Four intrepid members of Okehampton Golf Club completed four rounds of golf in one day — an epic 72 holes — to raise funds to fight a cancer which has touched the lives of club members.

The team consisting of brothers Matt and Lewis Parry, their brother-in-law Barry Down and friend Stuart Tolley spent 14 hours on the course completing the challenge one Friday earlier this month. They have so far raised nearly £2,000 for Prostate Cancer UK, and there is still time to donate to the cause.

The four pals, who play golf together as a team in the Devon League, walked all the holes — no buggies being allowed — after starting at 6.30am on the first tee.

They started out wearing their Dartmoor League team attire but changed into a variety of different outfits throughout the day, finishing wearing a England football team inspired look.

A number of members were at the 18th green at the end of the day to cheer them on as they arrived at the finish at 8.30pm. The players have been members of Okehampton Golf Club for many years and are huge supporters of the club.

They explained that they wanted to raise sponsorship and awareness of prostate cancer which is responsible for one male death in the UK every 45 minutes — which roughly equates to the time it takes to play three holes of golf.

A number of members of Okehampton Golf Club have suffered from prostate cancer and some have been successfully treated thanks to the research and support of charity Prostate Cancer UK, which is golf club’s captain Steve Mander’s charity of the year.

Organiser Matt explained: ‘We lost a very fond member of our club during the lockdown. He had prostate cancer and a couple of our members have prostate cancer at the moment.

‘Prostate Cancer UK is the captain’s chosen charity this year and with Covid it has been tough to raise money towards the charity.

‘It has been such a difficult time for everyone we thought we would try and raise as much as we could.

‘It isn’t something that young lads really think about that much, but prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the country in men and if all we have to do is play a bit of golf to raise a bit of money and awareness, it seemed like a good thing to do.’

Club captain Steve Mander came along to wish the team well as they set off and later joined them during round four to play alongside them for five holes.

‘All in all it was a fantastic achievement and it looks like close to £2,000 will have been raised,’ he said.

There is still time to contribute to the lads’ effort. See their fundraising page Matt, Lewis, Barry and Stu’s Big Golf Race 2021 at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/the-big-golf-race-2021-2092.

All the money raised goes to help fund research into life-saving treatments for prostate cancer and provide practical support to men and their families.