Charity golf trip across the USA

The latest blog instalment from David Fletcher, who sets off on his charity golfing adventure across the USA next week

David Fletcher and Malcolm Jones are gearing up for their charity golf trip across the USA. Read David's third blog instalment below (click here for the first and here for the second).

Up until recently the letters ABVI were meaningless but with my hotel organiser and playing partner for the trip, Malcolm Jones, I now know it stands for America’s Best Value Inns.

Malcolm has been working to a very tight budget, so tight that I think some hotels may be paying us to stay there!!  We’ll obviously report on the quality of these inns on our blog as we cross the continent.

The object of our trip, while playing some great courses, is to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Charity.  Whilst friends have been giving generously at our just giving site we have also been thrown down some very interesting challenges along the way.

We are playing 11 rounds for charity, with handicaps of 9 and 15.

Challenge 1:  people have bet against us achieving 34 points better ball per round.  If we do they pay the amount per round pledged and if we don’t, we both pay the points in pounds achieved into the charity. I believe we could be feeling a lot of pain here.

Challenge 2: we will be playing 44 par 3s. Every time we get a par those that have pledged an amount will pay into the charity. However, if we score more than a 5 on the hole we have to put £5 into the charity.  Again, having looked at some of the holes on the internet, I feel more pain.

Challenge 3: a very personal one to both of us.  Both our wives have pledged to pay an amount to the charity each time we don’t loose 3 balls (Malcolm), 2 balls (David) per round.  Thanks to balls supplied by Titleist and Honma this hopefully will be a little less painful.

Challenge 4: a really personal one for Malcolm.  A close friend of Malcolm’s has bet an amount per round that on the 11^th hole of our 11 rounds Malcolm cannot play the hole without making a noise.  He’s known Malcolm forty years and feels it’s a safe bet; unbeknown to him though I’m taking a role of duct tape with me to ensure the best return for the charity!

So the courses are booked, as are the hotels, our route is laid out before us and currently the only thing missing is a consistent swing.  Keep following our adventure at http://foreweekswithfletcherjones.wordpress.com