Golf charity day raises Â£3k for hospice

The final amount that was raised and donated to the hospice was Â£3,000

A record number of players took to the course for this year’s charity ‘Hole in One’ Day at Burgess Hill Golf Centre. All proceeds raised were donated to the North Chailey hospice and continued care centre.

More than 100 golfers supported this charitable cause with high hopes of ‘holing in one’ to win the annual star prize of £10,000.

Golf centre manager, Bruce Whalley, said: “We are very happy with this year’s efforts raising money for St Peter & St James Hospice. The final amount raised for this year’s Charity day was £3,000.

“Over the years I have become increasingly aware of the incredible work undertaken by all the staff at the hospice and how fund raising in the community is so crucial to its running.

“To help with what we could raise this year we decided to add a Ryder Cup Raffle and a Family Putting Day to encourage the lesser competitive golfer. Youngsters, parents and grandparents seemed to enjoy the crazy putting games.”

The golfers understood the unlikelihood of acing Burgess Hill’s first hole as even the top professionals rarely achieve this.

However, in this day and age, ‘having a go’ was a good excuse to raise vital funds for the care hospice.

With the task of a hole in one being so difficult, other prizes were on offer throughout the day including best parent and child score and a nearest the pin competition on all nine holes.

There was a tie for first place in the parent and junior competition. Jon Deare and Olly Wilmott and Josh and Darren Stone were the winners with a gross score of 35 greensomes.

In comparison to last year’s charity day, more golfers hit the greens in one shot.

Chris Collins, golf course proprietor, said: “Very satisfied with this year’s charity day.

“I had a wonder around the course during the day and got a real sense of the community spirit.

“Maybe we should always have a fund raising day like this when the Ryder Cup is on.

“Also I know it takes a lot of hard work behind the scenes, so a well deserved pat on the back to Bruce and all the staff at the golf centre.”