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It was sunshine all the way when Hall of Famer, Dame Laura Davies, and Ryder Cup hero, Philip Price, battled it out alongside Variety Golf members and guests at the inaugural Variety Mixed Challenge Cup at the Grove on Saturday, August 8th.

Captaining their respective teams from the Ladies European Tour and the Men’s Senior Tour, Dame Laura and Philip were supported by a further sixteen professionals each playing with three amateurs, making up nine fourball teams on each side. There were prizes for the leading professionals as well as the winning teams, with two players’ scores counting towards the team score.

The winning pro was Gary Wolstenholme with a score of 3-under par, closely followed by Steven Richardson (2-under) and Annabel Dimmock (1-under).

The winning team with a total of 88pts was professional Chloe Williams playing with members Raj Sandhu, Bobby & Avi Chhatwal.

Runners-up with 87pts were pro Stephen Dodd playing with Variety Golf Captain, Len Goodman, Matt Evans and Tony Prendergast.

In third place with 86pts were pro Mark Davis, Steve Coppell, Pete Bevis and Bob Johnson.

Fourth place, also with 86 pts on countback, were Paul Way, Ian Watson, Bob Weston and Richard Pearce.

The Variety Mixed Challenge Trophy went to the European Seniors Tour.

In his acceptance speech, Seniors Tour Captain Philip Price congratulated The Grove on the exceptional condition of the course and greens as well as the organisation of the day – hoping that it might become an annual event. He went on to say, “it was not only a pleasure to play in such beautiful surroundings, but also to know that the monies raised would be used to contribute to the lives of disadvantaged children”.

Concluding the day, Director of Golf, Jamie Little, thanked all the participating professionals and announced that over £20,000 had been raised during the day – including a highly successful raffle and auction – enough to put yet another Sunshine Coach on the road.