Going the extra mile to raise money

PGA head professionals Matthew Johns (Royal Blackheath) and John Tolliday (Dale Hill) have both completed golfing marathons on the longest day in the calendar, June 21^st, but in very different ways.

At Royal Blackheath, Johns played 100 holes with fellow teacher and PGA Professional Chris Brown, and club golfer Martyn Rodden, in memory of Chris Aked who’d been the club’s former head professional.

With support from The Aked Army of members and friends, the three of them not only raised a staggering £10,000, but even managed to get a video shot of the fundraiser.

Tolliday did things rather differently, playing a greensome with assistant Sam Durling against Dale Hill captain Bill Milford and his vice Ian Pether of C+K Group, a regular supporter of The PGA in England (South) as well.

Celebrating Dale Hill’s being part of the Leaderboard Group of clubs, this group started the first 18 holes at The Oxfordshire at rather more sensible 05:15, drove to Sandford Springs in Reading for 27 more holes, and then dashed to Dale Hill for the final 36 holes, teeing off at around 15:00 in the afternoon…

As Tolliday expressed it: “The golf was great to begin with, but fatigue hit Sam and I by the time we were playing Dale Hill. It was still a tremendous result for a greensome to play 81 holes over these courses in one day, raising over £1,000 for the Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance Trust and our Dale Hill junior section.”