Golf can be a difficult game, both physically and mentally. Why make the sport any harder than it is already? That’s not a thought that crossed The Golf Trust founder Cae Menai-Davis’ mind when he scrambled a team together to play golf for 24 hours straight – a full day without stopping for a rest, not even a little one on a bench beside the tee. When your aim is to raise money for a good cause, you have to do something really challenging – and ‘Project 24’ was most certainly that.
Earlier this summer, eight amateur golfers set off for Lofoten Links to complete the challenge. The target figure? £24,000, with the funds raised going towards purchasing Paragolfers – a specialist vehicle that enables a user the life-changing experience of being able to stand up to play golf.
Asked how the idea came about, Menai-Davis, who set up The Golf Trust in 2012 to bring people together through golf, tells Golf Monthly, “I’m the idiot to blame. Myself and Adam Baker, one of our coaches, were sat in a hotel getting frustrated that golf and disability is never really at the forefront of peoples’ minds when it comes to fundraising, so we thought of doing something crazy, something a little bit out there.
“We had become aware of this statistic that 24% of the population have a disability. We came up with the idea of playing golf for 24 hours. When the email came back from Lofoten that they could help, we were like, ‘Oh no, we’ve got to do this now!’”
So, on June 20, Menai-Davis and his team of equally mad – and nervous – golfers hopped on a plane to Norway, sent on their way with a good luck message from England men's football captain, Harry Kane, a Reflo ambassador, who even admitted that he didn't think he'd be able to play golf for 24 hours straight.
For a brief period each year, the midnight sun transforms Lofoten Links into something even more spectacular than it normally is, for it’s light all day. Normally playing one of Europe’s finest layouts would be a treat, but the weather wasn’t kind. In fact, it was pretty awful and only made the challenge tougher than what it was.
“We got there on a beautiful sunny day, but then this storm arrived,” laughs Menai-Davis. “It rained for 22 of the 24 hours that we played. It was freezing and really windy. I’ve never played golf in a fishing jacket before, but that’s what it felt like. It was ridiculous, wearing three or four layers in driving wind and rain.”
Menai-Davis still described Lofoten Links as “incredible”, and the team of golfers were lucky to have the support of sustainable performancewear brand, Reflo, who kitted everyone out with suitable golf clothing to face the elements. Reflo's co-founder, Rory MacFadyen, joined the team, too.
“While it was a physically demanding project, there was so much to love about this challenge, the spirit of togetherness, the camaraderie, the beautiful location and of course the lasting impact the fundraising will make,” says MacFadyen.
In a typical round of golf, you might expect to take 10,000 steps. Menai-Davis says each golfer clocked up a minimum of 50,000. Despite the physical demands and at times feeling as though hypothermia was setting in, everyone played from midday to midday, fuelled by “bucket loads of sandwiches and toasties”.
“The not getting dark bit was strange,” explains Menai-Davis. “You go a little bit mad. You feel your body getting tired but your brain goes, ‘No, it’s still daytime.’”
Naturally, the team finished “with a few beers” and “a little nap” before heading out for a bite to eat and then making the three-and-a-half hour journey back to the airport.
Since completing the challenge, The Golf Trust has raised nearly double the target figure, enough to buy two ParaGolfers, one of which has gone to Roehampton Golf Club and the other to Walmley Golf Club.
“The ParaGolfers are amazing pieces of equipment that will help golfers who have suffered with accidents or injuries to start playing again and be part of the golf society that we all love,” says Menai-Davis. “They really are life changing.”
Asked how it's possible to top the challenge of playing golf for 24 hours straight, Menai-Davis says it’s already being discussed, and that it might be called ‘Project 25’. Whatever The Golf Trust and Reflo come up with, it will be a project well worth supporting.
“I have been incredibly fortunate to have had access to a Paragolfer, and have been a user of one for almost 10 years,” says Justin Levene, a Golf Trust trustee. “The cost of equipment in disability sport is prohibitively expensive, and acts as one of the biggest barriers to participation.
“The paragolfer, quite literally, gives me a new perspective on life. Not only was I able to view an environment I had only ever seen whilst seated, and move over terrain that is unmanageable in a normal wheelchair, but I was able to hug my girlfriend whilst standing for the first time.”
