Some serious golf for Mandela Day

On 18 July, golf professional Warrick Druian and golf director Kevin Rakow from the Killarney country club, joined South African sporting heroes, renowned soccer coach Gavin Hunt and former Bafana Bafana soccer player Mark Williams, in attempting to play 67 holes of golf in one day.

Killarney Country Club and Alcatel One Touch partnered up to bring these men together with the aim of using the day to raise funds for underprivileged golfers in Johannesburg while commemorating the memory of Nelson Mandela.

The club wants to introduce golf to underprivileged youth in the surrounding areas and through the funds raised, will identify golfing talent within the public school system and provide lessons and travel arrangements to and from these schools.

For the many years that Mandela lived in his Houghton home, he always used the country club’s internal voting station to cast his vote.

We were privileged to meet the great man on these occasions. He was and is an inspiration to us all, and we want to perpetuate his legacy going forward,” said golf director Kevin Rakow.

The team teed off at six minutes to seven in the morning, and at 8am, the golfers had hit nine holes and were still very enthusiastic.

Hunt said he was only too happy to do something in memory of a man that did so much for a nation.

“If everyone in South Africa could do something small for another person, imagine what a great nation we could be,” he said.

Killarney Country Club’s valued members and corporates were asked to commit to this worthy cause and pledge R1, R10, R100 or other preferred amounts, per hole completed.

Alcatel One Touch donated tablets and smartphones towards the initiative to empower the youth of South Africa.

Ernst Wittmann, southern Africa’s country manager said, “As a company we’ve always been interested in building the youth and giving back. Although Madiba is not with us anymore, we’re honoured to be part of his life-long legacy and we’re humbled at the opportunity to give back.”

Details: www.alcatelonetouch.com or www.killarneycountryclub.co.za