Happy twenty-first for Rotary golf event

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KNYSNA NEWS - Rotary Club Knysna held its 21st annual charity golf event from Thursday 27 May to Sunday 30 May at five different golf courses.

Twenty-one years ago Rotary Club Knysna president Des Wearne and director of Golf Jeff Clause got together at the newly opened Sparrebosch Championship Golf Course and decided to invite golfers who were playing on the Saturday at Knysna Golf Club in the fledgling Rotary fundraising event to play on Sunday at Sparrebosch.

All proceeds would go to Rotary.

Thus was born an event that has just been held for the 21st time. Played over four days starting on a Thursday, the event now includes Pinnacle Point Golf Club, Pezula Championship Course (formerly Sparrebosch) Simola Golf & Country Estate, Knysna Golf Club, and Goose Valley Country Club in Plett.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, no event took place in 2020. The organisers decided to canvas previous guests and received an overwhelming thumbs-up to stage the event this year despite restrictive protocols.

Photo gallery: Taking to the greens for charity

A whopping 235 golfers booked and played 794 rounds of golf. Every course on every day was booked out. The weather played its part, except for a period on Friday morning and a short shower on Saturday afternoon. Sunday presented the golfers with perfect weather.

The purpose of the event is of course raising funds for the many and various projects the Rotary Club Knysna is involved in.

Some recent examples are the extensive and comprehensive feeding scheme during the hard lockdown last year, where over R3,5-million was spent on vouchers, individual food parcels and supplies to soup kitchens in the greater Knysna.

Riaan Steyn nervously watches his tee shot on the first hole.

A large portion of the required funds came from a donor who chose to remain anonymous. Almost R1-million was spent on an urgently needed portable X-ray unit at the Knysna Provincial Hospital.

Another large amount was used for enlarging the Knysna/Sedgefield Hospice unit at the same hospital. The club is at present active in exploring funding options for a project of the Knysna Education Trust (Ket) to enable early childhood development (ECD) with the goal of giving about 3 500 children access to quality ECD facilities by 2025, at an estimated cost of just under R1-million.

Nico du Plessis tees off as the only person to have taken part in every one of the golf events over 21 years. Photos: Blake Linder