Data Centre Golf Day overshadows Ryder Cup

The official description of the course, courtesy of Staverton Park:
“The course is set within 150 acres of beautiful countryside providing a tranquil yet exciting setting in the heart of Daventry, Northamptonshire. An inspiring championship course with a mixture of lakes and bunkers presents a challenge to any lover of golf. The signature 11th, par 5 is the perfect hole for risk takers ready to claim a birdie. Then advance to take on the stream, undulating parkland and overhanging trees. This Northamptonshire golf club has a mature course with some playful tricks for those who are up to the test.”

The unofficial description:
‘Not much tranquillity on offer; yes, plenty of overhanging trees; and not sure that the course’s tricks were very ‘playful’.’

45 golfers, in 12 teams, did battle with this very fine golf course. Handicaps ranged from scratch (apparently this person had taken a wrong turning on his way up to Scotland) to 28 (54 if you go by the Dutch method, but we won’t go there), and the lowest score of the day deserves a special mention - five points, by Kurt Bannister who was playing his first round of golf. Let’s hope that the golfing bughas bitten.

The golf was followed by dinner (with four more guests arriving) and the prize giving.

Most importantly, a substantial sum was raised for the golf day’s chose charity, CLIC Sargent, that helps children and young people with cancer.

Who won what

Individual Competition
Winner: John Bryon, SpliceGroup Europe
Second: Justin Busk, Keysource Ltd
Third: Darren King, CNet Training

Team Competition
Winner: Keysource Ltd
Second: CNet Training
Third: SpliceGroup Europe

Nearest The Pin
Dave Tilley, PTS Consulting

Longest Drive:
Darren King, CNet Training

Worst Score/Wooden Spoon:
Winner: Kurt Bannister, Six Degrees Group
Second: John Booth, DCA
Third: Rob Pilsworth, Dataracks

Guess The Number of Lost Balls:
There were 68 lost balls during the day (averaging 1.5 per golfer). The winner, with the exact guess was: John Bryon, SpliceGroup Europe

The teams taking part were from: DCS Europe, Cloud Expo Europe & Data Centre World, CNet Training, Datacenterpeople, Dataracks, DCA, Dunwoody LLP, GEA Denco, Keysource Ltd, PTS Consulting, Six Degrees Group, SpliceGroup Europe

And many thanks go to our generous sponsors: Keysource, Dataracks, Data Center People, and Data Center World and Cloud Expo Europe.

Just in case you’re finding it hard to believe that everyone had a great day out, here’s some player feedback:

Kelly, DCA: The day was very well organised, brilliant turnout and it was a beautiful setting (the weather certainly helped!). I would like to say a very big thank you to all that organised the day, the sponsors and those who attended the very first Data Centre Golf Tournament. I’m looking forward to next year where I hope we can raise even more for the chosen charity, and welcome any new players to challenge this year’s winners!

Steve, DCA: What a fantastic day, the course was great and we could not have hoped for better weather, I would personally like to thank Scott as chief organiser and all those who helped to make the day such a success. A huge thanks you also goes out to all the sponsors and companies who supported what was the 1st DCA Annual Golf Tournament and I will be mainly spending the next 12 months practicing my putting and looking forward to next year’s tournament.

Tim Russell, Dataracks: I just wanted to thank the team for putting on a fantastic inaugural Data Centre Golf Tournament at Staverton Park in Northamptonshire. The course was challenging for all but gave even the lesser ability golfer (including me) a chance to score well, great company & weather helped to make event with lots new contacts made with like-minded industry individuals.
The children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent is a fantastic charity and hopefully we helped raise plenty of money for them. Bring on next year.

Frank Verhagen, CDCEP: Being involved in the Data Centre Alliance, its projects and its dreams, my wife and me couldn’t resist the invitation for the first DCA tournament. Feeling the immediate urge to travel from The Netherlands to Luton, continue traveling by rental on the wrong side of the road and put in quite some effort for just one round of golf, seemed a bit much at first. At second glance, we thought it could be very challenging, especially because of the fact that we were only playing golf since Easter. We finally made a very wise decision to go indeed! Surprised that the Guinness was already flowing before the match our confidence grew that we would not end up with the wooden spoon. The weather was great and the gods were with us, obviously. The court was fantastic, the views magnificent and aside from some very loud curses, also some produced by me during the 18 holes, we had a great time together in our 'four ball'! We’d like to recommend everyone to join in next year. It serves a great purpose. In short: excellent organization, atmosphere, and dinner; count us in for next year!

Andrew Stevens, CNet Training:The DCA Data Centre Golf Event was a great day, very well organised and provided an excellent opportunity to network with industry peers in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. We are certainly looking forward to next year.

For those curious as to how the day went, or others who want to re-live the highs and lows of their own golf round, the photographic evidence is now available: http://dcseurope.info/golf/photos.php

Thanks to all who came along to make the first ever DataCentre Golf Day such a successful and enjoyable event, and here’s to 2015 and the second tournament.