Crown Golf has given £24,436 – the year’s largest single donation – to the National Golf Club Challenge, the charity golf event which raises money for Help for Heroes through the nation’s golf clubs.
The cheque handover took place at Pine Ridge Golf Club in Surrey, one of the UK’s busiest ‘pay and play’ clubs, between Crown Golf CEO Stephen Lewis and the NGCC’s Matthew Leighton.
Twenty-eight Crown Golf clubs took part in the National Golf Club Challenge during 2010, with two making it to the NGCC’s national final at The Belfry in October where Cams Hall Estate GC, a Crown Golf club in Hampshire, finished second overall.
The £24,436 raised by clubs owned or operated by Crown Golf adds to a grand total of over £200,000 raised by the NGCC this year, making the event 2010’s largest single golf charity event in the UK. Organisers hope to top a quarter of a million pounds when all funds have been collected.
Stephen Lewis said: “Crown Golf is proud to hand this cheque over to the National Golf Club Challenge team. Help for Heroes is a fantastic charity which has captured the nation’s hearts, and we look forward to raising more money for wounded British servicemen and women returning from war zones in 2011.”
Matthew Leighton said: “We are very grateful to Crown Golf for this large donation, which represents a superb collective effort by the company’s management, staff and customers. The goodwill of golf clubs such as those in the Crown Golf portfolio has made the National Golf Club Challenge a big success in 2010, and the funds we donate to Help for Heroes as a result will make a real difference to the lives of those it supports. We aim to do even better in 2011!”
2010 was the National Golf Club Challenge’s inaugural year: over 300 UK golf clubs ran a fundraising day in July, donating the day’s proceeds to the charity. The six highest-scoring golf clubs were invited to submit a team to the NGCC Final at The Belfry in October 2010, where Marriott Meon Valley Golf was awarded the Lee Westwood Cup.
In 2011 the National Golf Club Challenge will run its second year of Help For Heroes fundraising events at UK golf clubs, and have also introduced a second challenge event in support of the Seve Ballesteros Foundation and Cancer Research UK.
The National Golf Club Challenge www.nationalgolfclubchallenge.org.uk
Crown Golf www.crown-golf.co.uk