THE Midlands PGA captain’s day at Blackwell, near Bromsgrove, exceeded all expectations by raising five times more than predicted.

Current incumbent Finlay Clark staged the day at his home club and raised in the region of £10,000 for breast cancer — which his mother died of just five weeks before he became head pro at Blackwell.

Clark hoped to raise around £2-3,000 at best, but an unexpected auction of some signed sporting memorabilia —including items from Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and new F1 champion Jenson Button — saw the amount raised rocket.

“We had 20 teams and I got everyone there to sign a £20 note so I was hoping to raise two thousand pounds, maybe three, but it far exceeded that when we did the draw for the prizes,” said Clark.

“We started the draw but all the people who won as their £20 was drawn out put the prizes back and offered them up for auction. That’s where the money started to come in as the Tiger Woods piece raised £2,000, the Greg Norman piece got £900 and the Jenson Button cap got £800. I was just stood in amazement as I had never been an auctioneer before.

“To top it all off, one of the guys there stood up and offered one more prize — a week in his villa in Spain, including two days on his 100-foot boat, fully crewed and with food and drink included, plus flights. That went for a couple of thousand but was worth an awful lot more.

“I would say, off the top of my head, we raised around £10,000 from a target of about £2,000, so I have an awful lot of thank yous to say. This has made my year.”