Albatrosses. Eagles. Birdies. Sunshine Tour professionals clearly love their “feathered friends” that go well on a scorecard inside the ropes. But outside the ropes, their hearts lie with all animals – including their four-legged friends – as the Tour’s Players’ Committee showed with a surprise donation of R10 000 to the Glen Graze Rescue and Rehabilitation Sanctuary in Somerset West, and which was matched by another R10 000 from professional Justin Harding.
Sunshine Tour professionals Harding and JJ Senekal were on hand on Thursday to deliver the cheque to Glen Graze founder and owner Suzanne Mostert and her partner Pierre Steyl.
The Players’ Committee donated R10 000, while Harding generously decided to match this amount for a total of R20 000 donated to the sanctuary.
“We heard of the need of this animal sanctuary through our Membership Manager Joanne Newell. The sanctuary has a nursery school on their property which helps fund their work with the abandoned or abused animals they rescue. But because of Covid-19, the nursery school’s numbers have declined severely and this has placed even greater financial pressure on the sanctuary. So as players we decided to try and help,” said Oliver Bekker, Chairman of the Sunshine Tour Players’ Committee.
Harding was particularly touched by the cause, which is why he decided to match the Tour’s donation with his own donation.
“It was a good day. This is such a beautiful facility and Suzanne and her team are doing such important work in the community for rescue animals. I’d really like to urge any other golfers or fans to please consider giving what they can to help them out,” he said.
Glen Graze’s Mostert was overwhelmed by the surprise donation.
“I cannot say thank you enough. This is the first time in our history at Glen Graze that something like this has happened to us. I really hope the Sunshine Tour professionals will become a part of our family, because it’s people like them that really carry us forward. I’m just so overwhelmed,” she said.
Glen Graze currently supports 19 rescue horses, 14 cats (all spayed), 12 dogs (excluding the 8 puppies), 4 donkeys, 2 cows, 2 sheep, 2 goats and 8 pigs, all of which are rescue animals.