Me: “I’ve had this brilliant idea for a fundraiser for my charity, Sussex NightStop. How about I ask people to sponsor me to play golf from dawn to dusk on one of the longest days of the year? I could invite people to join me! I could organise a 9 hole competition! We could sell cakes and tea and make a day of it! And then have a big curry and beers in the evening!”
Tom: “Playing from dawn to dusk? How does that differ from a normal day for you? People only sponsor people who do challenging things.”
Me: “It would be challenging! 17 hours of traipsing up and down a hilly course, that’s going to be around 30 miles!”
Tom: “Wouldn’t be much more challenging for you to not play golf all day?”
Me: “Oh so people would donate money to watch me sit outside the clubhouse looking miserable?”
Tom: “I would.”
Tom has a point, but I shall ignore it. Traditionally at Brighton & Hove golf club, the Lady Captain raises money for her charity throughout the year: the big event is a very popular Bridge day in March and then raffles at the Open and other events. I wanted to organise a fundraiser that would be more golfy, so here it is.
Two golfers. 17 hours. 30 miles. Countless lost balls.
The cool dude on the left is Alex. He’s an amazing golfer and he’s agreed to join me. We will tee off at dawn (from 4:51am) and we’ll carry on playing until sunset (9:17pm). We should cover around 30 miles in the day. We’ll be doing 7 rounds of 9 holes and we’ve each invited three people to pay £10 each to join us. We’ll be counting the best two scores and the two teams with the best scores will win a round for four at the Nevill golf club and at Piltdown Golf Club, who kindly donated a voucher, and the third best team some quality wine from my own personal vaulted cellar (well, from under my bed – I live in a small flat). Tee times will be 4:51am, 7am, 9:30am, 12pm, 2:30pm, 5pm and 7:30pm.
We’ll also be selling cake and tea/coffee for £3 from 11am. This is open to anyone at all, walkers, cyclists, dog walkers, anyone who fancies a gorgeous piece of cake while gazing at our magnificent views.
I’ve organised a raffle with some great prizes. Raffle tickets can be bought at the club or fire me a comment here and I’ll get some to you:
- A round for four at Lewes Golf Club
- A round for four at Seaford Golf Club
- A round for four at Worthing Golf Club
- A £110 rucksack from Badger clothing
- 2 x 6 month membership to WalkFit (worth £258 each)
- A £25 voucher from gift shop Creased
- Two tickets for a show at the Theatre Royal
- A goodie bag from Brighton gin
- A painting from local artist Erin Burns
- A golf lesson with Anthony
- A framed A3 illustration by local architect and artist Alej Ez
And finally, Emily will be serving her famous curry buffet from 6pm (£12, of which £2 go to my charity).
I hope my fundraiser will attract a lot of people to our beautiful club and of course, a lot of money for Sussex NightStop. It should be a fun day, so I hope to see lots of you there.