Captain's a Shoe-In
02/07/2013
Captain of The PGA in England (South), Guy Shoesmith (West Hill) won the JDRF Pro-Am Golf Tournament with an outstanding eight-under-par 63.
Played at Stoke Park, the course favoured by Bond and Goldfinger when playing for high stakes, the event is now in its third year, and the unique scoring format for the charity event means the Professionals only start earning money if they make birdies at £75 and eagles at £100.
JDRF – the type 1 diabetes charity - funds the research to cure, treat and prevent type 1 diabetes, so the day was all about raising as much money as possible through the Pro-Am and both a silent and a live auction, with the net result that over £82,000 gross was raised for JDRF.
Shoesmith’s stellar performance left no less than six of the region’s stars trailing in his wake by three shots: Neil Reilly (NRGC), William Hodkin (Performance Golf Studio), James Harris (Nevill), Craig Cowper (Horton Park), Richard Wallis (Walmer & Kingsdown), and Benn Barham (Kings Hill), who all shot five-under-par 65.
Following a shotgun start where he started on the 11th, Shoesmith was delighted with his performance, commenting “It’s a long time since I’ve had six birdies and an eagle! I birdied all the par fives and made a couple of good putts, one at the 12th from 25 feet and another on the short seventh – the one McKenzie used for the famous 12th at Augusta – of 18 feet.”
He continued: “I had a couple of great sand wedges as well, one to six inches at the long 18th for a birdie, and then one on my last hole, the 10th, which took two bounces and went straight down the hole!”
This was Shoesmith’s first Pro-Am win in two years and followed a lay-off for three months due to keyhole surgery, so he was delighted to be competitive again.
He added: “As the Captain of the region it’s great to do the winner’s speech, rather than introduce the winner and watch him make his!
“The course was in fabulous condition, and special thanks are due to Stoke Park’s Director of Golf and PGA Professional Stuart Collier for making this a brilliantly successful event once more, to Colin Brumpton the driving force who got 32 teams playing for some fantastic prizes, and to the headline sponsor LDC whose team was a pleasure to play with.”
Summing up the day on behalf of JDRF, head of events Adele Claase said: “It was a tremendous day enjoyed by all involved and we are delighted with the amount raised from our generous supporters and that of our headline sponsor LDC, champagne reception sponsor SVG and ‘hole in one’ sponsor Lucas Rarities Ltd. Thank you to The PGA for making the golf run so smoothly, to Stoke Park for providing the stunning location and of course to the Pro-Am committee chair Colin Brumpton and committee members Tony Reeves and Sam Loxton. With the funds raised we can continue to fund the best research into treating, preventing and curing type 1 diabetes.”
