Timberlin Golf Pro Joins Two Other Pros To Play 100 Holes For Charity

Shuttle Meadow Country Club Golf Professional Tim Gavronski came up with the idea to play a marathon of 110 holes of golf with one of his friends. Recently he looked for some more pros willing to take the challenge and Marc Bayram, head golf professional at Timberlin Golf Club and Kyle Hedstrom, head pro at Stanley Golf Club in New Britain stepped up to the plate.

The threesome began playing at 6 a.m. on Monday at Shuttle Meadow and completed the marathon at 7 p.m. 

"Tim originally started it but asked Kyle and I to play and we have been doing it for three years now," said Bayram, who along with Hedstrom used to work as assistant professionals under Gavronski. "The first three hours we played in a driving rain storm but we put on the rain suits and just pushed through it."

Bayram said growing up he had never played more than 36 holes in one day.

"When I was in college we played in some tournaments that were 36 holes and even some other tournaments were 36 holes but we almost triple that," he said. "We joked that we were happy not to pass out by the end. I'm on the younger side compared to those guys so I'm in pretty good shape. I'm going to turn 30 Saturday so maybe I'll have to be more careful in the future but I didn't do ay preparation to get ready for it. Even though I'm in decent shape I still felt it for a few days. It went by fast. Before we knew it we were on hole 70 or 71 and at that point we start counting down."

All three took their owns carts and stopped only briefly to grab a bite for lunch.

Th group raised more than $13,000 last year. The money goes to the Connecticut PGA Foundation. From that fund, money is spent on The First Tee, Junior Golf tournaments put on by the Connecticut PGA and Special Olympics Golf. 

"Many of the Berlin juniors take advantage of the Connecticut PGA Junior Tour and you can see it in their performance at those tournaments and when they get to the high school," Bayram said. "Timberlin is a very junior friendly golf course and we are proud of our programs here and love to see the juniors go out and play well in the section tournaments. The Berlin girls just won their third straight state title and the boys team won their league title. It's a great tradition here."

Bayram feels fortunate to be in the position he holds.

"It's nice to give back to the game that has given me so much," he said. "I get to do this for a living and my job is to grow the game and give juniors opportunities to learn the game and play. The junior golf tradition at Timberlin was here before I got here and it is something I want to make sure stays here in the future."

Anyone wishing to donate to the Foundation may drop donations at Timberlin. Checks should be made payable to Connecticut PGA Golf Foundation.