With a recent special Dinner to go with corporate sponsorship and general fund-raising, the British Olympic Association are continuing their fund-raising programme for next year and have attracted an impressive range of partners in what is a corporate series which we will be covering all through next year. The commitment from Schlumberger is supported by De Vere Hotels, TaylorMade-adidas golf and MG Rover (an official sponsor of Team GB) and for the start of the series, the European Tour Pros and TV (and Radio 5 Live) were all in attendance.

Paul Broadhurst was Roving reporter for Sky, selecting the moment of the day and offering tips to the corporate teams, whilst John Bickerton, Steve Webster and Mark Pilkington were all stationed on Par 3 holes for Beat the Pro challenges. You can see the results on Sky on November 4th and 5th.

For Sir Steve Redgrave, golf is really his life. On the other hand, Jonathan Edwards has only just retired and his golfing credentials have not been widely advertised. When Edwards was first out of the draw, the obvious banter between he and Steve Backley (Field Athletes) was there for the gathered guests. First out of the draw meant first off from the 1st tee on the PGA National. Alan Wells (Olympic Champion from 1980 in Moscow - he is a big guy as well) was the best of the celebrities with a 5 handicap whilst Steve Backley, off 7, was looking forward to the start of his 2004 Olympic campaign.

The Rugby quarter of the two Underwood Brother, Phil de Glanville and Craig Chalmers, were the centre of Press and public attention, with the Rugby World Cup having just started. From the cricketers and the footballers, there was plenty of evidence of some regular golf, although Gladstone Small tried hard to create the biggest wide of his career by missing the 1st and the 18th fairways - by some distance.

When it came to the first shot of the day, there was plenty of nervous chatter from Edwards before he started the proceedings. He plays of a 13 handicap and despite the pressure of the cameras and all the guests, his tee shot was good enough, ending up on the left of the fairway and perfect to approach the 1st green. There were some mishits (check out the strike on our feature picture for this article) and plenty of jokes at each others expense. We have an exclusive and in-depth interview with Steve Backley for November when he talks about his golf, preparing for next year and his future, but he freely admitted that the nerves from all the major championship have crept up on his golf game more than once.

There is much more to come in our Steve Backley Interview, including the future of golf when athletic training becomes more an more part of the game for the aspiring top players. We will also add the results of the Skins Tournament and the Golf series, as soon as they are available, to this article. If you want to support our Olympic athletes, details will follow.