Golf day marks Fleming centenary

[carl stromberg]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 472849.stm

Golf day marks Fleming centenary

Ian Fleming described the course's 18 holes in the novel Goldfinger
The family of James Bond author Ian Fleming is hosting a charity golf day to mark 100 years since his birth.

Funds from the event at the Royal St George Golf Club in Sandwich on Wednesday will go towards the British Heart Foundation.

Fleming died of a heart attack in August 1964, aged 56, one day after he played his last round at the Kent club.

The course, renamed Royal St Mark's, hosted the golf contest between Goldfinger and Bond in the 1959 novel.

Lucy Fleming said: "In the book [Goldfinger] Ian devoted at least three chapters to a game of golf which is fascinating even if you are not a golfer because of it's minute detail.

"He called it Royal St Mark's but he sort of described each hole and people are very familiar with it.

"He had a pro who played with him called Cyril [Fred] Whiting and in the book he is called Cyril [Alfred] Blacking."

Sara Jane Woods, of the British Heart Foundation, said: "We were approached by the Fleming family and there was such a wonderful synergy because Ian very sadly died of heart disease very early and obviously had he lived he would have been 100 this year.



An interview with Ian Fleming's niece

"We were very lucky that the Fleming family felt that they would like to do this event in memory of Ian."

She added: "Heart disease is the biggest killer in the UK and we spend about £70m on research which has enabled us to produce things like statins [drugs that lower cholesterol] which today could have possibly helped Ian had they been around at the time he was ill."

Twenty-one teams named after characters from the books will compete on the course, followed by a charity auction hosted by Ian's nephew.

One of the prizes is a private viewing of the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace, a day before its world premiere with the Fleming family.