Brothers to take on a 72-hole marathon at Puckrup

BROTHERS Tom and Matt Dowler are taking on a 72-hole golf marathon challenge for Prostate Cancer UK at Hilton Puckrup Hall in Tewkesbury on May 25.

They are taking on this test of golfing endurance as their grandfather has prostate cancer.

“He’s had a really tough time of late due to his treatment and his illness, so we want to show our support to him and raise £1,000 or more for a fantastic charity that has supported our family and so many others in the UK,” said Tom.

The brothers were junior members at Puckrup when they lived in Cheltenham and both attended Dean Close School (where they played for the school golf team. Their parents still live in Bishop’s Cleeve.

“We’ll be playing 72 holes, that’s about 18 miles on foot, with an estimated 360 shots each, starting at 6am,” said Tom.

“It should be an amazing challenge and we’ll hopefully raise plenty of money in the process.

“This is the golf course we grew up playing as former junior members, we played almost every day in our summer holidays and we got our grandfather, Geoffrey into golf about 12 years ago.

“Our grandfather has had prostate cancer for more than 10 years now and thanks to the phenomenal work of the Royal Marsden Hospital and his amazing doctors, he’s still fighting the cancer, but he’s had a tough couple of years undergoing chemotherapy.

“We’re taking on this challenge with the aim of raising £1,500 for Prostate Cancer UK and to show our support to our grandad.

“We’re so grateful to the Hilton Puckrup Hall for allowing us to take on this challenge and for generously waiving our green fees so that we can raise as much money for charity as possible.

“We’ve played 36 holes in a day before, but we’ve never tried 72 holes in a day.

“It’s going take around 14 hours and we’ll be walking at least 4.5 miles per round so 18 miles in total (if we hit the ball straight) and that’s at least 360 shots.

Tom and Matt are going to impose a 50p fine on themselves each time they lose a ball, land in a bunker, make a triple bogey or worse or hit a shot out of bounds

To donate, go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tomandmattgolfmarathon