Some of the team in training on the fells

A group of golfers will play two rounds of the game on Lakeland courses – with a 35-mile mountain trek between them.

The eight will tee off early tomorrow, Saturday, to play 18 holes at Eskdale Golf Club near Ravenglass then will embark, complete with a full set of clubs, on a two-day walk over Scafell Pike and Helvellyn before descending to Keswick Golf Club to take part in a tournament there. Their charity challenge will raise cash for the Lake District’s mountain rescue teams.

The venture is the idea of John Clark, managing director of PING Europe, which manufactures golfing equipment. Ex Lakeland local Dave Fanning, who will be joining Mr Clark on the trek, said: “John spends much of his spare time in the Lakes and is well on his way to completing the 214 Wainwright Challenge, so we decided that it should be a challenge rather than just a game of golf, hence the 35 miles of walking and two games of golf in less than 48 hours.”

The 56km route will entail 3,050m (10,000ft) of climbing for the team, which is based in the flatlands of Lincolnshire.

The eight, Mr Clark, Dave Fanning, Phil Craghill, Tim Jenkins, Steve Carter, Pete Brown, Paul Jenkinson and James Turnbull, have already raised more than £16,000 for the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association, and hope to top this up with at least another £2,000.

Richard Warren of the LDSAMRA said: “It’s been a tough year for all the Lake District teams in terms of the costs involved in rescuing the general public, particularly following the floods.

“We rely on fundraising and what the guys are proposing to do is just an amazing and unique challenge.   We wish them all the luck with their fund raising and their upcoming challenge.”

The challenge starts at 6am tomorrow and the golfers hope to be at the 2.30pm start of the PING Lakeland Golf Challenge at Keswick on Sunday.

There is a justgiving website for contributions.