OUR 35TH ANNUAL CHARITY GOLF DAY

New Forest Rotary Charity Golf Day 2021 at Bramshaw Golf Club

Report by Ken Ball

After missing a year because of the Coronavirus Pandemic we were able to hold our Charity Golf Day again at Bramshaw Golf Club on September 2^nd 2021. It was with some apprehension as the Golf Club and The Bell Inn had very recently been acquired by new owners. The shortage of staff in hospitality meant that initially we were told that the Golf Clubhouse would be closed for refurbishment, and we would have to use the recently reopened Bell Inn. This was a major setback as it could not accommodate the 93 golfers in one room. However sense prevailed on the Sunday prior to the event and the Clubhouse was reopened for our exclusive use.   

Original owners the Crosthwaite-Eyre family had always been very supportive of our Rotary Club When the event first started in 1984 it was a Hampshire Pro-Am event in which the professional golfers competed individually, but also with the other amateur players in each team. Over 40 teams would compete in this prestigious event that we were privileged to organise. As costs increased we decided to revert to an Am-Am competition, the first was in 2002.

As many of you will know we had always been blessed with good weather so we hoped this would be the case this year, however the disappointing summer continued and on the day it was cloudy and a cold north wind. This was particularly testing for all the Rotarians that were on course for several hours, and I am grateful they had volunteered.

Each year I keep emphasising the value of sponsors in making the event a financial success, in particular to Bramshaw Golf Club for the concessionary use of the course. Due to the severe downturn in the Cruise business from Southampton we lost sponsors Meacher’s Logistics who had previously fielded 5 teams at the last event. However every cloud has a silver lining and we were pleased to welcome Colin Williams from the Williams Shipping Group. Colin his wife Heather, and son Christopher entered 3 teams Thank you to New Forest members for their personal sponsorship and giving prizes for the Raffle.                                                                                                                                    

Our very special thanks go to Nigel & Ann’s son Stuart; owner of Northwood’s in Southampton & Salisbury continued his Sponsorship with 3 teams. His generous sponsorship also included his lovely Lakeside holiday home in the Cotswold Lakes which we were able to Auction again. In addition he also managed to arrange a valuable round of golf at the prestigious Remedy Oak Golf Club which we also auctioned.

In recent years we were fortunate to obtain valuable meal vouchers from about a dozen local New Forest restaurants and pubs. However again because of the difficulties the hospitality trade had been experiencing we politely asked knowing full well that the outcome would be disappointing. However our contact at the Limewood Hotel came up trumps and provided a meal voucher for 4 people which we managed to auction for a staggering £600 !

 Tim arrived early and did a great job as starter and continued into the afternoon with Tina on the putting competition.Thanks to Philip and Fiona who supervised refreshments for players during their round. Kevin Straford arrived early and helped with the set-up. Shirley & Clive helped with the Raffle display and later, ran the special competition on the 13^th hole together with Penny & Eddie.  John Robinson assisted Ann on Reception by selling raffle tickets and Ray took photos during the day and later at prize giving.

We would like to give a huge thank you to our wives.  Every year Ann Calvert has dealt with the registration and the vital role of marking the player’s cards, which was complicated this year by a new handicap system. Ann had to explain it to many players, some of whom didn’t listen correctly and filled in their cards wrongly. Ann patiently went through it with them and all cards were eventually entered correctly.

Sally keeps me sane and supports me endlessly, helping purchase and wrap some of the prizes, and with her sister Donna and her daughters Zoe & Fay, gave the players a cool Pimm’s after their game.  

Lastly a special thanks to Nigel, who has been involved with all of the 35 annual events. Without both his and Anne’s contribution there would be no Charity Golf Day, and despite it being a difficult year for him, when he has not played as much golf, he still managed to obtain reciprocal golf vouchers for the winning teams. He also organised the catering with the new owners which was very well received and made sure nothing was overlooked on the day.

I have to mention this year’s Auction. We were stunned by the generosity of Nigel’s son Stuart offering his lovely lakeside holiday home for auction not only once but TWICE. Our other equally generous sponsor Tony Quick followed suit and let us auction his 6 bedroom Villa in Spain TWICE. Rotary now has its own Credit Card machine and I took nearly £4000 in 13 minutes.

We received some very nice comments from the players who all seemed to enjoy their day, and praised Rotary for continuing to run such a good event. After a long tiring day we all went home delighted that once again the day had gone better than we could have possibly expected.

Meanwhile after checking the figures we achieved a record £9,000 from the event.

Ken Ball on behalf of the Charity Golf Team 2021