Five dedicated Kiwi golfers have played 151 holes of golf in one day - all in the name of charity.

We are Family team of brothers Rodney Donaldson, Jack Donaldson, Ryan Donaldson, and Sheldon van de Worp, and Ryan Balsley, managed the feat at the Castlecliff Golf Club in Whanganui as part of the Cancer Society’s the Longest Day Challenge.

So far, they have raised more than $8,500 for the Cancer Society’s Whanganui-Rangitikei-Waimarino branch. Rodney Donaldson, the Castlecliff Golf Club’s professional, said play got underway at about 5.20am on December 28.

“The Longest Day is a national campaign to play 72-holes in a day, but we decided to step it up a bit more than that. We finished at 8.30pm so it was around 15-hours. Surprisingly, we were still having good scores on the eighth round,” he said.

“I don’t think I swore at all. In fairness, it wasn’t really about the score, it was just about finishing. There were a couple of club members who said it couldn’t be done so we had to prove them wrong.”

No one managed a hole-in-one on the day but there were three eagles and plenty of birdies. The day was tough mentally and physically, with the golfers walking 74 kilometres – some 95,000 steps - to complete the holes, Donaldson said.

“I don’t think we’ll be beating that record anytime soon.”

In 2019, Donaldson and his brothers Jack and Ryan braved wet weather and completed 101 holes to raise money for a defibrillator at the Castlecliff club.

“This is the third time I’ve managed 100 holes in a day,” he said.

“My partner said 102 holes would have sufficed this time but no, we went for the 150. We ended up doing an extra hole just for fun. We’ll recover in a week though.

“Before Christmas, we set ourselves a goal of raising $5,000 and I didn’t think we’d get to that, but now we’ve done it and people saw what we were putting ourselves through, some more money got thrown our way.”

Donaldson said the team’s effort could be a Whanganui record but it was “not even close” to national or international honours.

“Jamie Reid from Taranaki, the world speed golf champion, has done 230-something holes in a day. It got dark just after 9pm so technically, we could have carried on for another 40 minutes or so, but I think 151 holes was enough for us.”

Fellow club members kept them hydrated throughout the day at Castlecliff Golf Club, he said. The four golfers walked the whole way, while volunteers carried their clubs in carts.

“People were holding the flags for us and looking for golf balls - doing anything they could to help. We had a support crew and it was much needed. To have them come and support us was just amazing.”

Donaldson said outside of a few blisters on his feet, he finished relatively unscathed.

Donations to the We are Family team can still be made via longestday.org.nz/t/we-are-family

Meanwhile in the Waikato, Hamilton golfers Marcel Rumney, Alex Chaloner, Bradley McMahon, and Cameron Jackways – playing under the team name Just Tap It In – raised $1,321 for the Cancer Society ‘s Longest Day Challenge playing back-to-back rounds for 10-hours at Ngaruawahia Golf Club.