Els hosted top Sunshine Tour professionals, sports stars, leading business fi-gures and friends in a two-round tournament which raised R4million for the Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation.
This is the second of five high profile events to be held at Fancourt this summer. The Gary Player Invitational took place in November, while 2010 sees the Dimension Data Pro-Am (11-14 February), BMW Golf Cup International World Final (1-6 March) and South Africa’s first European Senior Tour event, the Berenberg Bank Masters (26-28 March) take place at Africa’s Leading Golf Resort (as voted at the 2009 World Travel Awards).
A total of R4million was raised for the Foundation, mostly through the high profile auction that took place during the event, which is an incredible feat in today’s economic times.
"I’m incredibly grateful to my friends and colleagues for their unbelievable genero-sity. For the past 10 years, the Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation has supported ta-lented young kids from families of limited resources in South Africa, and helped give them a better start in life.
"The money raised will go a long way in helping us to expand our reach, and enhance the Foundation’s initiatives," says Els.
Included in the illustrious line-up of participants were Springboks Fourie du Preez, Victor Matfield and Schalk Burger, Olympic swimmer Roland Schoeman, former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan and cricketing great Barry Richards.
They were joined by a selection of tour pros including Richard Sterne, Thomas Aiken, James Kamte (himself a former member of the Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation), as well as John Bland and Sally Little.
At the gala dinner, which saw PJ Powers perform a moving rendition of the Rugby World Cup theme song made famous during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, World in Union, Richard Sterne was named the overall winner of the 2009 Ernie Els Invitational, ending on a score of 131, after shooting an eight-under-par 64 on Fancourt’s Montagu golf course on the final day of play.
Sterne’s amateur team mates, Wayne Jackson, David Whitby and Clinton Valjalo, came in with 94 alliance stableford points in the team event, taking first place in that category.
Sterne was full of praise for the event, and in particular for Els’ contribution to golf development in South Africa.
Winners of the Team Elimination Shootout were Ross McGowan, Chris Scoble, Mike Brown and Peter Rooyakkers, while Trevor Fisher and Vaughn Groenewald won the Pro-Pro Shootout.
Richard Sterne and Ernie Els.
Els in action during the tournament.
