Golden Five Tour Travel To La Manga Club For Masters Climax

Date: 26 November 2005

The Sir Steve Redgrave Golden Five Celebrity/Amateur Tour has completed its domestic leg and is now heading out to Southern Spain for the Masters finale.

So far this year the tour has paid visits to Gleneagles, Tandridge, Hawkstone Park, Moor Allerton and Machynys Penninsula, with the aim of continuing to raise funds for Sir Steve Redgrave's Charitable Trust.

Sir Steve Redgrave

The Olympic hero set out four years ago with the target of raising five million pounds for his trust in order to give deprived and needy children across Britain, the opportunity to live a better life.

The first event of the year was staged back in May in Scotland at the dream setting of Gleneagles. Rugby legend, Scott Hastings won the season opener with 39 points beating former Welsh football International Ian Walsh on count-back. It was an impressive score around the PGA Centenary course, which provides a severe test of golf for the leading pro as well as the enthusiastic beginner, requiring clever course management and accurate shot-making.

Ian Botham

As well as the launch of the 2005 Tour at Gleneagles Golden Five's International Celebrtiy Matchplay was contested there the day before, with England convincingly seeing off Scotland 9 - 3 in the Schiehallion Cup, whilst Ireland triumphed 8 - 4 against Wales in the Celtic Cup.

The Tour took a small break over the summer months and returned with a flourish of successful events in September, starting with a new venue for the Tour at Tandridge in Surrey, on the very same day as England's illustrious Ashes victory.

Stephen Hendry

Ironically former Ashes hero Phil de Freitas was the star of the day, carding 35 points on the Surrey course, just edging out Great Britain Hockey legend Calum Giles, due to his emphatic back nine performance, which proved enough to clinch victory on count-back.

The third event saw the Tour stop at the beautiful venue of Hawstone Park in Shropshire. The individual celebrity competition once again finished with a close battle, which had to be settled again by means of count-back. This time it was between to ex-footballers; former Liverpool player David Fairclough and ex-Wales International Andy Legg, who both finished with 37 points. Fairclough, remembered for many classic super-sub appearances taking the honours.

The penultimate event was played at Moor Allerton in the picturesque surroundings of the Yorkshire countryside, just North of Leeds, where the competitors were treated to another Golden Five innovation; a unique 27-hole format. This gave each amateur team of three the opportunity to play with a different celebrity during each of the nine holes.

Jonathan Davies

Sir Steve showed his golfing talent and built a terrific score of 61 points over the three sets of nine holes. This was an outstanding performance and was the first and only event of 2005 that wasn't settled by count-back. He finished nine points clear of his nearest challenger, Surrey County Cricket assistant coach Nad Shahid.

The final course to host the Golden Five Tour on home turf was in Wales at Machynys Peninsula, Llanelli in early October. It was won by former Ice Hockey star Shannon Hope, with 41 points, beating ex-US tennis star and current TV pundit Peter Fleming on count-back.

As well as the last domestic event it was also the conclusion of the Order of Merit for qualification into the Masters at La Manga Club. Previous Masters champion Calum Giles was crowned the Order of Merit winner with 70 points, seven clear of both Sir Steve Redgrave and Andy Legg. Although Giles did not win an event, he showed a level of consistency throughout the Tour and will be a hard player to beat in the fifth showdown of the Spanish finale at the La Manga Club Masters.

Previous Masters title holders joining Giles in the shootout will be last year's winner Pat Jennings, Mike Gatting and Sir Steve, along with other celebrities such as Gareth Hale and Andy Legg, who will be looking to become first time Masters winners, when they tee off on the Championship South Course between November 26-30.

Similarly in the amateur stakes Mary Weaver reigned supreme in the Order of Merit, finishing five points clear of Ben Parmar, and they will be lining up against the next six players in the Amateur Order of Merit.

Ruud Gullit, Adam Hollioke, Darren Gough, dance commitments permitting, Jeremy Guscott and Steve Rider, will be among other famous faces taking part in the La Manga Club Pair's and International Skins competitions with the aim of swelling the funds to £200,000 for this year's contribution to Sir Steve's worthy cause.

For further Golden Five Tour, please contact David Last or Shobha Nair:
Tel 0208 971 4344
E-mail info@sportintermedia.co.uk

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