A GROUP of close friends will complete a bumper day of golf to commemorate the man who set the group up.

The 'Shiny Pound Group' will be competing for a whole day at Ulverston Golf Club in memory of Steve Milby, who set the group up more than 25 years ago.

Michael Armstrong, a member of the group, said: "Everybody loses people to cancer – and we have lost a good friend to us all.

"You see people doing charitable things all the time so we thought we would step up to the mark and do something ourselves.

"It all started in 1996 when a small group of us used to play golf together. Steve was a bit of a wind-up merchant – he just used to say: "I’ll take your shiny pound off you,” and it just stuck."

In a day, they hope to complete 72 holes of golf - or four straight rounds of the course.

Beginning as the sun rises at 5.30am and playing through to 9.30pm, the men will cover about 17 miles over 16 hours of golf.

Mr Armstrong said: "I have only ever done 45 holes and that was 25 years ago - I was knackered after that.

"We won't be using golf buggies or anything like that because then it would not be a challenge."

As well as Mr Armstrong; Michael Brown; Mark Moore; Philip Dickinson; Paul Steur; Darren Postlethwaite; and David Burch will complete the whole challenge, while Colin McArthur; Paul Leech; Andrew Stephenson; and Philip Garner will fill in for the eighth man for a round each.

And they want to extend their thanks to Ulverston Golf Club, which has waived the fees for two golfers who are not members of the club.

Mr Armstrong said: "It is a group of lads that have been mates for 25-30 years and we have lost the person who started the whole group.

"We have raised just over £2,000 but not put a cap on how much we want - we just wanted to raise as much as we could."

The group are raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support, which can be donated to on its website.