Thousands of golfers sign up for prostate cancer ‘drive’

Prostate Cancer UK’s 2018 golfing charity competition, HowDoWeBEATIt, has already raised £30,000 as 4,300 members of golf clubs have signed up to it.

The figure is just £1,000 shy of last year’s overall total, even though there are still several weeks for golfers to get involved. In 2017, 4,500 golfers signed up during the year, and organisers are hoping to see at least 5,000 sign on for this year’s competition and smash the amount raised.

The competition is the result of a partnership between HowDidiDo, Europe’s largest online golfing community, with more than half-a-million club golfers, from 1,800-plus registered clubs across the UK and Ireland, and Prostate Cancer UK.

After signing up with a minimum £5 donation, golfers – who will receive the iconic Prostate Cancer UK Man of Men logo alongside their name on the website – simply log their scores with HowDidiDo in the normal fashion, with their best ‘eclectic’ round, between April and September 30, calculated automatically by the HowDidiDo system.

The best 16 eclectic cards over a six-month period earn the golfer a place in a two-day grand final at the stunning Castle Stuart in the Scottish Highlands, where they will enjoy two rounds of competition golf and two nights’ complimentary accommodation courtesy of Macdonald Hotels & Resorts.

All money raised via the competition – and its various associated events – will be donated to Prostate Cancer UK as the charity fights back against a disease that kills one man every 45 minutes.

HowDidiDo spokesman Barry Dyett, chairman of Yumax Media, explained: “Our inaugural event last year raised a valuable £31,000 for Prostate Cancer UK and we’re keen to beat that comprehensively in order to provide further funds for this hugely worthwhile charity.

“Prostate Cancer UK resonates with us at HowDidiDo because it largely affects men over the age of 50 – and our average golfer is a 51-year-old man. So there’s a great deal of synergy between a golf community like ours and the charity.

“In addition to the place at the grand final – where competitors will receive a full apparel makeover courtesy of Peter Millar – and the knowledge you are helping to save lives, there are also some excellent individual prizes to be won.”

In the UK, one in eight men will get prostate cancer at some point in their lives. Older men, men with a family history of prostate cancer and black men are more at risk – and, for the latter, the statistics are even starker: one in four.

Many people are unaware that prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. For the first time, the number of men dying from prostate cancer every year has overtaken the number of women dying from breast cancer, making prostate cancer the third biggest cancer killer in the UK.

James Beeby, director of fundraising for Prostate Cancer UK, said: “Our partnership with HowDidiDo continues to go from strength to strength and these early figures are really encouraging.

“Golf is a hugely important demographic for us given the average age of men who play. We know prostate cancer is a disease that is prominent at every golf club and have raised a substantial amount of money and awareness across several years to combat that.

“We’re really pleased that golfers are utilising a product that can not only improve their game, but play a part in saving lives as well.”

HowDidiDo holds data from in excess of 53 million rounds of golf, along with the handicaps, results and scores of more than 1,300,000 UK golf club members. More than 547,000 golfers currently use the website, while in excess of 1,800 golf clubs currently use the HowDidiDo system – courtesy of their use of Club Systems International software. HowDidiDo allows members to analyse their game and compare performance with other players, at their own club or across the entire HowDidiDo network.

To enter HowDidWeBEATIt visit www.HowDidiDo.com