Foot Golf – Saturday 12th May 2018
On Saturday 12th May, 14 of us descended on South Essex Golf Centre, Brentwood for the 1st annual “Carli Lansley Foundation Footgolf Tournament”. The idea is to make this a regular event and, as from 2019, we will be opening up the invitations to all to hopefully encourage as many people as possible to play. For this year, and with so much else going on, we decided to restrict numbers so it would be easier to organize.
In the build-up to the day, a Whatsapp chat group was set up which mainly consisted of my brother, Lee, bragging about how he was going to win the tournament easily and the replies from the other 13 basically consisted of begging for ANYONE to beat him (preferably with a hard stick!!). I like to think Lee was being ‘tongue-in-cheek’ but remembering how competitive he was on the football pitch, no-one is ever quite sure.
The week before the day, the weather forecast began to look gloomy and there was a chance of a torrential downpour on the day. Regardless, the 14 of us turned (some with waterproofs) preparing to brave whatever was thrown at us.
We shouldn’t have worried. The weather held up just long enough for us to get round the 18 holes in about 2.5 hours.
We split into two groups of 7 – somewhat based on the competitiveness of people. The first group was mainly those that fancied their chances, the second group was mainly those who weren’t remotely fussed.
Marc Lacey only managed 9 holes before a groin injury put paid to his day – he really should have done a proper warm-up.
Danny Tree took some of the major honours of the day. He managed to hit a rubbish bin from the tee on the 9th. Imagine this: get a waste paper basket and put it right next to your right ankle. Now, take two steps to the left and one back. Look straight ahead and the bin should be just in the corner of your eyesight. The idea is then to kick a football straight ahead. Most people would find it difficult to hit the bin at such a ridiculous angle. Not Danny! A shank of epic proportions sliced his ball straight at the bin. Not sure he could repeat the shot if he tried.
Danny also managed to find water on the course…twice! Once I will give him credit for because he tried to go over the water rather than take the easier, but longer, route round the water. The second time, though, it was basically an open field with the lake right to the side. Another shank…another splash!!
Not wishing to be left out of the “water fun”, Lee managed the amazing feat of actually falling into a golf hole full of rain water whilst he was trying to be clever. I know he’s small but that’s ridiculous!!
By the end of the day, everyone had had a fantastic time, raised £140 for our charity and were already talking about the 2019 tournament.
The winner on the day, and the winner of the “Carli Lansley Foundation Footgolf Winner 2018” was Gareth Brown, who went round in an impressive 63 (on a course with a par of 67). 
“Pantomime villain” Lee was in second with 68 and has already gone into training to make sure he wins next year.
The rest of the scores were:-
69 – Dean McFall, Simon Brown
73 – Roger Morgan **
74 – Kevin Verner
76 – Perry Barton, Karl Lansley, Peter Morgan
77 – Danny Tree, Anthony Jarman
78 – Matt Lansley
79 – Darren Graham
*honourary mention to Marc Lacey, who retired injured after 9 holes with an impressive 36
**Roger’s score of 73 included a hideous 12 at hole 4. Had he have hit par (4) on that hole, he would have scored 65!! Think next year, he will be taking on hole 4 with a different perspective
It goes without saying how grateful I am to all 13 guys who turned up (plus a thank you to a couple more guys who wanted to be there but couldn’t because of prior commitments/work commitments)
Here’s to May 2019 and the next Footgolf Tournament!!
Karl Lansley
