Round-up of the Fairway to Devon.

After a six-year hiatus, the much-loved event returned with massive success at the superb Dainton Park Golf Club with support from our Gold Sponsor, RoadVista who provided each of the 68 players with Callaway Gold Warbird Golf balls.

Following the provision of fresh bacon baps during registration, our MD Greg Clark carried out a briefing to the players to explain the unique scoring format and the individual challenges that awaited them around the course!

The players collected their course guides, kindly donated by the Road Safety Marking Association and made their way to their designated tee box ahead of the shot-gun start.

In true QMS fashion, we didn’t just want to provide our teams with a standard golf day out, so we made it interesting by invoking additional challenges around the course, including:

Two of the holes required a specific strategy from the players who could only use one club and a putter
Another two holes had players swapping balls, taking alternative shots from the tee box to the flag.
These alternative playing holes were kindly sponsored by Geveko Markings and the Road Surface Treatment Association to add some score-changers to the formalities of the day.

Whilst the teams were focusing on getting a high joint score, there were also opportunities for individuals to shine with:

• Two “Longest Drive”
• Two “Nearest the Pin”
• Two “Nearest the Pin in 2”

These holes were kindly sponsored by Carysil, IT Champion, Meon and Porsche Exeter, with the prizes being a box of 12 Titleist ProV1 golf balls emblazoned with the Fairway to Devon logo for each winner. Congratulations to Mark Ware, Richard Davis, Danny Paine, Dean Brock, Tim Woodley and Terry Lee.

Beat The Pro!

On the 8th tee box, players had the chance to compete for £10,000 by sinking a hole-in-one, sponsored by QMS.
Shaun Robson, from QMS, came extremely close as his ball landed within a few inches of the hole, but then continued to sale past and roll off the back!

The 8th was also the hole to “Beat the Pro”, with our Bronze sponsor Derbyshire Specialist Aggregates. PGA Professional Hannah Bowen was situated on the tee box full of energy and enthusiasm, encouraging everybody to have a truly memorable experience whilst relieving them of unnecessary cash at the same time!

Hannah raised a massive £2,000 with her beat-the-pro antics which resulted in some players leaving with a ‘paid for’ birdie and providing some much-needed score improvements!

Out of 68 players, only six managed to get closer to the pin than Hannah who each picked up a sleeve of 3 Titleist ProV1 balls and the opportunity to win a four-ball voucher at Dainton Park, kindly donated by the club, which was won by Tim Woodley.

Pasties and drinks mark the halfway point.

As the halfway point of the competition approached, Greg delivered freshly baked pasties and sausage rolls around the course to the players, which were helping to soak up the drinks that had been kindly sponsored and provided by Swarco and St Austell Brewery.

The golf finished in good time, allowing the players to have a short time of relaxation, before the delicious two-course carvery that was served in the restaurant overlooking the fairway of the 18th.

As the weather turned into a traditional British Summer (rain), nothing was going to detract from the post-game entertainment provided by Paul “The Striker” Barrington, “The Trick Shot Guy”. Everybody huddled under their umbrellas whilst Paul, sponsored by our Silver Sponsor, Re-Flow Field Management amazed us with his exceptional skill including some challenges against some “willing” volunteers from the audience!

 

The trick-show finished when Jon Rodgers (handicap 5.4) was challenged to a longest-drive competition against Paul, a brave move at any time, let alone with the driving rain. Jon’s first attempt… 30’ in the air and 10’ forwards… Needless to say, Paul won the longest drive competition and Jon added his £20 penalty to the charity pot!

Back to the 19th!

Returning to the clubhouse, Greg spoke about the Lighthouse Club and the good work that they have done and continue to do for those within the Construction Industry.

After a short but harrowing video demonstrating how the charity helps those within the sector, Chris Bentley, former Exeter Chief and now the head of the Notworking Networking Club, took to the floor with his amazing auctioneering skills and raised another fantastic £1,230 with the sale of five donated prizes to the willing attendees in the room.

The day finished with the all-important prize giving, after our master of numbers, Bruce Clark, had reviewed and entered all of the score-cards into the number cruncher.

The winners & scoring format

The Fairway to Devon competition format works with:

• Team of four played as two pairs
• Each pair was playing with a pair from another team
• The Stableford scores were then collated from the two separated pairs with all four scores for holes with stoke index 1-6, (the six hardest holes) the top three scores for stroke index 7-12 and the top two scores for holes with stroke index 13-18, (the six easiest holes)
• For the first time this year, we included a further score-changer by adding a “Pairs Multiplier”. Kindly sponsored by Media Street on the 18^th hole, where the score of the two players of each pair were multiplied together to give the overall team score!

After all of the calculations were verified, the winners of the competition were announced as follows:

Winning Team with 137 points : Each winning £150 Pro-shop voucher

Devon Tarmasters – Ben Lyne, Sam Haggar, Dean Brock & Lawrence Purdie

Runners Up Team with 130 points : Each winning £75 Pro-shop voucher

Steve Hoskin Construction – Rich Rendle, Tony Jarvis, Mike Rendle & Lee Matthews

Third Place Team with 124 points : Each winning £50 Pro-shop voucher

Carysil – Tom Masters, Richard Stent, Andy Ryland & Mark Phillips

Winning Individual : Winning £250 Pro-shop voucher & proudly holding the trophy aloft!

Rich Rendle from Steve Hoskin Construction with 53 points

Runner Up Individual : Winning £100 Pro-shop Voucher

Dean Brock from Devon Tarmasters with 50 points

Third Place Individual : Winning £50 Pro-shop voucher

Lawrence Purdie from Devon Tarmasters with 45 points

Every participant of the Fairway to Devon competition left with a huge smile on their face and a bag of swag packed with items kindly donated by all of our sponsors ensuring that nobody was left empty-handed!

How much did we raise for The Lighthouse Charity?

After calculating all of the costs, we are delighted to announce that our 2024 Fairway to Devon golf day raised a fantastic £5,000 in support of The Lighthouse Club, which brings our total fundraising for the charity to a massive £35,000!

The course was in excellent condition and special thanks go out to all of the greenkeepers who worked tirelessly to ensure the greens and fairways were superb and that everything was set up with course banners, (kindly donated by Bayside Graphics), pin flags etc all in place ahead of the competition start.

We take this opportunity to thank each of the participants on the day for their amazing generosity around the course and to our fantastic sponsors for their support, we simply could not have organised such an event without your help!

What did the players think…?

“Had a brilliant day, really appreciated the opportunity to play in the charity day” – Richard Stent, Carysil

“Thank you so much for inviting us, it was an amazing and entertaining day” – Chris Hill, PKF Francis Clark

“A great day, we were really happy to support” – Sam Buckley, Derbyshire Specialist Aggregates

Date for the diary: Friday 4^th July 2025 same place, same format, some minor changes! Register your interest now and secure your team space with only £50 deposit – Only 17 team slots available!