It has been a very busy four months, with events packed in throughout the summer. There have been at least one or two Sunshine Coaches presented at each event, resulting from consistent fundraising due to the support of members and their guests.

So far this year we have presented 20 Sunshine Coaches already and as we are entering the second half of the season, I would like to congratulate our Captain Dave Beasant who has done a superb job and been a great Ambassador for Variety Golf – as have all our wonderful Celebrity members.

This year I am delighted that we are raising more funds from outside events, which our members are introducing to us.  I know that they can really see the benefits and transparency of having our Sunshine Coaches as physical evidence of the money they raise, so we will continue to encourage this.

Last year we presented 37 Sunshine Coaches and our aim this year is to see if we can beat that total and present a further 18 Coaches between now and the end of the year. The upcoming events in September and October are filling up extremely quickly so please get in touch if you would like to play before it’s too late.

Lastly, with just over three months until our Variety Golf Christmas Lunch, we would dearly love to see more Variety Golf members attend and support this event.  It’s a great opportunity to bring along wives and partners to show them why we fundraise and what Variety Golf is all about – having fun, playing great golf courses but, most importantly, helping and supporting disabled and disadvantaged children and putting smiles on their faces!

I look forward to seeing many of you at an event soon.

We had a beautiful sunny day at Sundridge Park back in April where the condition of the golf course was outstanding, the best we had ever seen it.

A big thank you event co-sponsors Tony Negal, Rob Sargent, Peter Godfrey, Steve Smith, Dave Turner & Tommy White who presented a Coach to the Watergate School in Lewisham, a Special Needs School with some severely disabled young children.  It was great to see their children’s smiling faces at the presentation, making it very special and emotional.

Led by Dame Laura Davies we had a great field of Lady Pro’s helping us to raise a total event figure of just over £25,000!  Massive thanks again to Sundridge Park for again hosting this special event for us.

Lady Forsyth with Jamie and sponsors Joe Sydee  & Neil Bookatz

The inaugural Lady Forysth Invitational, in partnership with Caudwell Children’s Charity, was held back in May at Seve’s only English course, The Shire in Barnet.  We enjoyed a fabulous day both on and off the course, hosted by our Vice President, Lady Wilnelia Forsyth.

After dinner we were treated to a performance from singer James H Williams, followed by our very own Magic Man, David Redfearn and an entertaining auction conducted by Aaron James.

Over £30,000 was raised on the day!  A Sunshine Coach was presented to Kingsley High School sponsored by David Welsh of JOIE UK.

On Wednesday June 5^th, we had a sensational day at Ashridge Golf Club, again in superb condition and on a beautiful sunny day!

A big thanks to Ray Winters who sponsored this event as well as the Sunshine Coach which we presented later.

At Lunch we were then treated to a really funny Q&A with Ryder Cup star David Howell and Wayne ‘Radar’ Riley, the familiar Sky Sports commentator.  Our very own Ian Irving ran a small auction, which helped raise more funds towards our next Sunshine Coach.

We had 23 teams with a Tour Professional in each team from either the European Tour, Challenge, Seniors or Ladies European Tour. The results are below:

1^st  with 89 Points – Dulcie Sverdloff, Danny McIver, Katie Griggs, Perrie Smith

2^nd with  88 Points – Daniel Gaunt, Martin Hawkins, Neil Preston, Jack Lane-Matthews

3^rd  with 87 Points – Simon Lilly, Steve Shannon, Richard Bowler, Billy Byrne

4^th   with 86 Points – David Howell, Ray Winters, George Lloyd, Archie Winters

The fourth Ray Clemence Invitational took place on Friday 14^th June at Jamie’s home course, Porters Park and was sponsored by Geoff Irvine.

We were joined by some of Ray’s good friends, including Glenn Hoddle, Teddy Sheringham, Pat Jennings, and Ossie Ardiles – to name but four.

Ray’s wife Vee and her Grandchildren came along to present the Sunshine Coach to Tottenham-based Vale School.  After lunch we enjoyed an interesting Q&A with Glenn Hoddle and Steve Coppell. The Trophy was taken home by the Hammers – Marlon Harewood was strategically paired up with three West Ham fans: Ray Nash, Chris Horsnell and Martin Hawkins who won with 85 points.

Back in June we played the fantastic Dukes course at Woburn Golf Club and, as always, Woburn didn’t disappoint.  After an enjoyable round and delicious meal, we were entertained by comedy legend Mick Miller.

We raised in excess of £150,000 on the day – a phenomenal effort.

We took 31 teams to the ever-popular Bearwood Lakes in July and what a day we had! The course was in superb condition and a great day was had by all.

Sponsored by one of our generous members Joe Hemani, this is one of the most popular events of the year.  The sun shone and after golf we presented a Sunshine Coach to the Oakfield Primary School who had come all the way from Cardiff.

The event was close and on count back the winners were the reigning champions: Ronnie Irani, Phil Heffer, Mark Heading and Jamie
Little.

Thanks to Bearwood Lakes for looking after us so well.

The course at Tandridge was in superb condition. It was the first time we have hosted an event there – but we will definitely be back! After Golf our Captain Dave Beasant presented our 9^th Sunshine Coach of the year to the nearby Manor Green College Special Needs School. We were treated to the club’s famous Carvery Lunch followed by a hilarious Q&A from our two Arsenal Legends, Liam Brady & Terry Mancini, who were part of the winning team,

The winning pair was Tom Nunn & Richard Francis with 45 points.

Many thanks to our sponsor, Alan Robinson.

We returned this year to our Past Captain Len Goodman’s home club of The Wildernesse for the Len Goodman Masters.

We had fun on and off the course – which was in perfect condition – and the sun again shone for us. Len’s lovely wife Sue supported the prize table by bringing along a very special prize of Len’s favourite Pickled Walnuts for the losers!

The actual ‘lucky’ winners were Ian Irving, Alan Bird, Tony Knight and Anthony Carr.

We have already booked in the Len Goodman Trophy for Thursday 17^th July, 2025 so please pencil the date in your diaries.

We have recently returned from the spectacular Loch Lomond Golf Club where we played our first Variety Golf Celeb-Am sponsored by our legendary ‘father-of-the-house’ Bernie Flockhart.

The weather was typically Scottish with bright sunshine on the Monday followed by rain on Tuesday – but it didn’t really matter as Loch Lomond is paradise whatever the weather!

After the first round we had dinner in Loch Lomond Clubhouse where we treated to a Q&A with Harry Redknapp and hosted by Wally Downes – the double act we never knew we needed! The second round on Tuesday was challenging with on-and-off showers, but the course held up well and after a light lunch and prize- giving we all made our way home.

We loved it so much we have already booked it again for next year so, again, save the date! It is Monday 25^th & Tuesday 26^th of August, 2025.