Events

It started, as most things do, as a conversation. It became an idea, the idea a challenge – to walk 1 million steps in 50 days, around 500 miles give or take, for charity.

However, if that wasn’t hard enough most of the walking will be undertaken at Mapperley Golf Club. A lovely, picturesque but hilly (very) golf club towards the north side of Nottingham.

But why a walking challenge around the same golf course? The golf course in question just happens to be the hardest walking course in Nottinghamshire and as such will push you that much further and require more of you, and hopefully help improve our golf handicap.

The challenge won’t be the first day, or the second but rather the sustained effort to keep going without the cumulative weariness affecting your willingness to carry.

As a charity that is committed to helping to improve the lives of children this new event provides a challenge requiring substantial commitment and effort whist following the strictures of Covid-19. This year we will be raising money also for FareShare – the charity that redistributes surplus food to charities and community groups across the East Midlands, providing a lifeline to over 10,000 people living in the community.

Walking challenges seem to be all the flavour in the current climate. The task is to do something that tests the individual whilst at the same time help raise money for charity and those of our community who need a bit more support.

The 1 million in 50 is a long-term event – the 24 Hour Walkathon is an altogether different beast.

Basically, participants will walk to a golf course, play a round of golf and walk back. All quite simple so far. However, now for the details:

1. The golf course must be around 20 miles away
2. Participants must carry their golf clubs with them
3. Food can be purchased or delivered to participants en-route or at meeting points
4. The walk to the golf course, the playing of 18 holes of golf and the return must be completed in 24hrs

That’s around 50 miles whilst carrying a set of golf clubs

Fairway To Ride were fortunate to get a place on the London Marathon in 2019. Step forward Fairway To Ride Chairman and Mapperley Golf Club Head Professional, Jon Newham.

After, what can only be described as a rather truncated training schedule through the winter Jon made ready to run the marathon.

On a lovely spring day he set out, with support from a handful of family and friends. With this being the very first London Marathon anyone of us had attended the numbers of people involved were quite daunting. Having seen Jon out of the starting blocks a game of catch up started – to catch up with and support Jon along points throughout the 26 miles.

At around mile 13 Jon got a calf strain and he felt a ‘pop’ but he decided to carry on and see how he fared over the coming miles. At the next catch up point he seemed to have become attuned to his struggle and then at around mile 19, Jon looked positively alert and full of vigour with just the normal aches and pains of undertaking a long arduous task. Thankfully, Jon completed the London Marathon without any long-lasting damage though he had black toenails for months after.

A quite remarkable accomplishment.

On Friday 24th 2017 we held the first Fairway to Ride 4 (F2R4) event. To put it simply; play the four Gedling Borough golf clubs all in one day starting at 4am and finishing sometime around 8pm. Now the gory details:

• Walk 45,000 steps (approximately 22 miles)
• Play 4 undulating / hilly courses: Mapperley Golf Club, Oakmere Park Golf Club, Ramsdale Golf Club & Springwater Golf Club.
• Play each course and travel between them in under 4 hours each
• Start first thing in the morning and finish in time for dinner at 8pm
• A simple betterball competition, with full handicap allowance with prizes for the winners

The four Gedling Borough golf clubs, Mapperley Golf Club, Oakmere Park Golf Club, Ramsdale Golf Club & Springwater Golf Club, joined together to promote junior golf.

The idea was very simple: to have a set of 4 competitions for junior golfers to compete in. Locally we have seen a dramatic drop in participation and we seek to reverse that trend.