News

Golfer swings through 10 rounds for charity

Sun September 25, 2011 1:39am

A BRISBANE golfer has completed 10 rounds of golf in 24 hours to raise money for cancer research.

Josh Marris started at 5am on Friday at the Victoria Park Golf Complex using fluoro golf balls. He finished his 10 rounds yesterday with five minutes to spare.

It was an emotional finish for the 26-year-old professional, who after his final putt held up his ball to the crowd and said: ''This is for you, mum.''

Marris was playing a pro-am in Perth this year when his mother rang him and told him to sit down.

''She broke the news she had breast cancer. It was so traumatic because my aunty had just finished chemo for breast cancer and I'd seen what she'd been through,'' he said. ''There's been a long list of cancer in our family on both my mother's and father's sides and, after hearing my mum's diagnosis, I decided I needed to do something.''

Marris said he was told he was ''all sorts of crazy'' when he announced he would raise money for the Queensland Institute of Medical Research by playing golf continuously for 24 hours.

''I'd been thinking about it, talking about it, but in the end no amount of preparation was enough,'' he said.

''The challenge was far, far greater than I expected. I felt good after the first round but during the second round my golf swing started to fatigue and I thought, 'Oh no, not already.'

''The most difficult part was between 12.30am and 3am. I was on my own and jogging in between shots because I knew I was running behind time.''

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