3rd Pythons Golf Day Breaks all Records . . .

Well, the counting has all but finished, and the 3rd Pythons Annual Golf Day Fundraiser has proved to be a record-breaking success for the Harrogate based Yorkshire 1 club.

88 golfers gathered at Oakdale Golf Club on Thursday 20th June and enjoyed fabulous hospitality throughout the day from both the Oakdale GC Team and Pythons Stalwarts too.

Registration began with bacon butties and coffees from 11:00am and a shotgun start at 1:00pm saw golfers at all corners of the course begin their challenges with club and ball.

Competition was close, the weather very kind and all golfers made it safely back to enjoy drinks on the terrace, followed by dinner and prizegiving superbly hosted by compare and comedian Pete Emmett.

Winners on the day were:

• Beat the Pro – Drawn Winner Jed Carr (Cash Prize donated back to the club!) – Sponsored by Harrogate Architectural.
• Longest Drive on the 5^th – Won by Chris Booth – Sponsored by Teakwood Partners.
• Longest Drive on the 5^th (Ladies) – Won by Patti Impey – Sponsored by Sally Cahill.
• Nearest the Pin the on 16^th – Won by Andrew Booth – Sponsored by Spirit of Harrogate.
• Ladies Runners Up Team – Scrumilicious (Patti Impey, Alison Stratford, Sue White & Nicola Hardacre).
• Overall Runners Up Team – Scarborough & Roundhegians Rugby (Simon Smith, Mike Smith, Alex Meek & Will Malia).
• Ladies Winning Team – The Par-Tee Girls (Karen Sweeting, Sarah Gosnell, Judy Foxton & Sally Cahill).
• Overall Winning Team – The Sultans of Swing (Gus Dunlop, Andy Thackray, Ian Saddington and Fraser Dunlop).

Although the Sultans of Swing are the new holders of the Slingsby Café Claret Jug, the ultimate winner on the day is the Harrogate Pythons RUFC for raising over £6,000 on the day for the club (We are a CASC (Community Amateur Sports Club) run by volunteers with no paid positions at all!).

Thank you to all those who dug deep and donated and bid for our auction lots – A fantastic result all round! This brings the total raised by chasing a small white ball with a stick around a field over the last 3 years to over £13,500!

Sincere gratitude goes to our sponsors on the day:

• Harrogate Architectural and Rob Thickett for sponsoring the ‘Beat the Pro’ challenge.
• Sand Communications and Simon Rodham for underwriting the Mega Prize Hole-in-One insurance.
• Colour It In and Mark & Alison Lancaster for sponsoring the Halfway House and all the on-course graphics.
• Teakwood Partners and Mark Rudolf for sponsoring the Longest Drive challenge on the 5^th.
• Spirit of Harrogate and Marcus Black for sponsoring the Nearest the Pin challenge on the 16^th and for supplying some splendid special edition Gin for our prize stash.

And Special Thanks also to:

• Eddie Kernoghan & Neil (Speedy) Somersall for manning the Halfway House.
• Our Chairman Julian Tatlow and our President Paul Day.
• Impulse Decisions with Tom Hesketh and Tom Curtis for facilitating the day.
• Slingsby’s Café for supplying the splendid Claret Jug and prize voucher.
• Little Hideaways for their donated holiday voucher and
• Audsley’s Butchers for a cracking deal on the Pies!
• And last but not least, the Oakdale Golf Club teams who looked after us all so well on the day!

We’re already planning for next year and we’ve a provisional date of Thursday 19th June 2025, again at Oakdale Golf Club. We’ll announce more details soon – So get your diaries ready (Please contact either Gus Dunlop or Peter Jesper for more information).

Thanks to Jamie Letts for this video of the day (sound on!) and for more photographic evidence from this fabulous Pythons social fundraiser, keep scrolling: