SAIF Golden Charter

Kee Cup 25th anniversary

Funeral directors and trade suppliers gathered for the 25th anniversary of the Kee Cup at the famous Trump Turnberry, an Open venue which is ranked the UK’s number one golf course.

Formerly known as the SAIFInsure Cup, the Kee Cup was renamed in 2003 in honour of Gordon Kee, a founder of Golden Charter, when he sadly died. The competition was first played to enable funeral directors and SAIFInsure to get to know each other, then this evolved to include the trade suppliers to our profession and is now regarded as the premium event for golfers.

The first day’s play was Greensomes and ended in a 3-3 draw. The second day was again in pairs but with a Better Ball format and the SAIF team edged it 4.5 to 1.5, which meant after two days’ play the score was the SAIF team 7.5 to SAIFInsure 4.5 with 12 singles matches to play on the world famous Ailsa course.

This was indeed to be a duel in the sun, with a final score win to the SAIF team of 14-10.

The day has become full of traditions – everyone is assigned a nickname (some have stuck for life!) and newbies this year left renamed ‘Scrabble Man’, ‘Big Issue’, ‘No Salad’, ‘John Barryman’, ‘Mr Tumble’ and ‘Mr Slate’. The event finished off with a gala dinner, a very interesting grace was read by ‘Reggie Kray’ and ‘The Vicar’, then we all passed round the Quaich full of malt whisky as a mark of friendship.

‘Augustus Gloop’ (aka Brian Hart), the fine master, then went to work and fined everyone for misdemeanours over the three days to the tune of £1,000 –which went to SAIF President Jim Auld’s chosen charity, Breast Cancer Care. The losers then handed over their club ties to the winning team.

The Kee Cup is normally presented by Margi Kee, Gordon’s wife, but, unfortunately, she was unwell, so an old favourite and good friend to all – ‘Rio’ Roger Ferdinand – came along to award the cup to the winning team.

This event is one not to be missed and any member of SAIF or trade supplier is welcome to join in, you don’t have to be the best golfer in the world – it’s an inclusive event and everyone is welcome. Next year’s venue will be announced very soon, and although Turnberry will be a hard act to follow… we are sure we will better it!

We would like to sincerely thank our trade suppliers who sponsored the event, from Westerleigh, Open Funeral Plans, Bradnams, Legacy Expressions, The Arranger, RNS Publications, Coleman Milne, Cloudberry, Thorley Smith, and, of course, SAIFInsure.