Bellarine golfer takes on golf’s Longest Day

GOLF can be both a leisure and competitive activity, but for Vietnam-born Bellarine-based business owner Trung Troung, it was all business as he took part in Cancer Council’s The Longest Day challenge.

Mr Truong took to the Portarlington Golf Course for the second consecutive year to complete his ‘Longest Day in Golf’ challenge in the hopes of raising funds for important skin cancer research.

The ‘Longest Day in Golf’ for Mr Truong involved playing four complete rounds of golf in a single day, 72 holes in total and taking 12 hours to finish.

“I’ve recovered a little bit from all the swings, it was tiring of course,” Mr Truong said laughingly.

“It was a particularly hot Monday, but the team and I did really well this year and had a lot of support from the members of the golf club too.”

Mr Truong also partnered up with the Portarlington Football Netball Club’s sponsorship and marketing director Darren Hellmann to help raise a further $796.

The idea for the first fundraiser last year came about after Mr Truong started to meet and talk to people around the Bellarine who had either suffered directly or indirectly from skin cancer.

This inspired him to undertake an extremely successful longest golf day in 2020 raising more than $4,500 on the back of one of the longest lockdowns throughout the pandemic.

“Last year it was really overwhelming to receive that amount of support,” Mr Truong said.

“I was really emotional when I played that year, when I stepped onto the course people just ran right up to me and handed me cash donations and I was in tears. Cash was everywhere.”

This year in 2021, although a little less was raised, Mr Troung with the assistance of Mr Hellmann raised over $2,500 with more donations flowing in.

Owner and director of the Fat Fox Art Gallery, Mr Truong cites in his fundraising page that Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, with two in three Australians diagnosed with skin cancer by the age of 70.

“Experts talk about our rates of skin cancer increasing because people tend to skip doctor’s appointments, which is a possible reason why the rates are going through the roof,” Mr Truong said.

“So, that kind of kick-started the idea of me doing this fundraiser and spreading a bit more awareness.

“We can all do our bit and I’m looking forward to doing it again in 2022.”

If you would like to contribute to Trung’s fundraiser head to www.longestday.org.au/fundraisers/trungtruong.