Golf Monthly Help For Heroes Forum Day 2018 - Liphook Golf Club

The story and all the images from another successful Golf Monthly Help for Heroes Forum Day

Golf Monthly Help For Heroes Forum Day 2018 - Liphook Golf Club

More than 80 GM forumers headed to Liphook Golf Club in early October to compete in the annual Help for Heroes charity golf day –

Scroll down for gallery of the day

Every year, members of the GM forum travel from far and wide to take part in the most coveted and popular of all meets – the Help for Heroes charity golf day. It started in 2010 with just a handful of competitors, but since then it’s morphed into an event of significant stature and one that raises substantial funds to support our wounded, injured and sick military personnel. This year, cumulative donations passed the £100,000 mark – a huge figure and a real credit to all involved.

This year’s host venue was Liphook Golf Club, currently 67^th in Golf Monthly’s Top 100 UK & Ireland Courses rankings, which certainly lived up to its pre-event billing. The lovely heathland layout provided the perfect stage for some top-quality golf, with the incredible greens receiving a lot of praise over a post-round pint, even if their speed did contribute to the occasional four-putt!

The yellow tees were in use as the event got underway via shotgun start, with one or two cutting it slightly fine for their tee time after a few looseners the night before! The swirling wind, the slick greens and the thick heather made conditions fairly tricky, but there were certainly scoring opportunities on a layout not known for its length, provided you put the ball in play off the tee.

That was something Blue in Munich managed to do throughout the course of his round, racking up 34 points to claim third place. PaulW4701 pipped him to second on countback, while Jobr1850 played some sublime golf to pick up the GoKart Challenger trophy with a whopping 42 points. The 15-handicapper from Knole Park managed four gross birdies during his round, including two twos in three holes from the 17^th. All three received special stretcher-bearer trophies made by the Veterans Woodcraft team at the Phoenix House Recovery Centre in Catterick, a facility run by Help for Heroes. They also provided items for the auction.

There were also plenty of other prizes to play for on the day. The gross stableford accolade went to Alwaysabridesmaid, while GM’s Elliott Heath won the guest prize with a fine round of 36 points. Not content with his individual prize, Jobr1850 came second in the FootJoy Forum Challenge – best score on par 3s and par 5s – and carried NickB, Hacker_Hughes and Khamelion to the team prize.

Guest Ken Smith reigned supreme in the FJ Forum Challenge, Blue in Munich crunched a monster tee shot up the par-4 12^th to pick up the longest drive award, Captainron was nearest the pin in two on the 330-yard 14^th after spectacularly driving the green and Spear-Chucker was nearest the pin on the par-3 7^th. Fish was also the recipient of the rickg Memorial Plaque – a special award in recognition of special services to Help for Heroes since the first charity golf day in 2010. As a good friend of rickg, it clearly meant a lot to him.

One of the most anticipated moments of the day is the charity auction, hosted by professional auctioneer Mark Head, who kindly offered his services for free once again. Highlights this year included iMurg being relieved of his wallet and charged to get it back, and Kraxx – who was celebrating his 50^th birthday – unknowingly bidding against himself! The charity auction contributed yet more funds to the overall tally, which stood at an incredible £17,500 by the end of the day.

Editor Mike Harris presented the cheque to Barrie Griffiths, a Beneficiary Ambassador for Help for Heroes. He gave a poignant speech about the charity and how it helped bring him back from a very dark place. It certainly left an impression on everyone in attendance and reinforced just how crucial the work of Help for Heroes is. Huge thanks went to Barrie, along with richart, Lincoln Quaker and Vicky Hart for their superb work in bringing everything together. GM forumers were also keen to express their gratitude to the Liphook ladies’ section for giving up their course, the greenkeeping staff for presenting the layout in such fine condition, the catering staff for the excellent food and everyone else who helped make the day so successful.

The annual Golf Monthly forum charity golf day has now raised more than £110,000 for Help for Heroes since its inauguration in 2010. If you’d like to be part of the event next year, keep an eye on the GM forum for further details.

Golf Monthly Help For Heroes Forum Day 2018 - Gallery: