Club Captain - Justin Thomas

Ladies Captain - Chris Ellis

I've been a member at John O’Gaunt since 2002, I have held various roles on committees, such as Handicap secretary, Competitions secretary, and Ladies Captain at other Golf Clubs—with my recent roles at John O Gaunt being  2021 Publicity role, 2022/3 Ladies Vice Captain. I am competitive and like to play golf in different formats and join in as many club competitions as possible which also include  Opens at other Golf Clubs.

My chosen charities will be Macmillan Cancer Support  and Encephalitis International; donations can be left here:

• Macmillan

• Encephalitis 

Both of these charities help and support many families, and for me, Macmillan supported my sister during her treatment for breast cancer.  My other charity is a small non-profit charity that has been working extremely hard to raise awareness.  My sister-in-law is a survivor of encephalitis, at her time of diagnosis it was rare and the survival rate was only  1 in 3.  Now thanks to the charity set up there is much more awareness and support for everyone.

I look forward to playing with as many of you as possible over the coming year.

Thank you so much for your support.

Seniors Captain - Richard Westergreen-Thorne

I live locally and joined John O Gaunt around 10 years ago after a career in education including 15 years as a Secondary Headteacher. John O Gaunt is actually the first golf club that I have ever joined as I had played social golf for a few years before then with friends, none of whom lived very close. I wanted to start playing on a regular basis and join in with club competitions and events and have never looked back.

My charity for the year is the British Heart Foundation who do a fantastic job and there are several opportunities to support my char ity during the year.

Junior Captain - Ixie Akpan        

Club Charity Strategy

We are a great Club with so many generous, well-connected, and talented people within our ranks. In order to make the most of this resource we have decided to develop a ‘One Club’ approach to fundraising and to bring all our charitable fundraising activity under the one roof. 

To organise and administer this we have established a Charity Sub-Committee which will be chaired by the Club Captain. The idea is a simple one: that the separate golfing Sections of the Club (led by their respective Captains) will work as one team, supported by the Club Admin team, sharing fairly, the workload, and the money that is raised amongst the respective Captain’s charitable cause(s). The aim is to raise more money as a whole, through shared knowledge and resources, working on the principle that the whole will hopefully be greater than the sum of the parts!  What we want to avoid is a ‘scattergun’ approach of asking for help in the form of donations and sponsorship. We are acutely aware that we cannot keep asking the same people, time and time again, without a degree of 'charity fatigue' setting in.

Thank you for your consideration and support.

Justin Thomas , Club Captain 2024

Christine Ellis , Ladies Section Captain 2024

Richard Westergreen-Thorne , Senior Section Captain 2024

Ixie Akpan , Junior Section Captain 2024