'I miss him every day': Chris Bamford Memorial Golf Run is back. How you can take part.
In 2016, with their eldest son, Chris, dying from colon cancer, Paul and Mary Bamford wanted to do something to celebrate their son as well as benefit cancer patients.
The Stratham couple started the Chris Bamford Memorial Golf Run. This year the seventh annual event will be held Sunday, Oct. 2, 3:15 p.m., at Breakfast Hill Golf Club in Greenland. The proceeds will benefit the Exeter Hospital's Michael and Jeanne Falzone Center for Cancer.
“Chris passed away in October (of 2016) and we held it in May to give him a boost,” Paul Bamford said. “He was an avid golfer. He loved it. He played right up until a month and a half before he passed.”
Chris was 35. He was a 1999 graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Dover where he captained the boys’ basketball team. He had lived in Littleton, Colorado, with his wife, Beth, working there as project manager/systems analyst for Liberty Mutual.
That first year the event raised $5,600 for Exeter Hospital’s Beyond the Rainbow Fund, which supports indigent cancer patients. All told the Golf Run has raised $160,000. Its direction changed after the first couple years with donations earmarked for the general fund of the Center for Cancer Care at Exeter Hospital. The end game was the same: to make life easier for cancer patients.
A friend, Kathy Kerrigan, played a major role in helping the Bamfords get their project off the ground. Her son played golf for the Oyster River High School team, coached by Paul.
“Her influence with me was pretty profound,” he said. “She hooked me up with Exeter Hospital.”
How does a golf run work?
How the event unfolds is unlike traditional golf fundraisers. Players carry just one club and a putter. No bags allowed. Balls are provided and replaced by the event committee. Golfers tee off simultaneously, then run to their ball and strike as many shots as they can to hole out. The number of strokes doesn’t matter, they just have to hole out. Pledges or flat donations are procured by the players and others.
No money changes hands. No credit cards are used. Players make a check for $50 to Breakfast Hill when they arrive at the course that covers the cost of playing that day as well as the barbecue meal afterward. Donation checks are made out to Exeter Hospital.
It’s a timed event – two hours. There are 54 players spread out in foursomes and fivesomes over nine holes. A shotgun start gets every buddy hitting their balls, and then running or walking.
Paul’s Oyster River golf players have played a significant role in getting pledges and donations. They get friends and family members to pledge say $3 or $4 or $5 per hole played or pay a lump sum donation – all via check. It is not unusual for an OR player to raise close to $2,000.
“It was a great opportunity to give back,” said 2020 Oyster River grad Ty Mountain, who played golf for the Bobcats and was involved in the first three years of the Golf Run. “The run was a lot of fun. The whole team would go out. We’d run around the golf course and play as fast as we could.”
Paul said the Oyster River players with their young legs can play as many as 22 holes in two hours. Older golfers take a more sedate approach, getting in nine holes.
“We were tired running 18 holes,” said Mountain, who is attending the University of Wisconsin. “It’s a lot harder than walking. You started off running for the first few (holes), but then you got a little tired and had to slow down a bit. Still, we kept up a good pace.”
Remembering Chris Bamford
Paul remembers his son as a voracious reader, loyal friend, and avid sports enthusiast. He was a fan of all teams Boston — the Red Sox, Bruins, Patriots, but especially the Celtics.
Chris had the ability to talk off the top of his head about nearly any pro athlete no matter how obscure, which amazed his dad to no end. “He would say, ‘I don’t know if you know this, but they picked up this guy Joe Jones from this high school in Texas. He runs a 4.4 40, is 6-3 and weighs 210 pounds,’” recounted Paul.
“What? How do you know all this stuff?” was Paul’s amazed response.
Paul added: “He was just amazingly bright with a great sense of humor. I miss him every day.”
Chris was diagnosed with cancer on Jan. 4, 2016. Paul remembers the phone call. “He said, ‘You better sit down. I’ve got stage 4 colon cancer.’ They gave him 12 to 15 months. It took him in 10.”
The Golf Run gives people a chance to remember and celebrate Chris, while supporting a great cause.
The first two years, the event was held at The Oaks Golf Course in Somersworth. It was moved to Breakfast Hill in 2018, which is more local for the Bamfords and many of the people who play in the event. “They’ve been very accommodating,” Paul said.
Between 125 and 150 people are expected on Oct. 2, including the 54 golfers.
“It’s a really important cause,” Mountain said. “We all feel strongly about it.”
How to play in Chris Bamford Memorial Golf Run
To register, go to 2022 Chris Bamford Memorial Golf Run page at birdease.com/ChrisBamfordMemorialGolfRun or contact Paul Bamford at 603-494-9624 or pauldb53@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Chris Bamford Memorial Golf Run 2022 at Breakfast Hill in Greenland NH
