On Wednesday 19th June 2024 we set out to complete 72 holes of golf as part of The Big Golf Race. We took on this challenge to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK. It is an incredibly important cause as 1 in 8 men will get prostate cancer during their lifetime. G also partners with them through her day job to run a golf event, so has first-hand experience of working with the charity and seeing their excellent work. We decided not to venture far and to do the challenge right on our doorstep in St Andrews. Where better to attempt this challenge than The Home of Golf?

Our final round was to take place on The Old Course, which would provide a fitting setting to conclude the challenge. Golf has been played over the links for almost 600 years and it is widely regarded as the most famous course in the world. We began the round at a cumulative score of -3 for the day and had our sights set firmly on finishing the day under par.

We made our way off the back of the 18th green on the Jubilee Course at the conclusion of our 3^rd round and quickly walked to The Old Course which lies 500 yards or so away. As soon as we made it to the tee, our group was called up to play. Our playing partners for the day were Chuck and Chris who had travelled all the way from The USA and were in town on a bucket-list golf tour. We had played with Chris the previous evening and he had told us how Chuck, their group leader, was the only 1 of the 8 in the party who had not yet played The Old Course. So, we decided to invite Chuck and Chris back out for a game to help with our morale and tick the ultimate bucket-list course off for Chuck. They were also more than up to the task of being our cheerleaders for our final loop.

Our first tee shots left a lot to be desired and gave an indication as to the struggling energy levels that we were both playing on at the end of the day. G hit her tee-shot first and ended up bouncing down the road out of bounds to the right. With the pressure on, Cam chunked a 2-iron that thankfully chased down the fairway. An approach shot to the right of the green and 3 putts from there left us with a bogey to start and at -2 with 17 holes to play. A couple of other unfortunate bogeys at the 2^nd and 4^th holes left us with an uphill battle to the end of this round. However, we quickly managed to change the tide as G managed to hole a lengthy birdie putt on the 7^th. We then followed this up with a solid birdie on the short par 4 9^th to turn in 37 (+1). This left us -2 for the day.

Out tactics then changed on the back-9  as the goal was to simply hit one tee-shot that was good enough and in play, rather than both hit. Energy was desperately low, and it seemed the only way we would both have enough energy left to give by the end. 

Disaster then struck at the beginning of the back-9. A chunked chip from Cam, followed by a 3-putt resulted in our 1^st double bogey of the day at the tricky par 3 11^th hole. This hole is affectionately known as the shortest par 5 in golf! We then managed 2 birdies (12^th and 14^th) in the next 3 holes, which were sandwiched by a bogey at the 13^th. On the 12^th, Cam managed to drive the green, leaving us with a simple 2-putt birdie. On the 14^th, a great 2^nd shot by G left us on the front edge of the green and, again, with an easy 2-putt birdie. A par streak then followed as we made 3 pars in our last 4 holes. The 17^th hole ended in a bogey after we just missed our par putt. This meant we finished the challenge on level par for the day, which was a magnificent effort given the windy conditions and the length of time we had spent out on the course that day.

Overall, this was an amazing day in which we learnt a lot about our resilience as there were several tricky moments in the final 2 rounds. Our golf left a lot to be desired in the final round, but we did very well to stick in and maintain a relatively good score. We were very appreciative to Chris and Chuck’s friends for their energy on the last few holes to keep us going and get us across the line.

We were delighted to be able to do The Big Golf Race in aid of Prostate Cancer UK and look forward to doing it again in 2025. As we did not complete our goal of finishing cumulatively under par, we will be hoping to go lower next year.

Please see the links below for more about Prostate Cancer UK and our challenge:

30-second Risk Checker – Risk Checker

Fundraising Page – Prostate Cancer UK Fundraising Link

To see every shot from this round, see the video below: