go down. A shotgun start so teams headed out to their allocated tee. Janine made the most of the delay, on the putting green till about 20past nine when she asked aloud where everyone had gone. Noone was there to answer her.
Our fourball of Club Captain Mark, Phil, Jaggsy and myself had a great round, albeit a bit underwhelming in terms of scoring. Never in doubt of a bogey, our front nine return of only two birdies left us on the back foot. Despite a run of 6 birdies on the back9 we were convinced we were too far back.
Mulligans on the day proved interesting. Philip paid a deserved fine for “mulligan of the day”. With one ball on the green about 15 feet away on the 16th for birdie, from 60 odd yards Mr Macve confidently declared he was playing his mulligan, only to hammer the ground 12inches behind the ball, which somehow moved a mighty 3feet forward (toward the hole to be fair). Fine duely paid, the ‘snitch’ (me) duely fined for reporting it to Mr Loveless later during the auction.
After the round, we had drinks to cool down, share the usual frustrations of ‘what could’ve been’, before changing and heading upstairs for a nice meal and more drinks.
After a few words from Mark, and a few more drinks, we had a fantastic presentations from Janet of Make-A-Wish and Paul from the Disabled Golfers Association. They both spoke very well about their organisations and the hard work put into helping others.
Janet and Paul with Mark
Mr Loveless was on form for the charity auction.
He led off with Bronwen’s cake going for a healthy total, congrats Jan. (The cake is a “required” item for any Surrey national members’ event). A few fines (see above) were collected on the day, all in a good spirit of course, and all auction items were sold. A massive thanks to everyone who dug deep. (Especially Mr Chamberlain and his Sundridge 4ball voucher, mate pal ol’ buddy).
Final item was slightly ‘left field’. Another regular item, it was a ‘sealed’ Ann Summers goodie pack which was bought by a slightly bemused member of our Senior brigade, one Geoff Russon. Perhaps the heat and drinks played a role, or perhaps he thought we were still bidding on the cake. Either way, nice one Geoff .
Graham doing a cracking job on the auction
Dinner drew to a close and we retired downstairs to the bar, sitting outside in the warm evening.
Well done Mark for leading the day (and not getting fined for wearing jeans!). Top job despite the challenges of rescheduling and a healthy total raised for two very worthy charities. Top job again Mr Loveless (and his assistant Victoria), and of course for the ladies section led by Bronwen and Margaret in really bringing the day together.
Usual faces still at the bar when I left at half8 – the Pistols, the Swashbucklers and of course Ralphie! Roll on next year and good luck Dom!
The real “engines” of the charity day… Margaret and Beonwen (oh and Mark). Before Mark says “I’ve been here since 7” again, I’m sure he’d the first to extend massive thanks to the ladies for their huge support both on the day and the run up to it.
Obviously the biggest thanks goes to everyone who turned up on the day.
A cracking effort and I hope everyone enjoyed the day. Also good to see not only the “regular crowd” and guests on the day, but also a heap of guys we don’t catch up with too often.