They've Got The Power

Sep 4 2008 The Journal

North East golfer Steve Walton and his NPower colleagues have taken on golf's biggest challenge to raise cash for charity. Steve, a 16 handicapper from Consett and District GC, was joined by Steve Purdy, who plays off 8 at Boldon, Jamie Dalrymple, a 20-handicapper from Roseberry Grange, and Paul Walker, who plays off 24 with Whitehills Pub Golf Society in the Longest Day Golf Challenge.

The lads staged their big golf day at Heworth Golf Club in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, teeing off at 6am and sinking the last putt at 9.45pm.

In between times they played 72 holes in all for a combined score of 288 or 555 Stableford points.

The lads kept close scrutiny of their scoring and made 1,433 strokes in all for an average of 4.9 per hole but and biggest single success came from Steve Purdy, who landed a superb hole-in-one.

The success came at the 60th - the 6th, which was being played for the fourth time that day - with Steve using a 6 iron to ace the 161-yarder. Remarkably, it was his first hole-in-one.

Some of the other facts and figures of the day weren't quite as impressive as Paul lost a total of 20 golf balls in the day, including three off the very first tee!

Event organiser Steve Walton was delighted with how things had gone and said: "As far as we are all concerned, we were in awe of the task ahead, but as the day went on we were honoured just to be taking part.

"The memory of completing 72 golfing holes, watching Steve Purdy hit his ball 161 yards from tee box straight into the hole, trying not to fall about laughing whilst Paul Walker was trying to kill cars on the A1, finally all shaking hands on the tee of our 72nd hole, then getting what I can describe as a heroes welcome on the 72nd green, will stay with us all forever.

"We all had a lump in our throats because it looked as though every single member of Heworth Golf Club came out on the balcony and cheered us on as we were about to finish the very last putt. We'd just like to say thank you very much to Heworth Golf Club, which has to be the friendliest in the North."

The idea for the challenge came after the deaths of Steve's parents. His mum was only 49 when she died of pneumonia after being treated for lung cancer while his dad was 54 when he also diagnosed with the same cancer. Although his treatment was a success, he died of a stroke just a month after being given the all clear.

Steve added: "My father was visited by a Macmillan nurse when he was ill, and he spoke very highly of her. I wanted to do this to help Macmillan Cancer Support reach more people who are affected by cancer."

Steve Purdy also recently lost his 40-year-old sister to cancer.

The lads' efforts are on track to raise over £2,000.

Erin Richardson, Fundraising Manager for Macmillan Cancer Support, added: "Steve and the guys from NPower took on a fantastic challenge and this will enable Macmillan to continue funding its range of services from health specialists, to information centres, financial support and carers support."