Estate Living Digital Publication Issue 11 November 2015 | Page 14

Hosted at Blair Atholl
Golf is acknowledged to be one of the most giving
sports in the world with tens of millions of dollars
collected annually from the various professional tours
and donated to a bewildering array of beneficiaries
and charities. However this is just the tip of the iceberg
as hardly a day will go by in South Africa when a needy
school, benevolent society or charity is not hosting a
fundraising golf day and this type of activity is mirrored
in whatever region the game is played. To this, can
be added, the thousands of corporate golf days run
throughout the country annually, many of which will
have identified a charitable beneficiary which will
receive a donation or the proceeds from the post
game auction or similar.

The players’ gave generously with over R 6 000 being
raised on course through the hole in one and long
drive challenges. All of this enabled the city manager,
Mr. Jason Ngobeni and Mr. Sugen Pillay from Thebe
Reed Exhibitions to hand over a cheque of R 80 000 to
representatives of the Informal Traders Association.
This amount was then boosted by a personal pledge
from the floor of R 10 000 by Mr. Lwazi Mzoz from
Menston Energy.

Golf days are therefore big business and often a vital
external revenue stream for many clubs, this revenue
helps keep the clubs solvent and the members’ fees
and subscriptions at affordable levels. There are offcourse golf days as well as the ordinary golf day. During
2016 we shall be exploring some of the more obvious
do’s and don’ts, especially when it comes to getting
the best value for your company, effectively branding
the venue and the inclusion of a range of interesting
and interactive on-course activities which don’t hold
up play and that add to your clients’ enjoyment.

Mr. Ngobeni addressed the guests at the
prize-giving function, and having thanked the
sponsors and players for their participation and
contribution,explained the origins of the educational
bursary project. In his speech, he expanded on the
broader need to secure the future education of
children from underprivileged backgrounds and also
highlighted some of the city’s innovative initiatives
to assist informal and emerging small businesses.
These included re-allocating the city’s excess
internet capacity in bundles to small businesses and
entrepreneurs. He urged bigger businesses to do
the same and assess their data capacity and then
join the city in making any surplus data available
to provide free internet access to a much broader
audience.

On 30 October the inaugural Tshwane City Mayoral
Charity pro-am event was hosted at Blair Atholl
Golf Club. The focus of the pro-am event was to
raise funds for an education bursary project whose
initiative was instituted by the City of Tshwane and
is structured to provide educational support for
the children of informal traders. A wide range of
sponsors participated, providing prizes, cash and on
course activities such as Thorburn Security Solution’s
hole in one prize for R 100 000 on the 6th hole and
the swing analysis sponsored by Dark Fibre Africa.

The golf involved twenty teams of 5 players with each
four-ball being captained by a professional golfer. The
event manager Mr. John Cockayne, had assembled
a field to showcase professional golf in South Africa
and so the final mix involved pro’s from the WPGA
(Women’s’ Professional Golf Association), Seniors,
PGA (Professional Golfers Association) and the IGT
Pro Tour which is the country’s most important
developmental tour. IGT runs weekly 54 hole events
around South Africa which allow budding tour players
to practice their craft and hone their skills as they