Last month a team from Direct2U entered the Promise Dreams annual golf day, supporting our chosen charity and raising funds to enable the dreams of seriously and terminally ill children come true.
The day was a great success. The event raised over £6,000 for the charity, which will go a long way towards helping many children and their families. To sum up the day for us our Marketing Manager, Greg Higgitt, has written an account of the day and the trials and thrills they faced around South Staffordshire Golf Course. We hope you enjoy!
2015 Promise Dreams Golf Day – A wonderful stroll
Team Direct2U ready for the Promise Dreams Golf Day.
It was the perfect autumn morning. The trees were showing off their wonderful array of colours; the sun just beginning to break through the morning covering of cloud and there was a calming stillness in the air.
From the clubhouse at South Staffordshire Golf Club there was silence. Then as if the morning was staring to wake, a foot step or two could be heard breaking the crisp layer of gravel in the car park, a voice or two starting to greet and the unmistakable sound of chinking metal broke the silence as golf clubs were carried towards the clubhouse.
They arrived suddenly and in high spirit, for all the golfers had come today for a great cause. In their tens they strolled towards the clubhouse high in anticipation for the challenge ahead. Amongst them, four men sent to fly the flag for the Direct2U team – could this be their day they wondered. Yes, they were slightly under practised, but this was golf and anything could happen.
The draw would see the team have the longest walk onto the course, to their starting hole the 14th, one of the toughest holes on the course. The walk was long and half way to the tee the team realised they had lost one of their troops, where was Brad surely he could not have fallen before the first hurdle? Looking back along the fairway there was no sign of him. Then on the horizon of the hill a few hundred yards back a head appeared, then shoulders and like a one man cavalry charge weary from battle with a chocolate bar for his sword, Brad strode over the hillside just in time for the claxon.
The 14th tee shot is daunting, out of bounds right and thick trees to the left, at 445 yards long you have to get all of this tee shot. Greg stood over the ball and with a crisp strike of a three iron down the middle set the team on their way. Neil followed with a smooth takeaway and swish again down the middle. Brad was next, in a flash he had swung and made good contact with the ball, slightly right it went but he was in play. Peter backed up the tee shot before with a piercingly accurate drive straight down the middle and landing just past the ladies tee. The team agreed that with Peter’s accuracy and Brad’s ball strike they would have hit a wonderful golf shot!
[For those of you who aren’t keen golfers, like myself, the ladies tee is around 20 – 30 yards in front of the men’s tee – oh dear!]
The team got off to a fantastic start. Neil kick started the scoring racking up loads of points with a run of nett birdies, while Brad kept his nerve on some tricky putts providing the team with crucial points. Greg was solid and secured key points for the team. Then along came Peter, after a steady start and easing himself in to the game, he introduced himself to the competition in spectacular style. A 40 foot putt from just off the green with more break in it than a ripper from Aussie star Shane Warne, up the bank, over the fringe and down towards the hole, it would never be anywhere else but dead centre! The team came alive with elation, what a great start they had and it was safe to say that the 16th was Peter’s hole.
It was at the close of the 18th hole where the team came across their first true test of the morning: the 10 yard bucket challenge. It’s a true test of any golfers’ nerve with social media providing evidence of just how tricky it is. Despite hitting the bucket twice the team could not convert one chip so 40 balls and £20 later they walked past their first chance at a prize on the day.
From then on the team seemed to bypass their opportunities to grab points. The golf was good but converting chances was proving to be difficult… Had someone put cling film over the holes? By the time the last few holes came around the team had conceded that it was not going to be their day, their golf may have been bruised but their spirits remained high, for the day was about more than golf. The day was about playing to give others less fortunate the opportunity to play and live out their dreams.
A golf day is quite an appropriate event for the Promise Dreams charity. Much like the children that Promise Dreams support, a golfer steps on to the golf course optimistic and determined to defy all of the odds that are set against them that day, for hours they try and through all of the low points they will keep ploughing on in search of that illusive birdie or eagle.