Stationers Charity Golf Event Friday 27 September 2024
Its normally for the lucky few (think Vijay, Ernie, Montgomerie, Bernhard ...) But this time golfers of all levels can get the incredible opportunity to play at the legendary Verulam Golf Club – home to the Ryder Cup. What’s at stake (apart from pride) is the opportunity to help raise funds for Stationers Saturday School whilst playing an amazing round of golf in at the same time! The tariff is just £125 per person. For that you get:
- 18 holes of golf world class golf
- breakfast
- and a two-course dinner (excluding wine)
In addition to that there will be:
Competition/prizes for...
Virtual hole ‘Ryder Cup Challenge’ (in the Professional’s Swing Studio, where a par 3 from a Ryder Cup course will be on the screen – and you will see exactly where your 3 balls end up! All proceeds for the charity. Winner and runner-up get prizes).
- Best Team
- Nearest the pin
- Longest drive
- Highest Stableford score (with a second & third place prize)
- Putting competition
- People can join as individuals or as a four-ball team.
The venue...
Verulam Golf Club, 226 London Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 1JG
A quick history of this storied club goes a little like this... In 1927 St Albans seed merchant and captain of this club, Samuel Ryder, donated the trophy for the first official Ryder Cup match between Great Britain and the United States, the rest as they say, is history....
The Club was formed in 1905 and took a five-year tenancy of the Park of Sopwell House, owned by the Earl of Verulam. Originally, it was a nine-hole course with a small clubhouse erected on a site which is now the 17th tee. In 1909 the Club took a 21-year Lease on further land comprising 136 acres, which allowed the development of a full 18-hole course.
The services of the great golf course designer James Braid were commissioned for the lay-out of the course containing seventy acres of fairways. The formal opening of the new course was on 27th April 1912 when Samuel Ryder was Captain. An inaugural match was played between James Braid and the then Open Champion, Harry Vardon, who won with a score of 74.
Before the end of the year, the membership was almost full, with an entrance fee for gentlemen of two guineas and a subscription of five guineas. A visitor could play a mid-week round for one shilling and six pence. Many things have changed since that time, but the course still provides as stern a challenge now as it did in those pioneering days at the start of the 20th century! More recently the Club was allowed to purchase the land from the Earl and has invested heavily in ensuring that the course is always in excellent condition.
The Cause: Raising funds for Stationers’ Saturday School
The schools are four of a network of seventeen supplementary schools across the country, which are organised and managed by Civitas, to encourage disadvantaged children to reach their full academic potential and to open new and exciting opportunities to them. The first of the Stationers’ Foundation Schools opened in September 2009 on an estate near King’s Cross Station. There are places for ninety-two children in total, and over the years pupils have made remarkable academic progress. In the world we are living in giving back by providing educational support to young people living challenged changing in helping lives for the better. So, come and join your fellow Liveryman and guest(s) and have fun and raising much needed funds for such a deserving cause.
Who can/should enter
Whilst we would hope and expect to see many from our own Livery, please encourage your suppliers and/or clients to enter teams (or individuals who we will make up into teams). It is very well proven that having 4 hours together in a positive “team event” and enjoying a quality occasion cements good contacts – so include golfers from organisations that you would like to attract, as well as encouraging your contacts to enter teams for the same reasons. The fact that this is for Charity – and a very worthwhile charity at that – should also resonate positively.
(Tickets can be purchased by emailing anneliese@stationers.org)
Entries should be sent by email to anneliese@stationers.org and you will receive a confirmatory acknowledgement together with a form on which to provide handicaps, dietary requirements, etc. – and payment details!