BirdLife Overberg presented their first Golf Day on 10 June 2010 with the aim of raising funds for the development of educational and interpretive material in aid of the African Penguin. The organisations that benefit from the day are BirdLife South Africa’s Seabirds Programme, the Dyer Island Conservation Trust and SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds).
The weather on the day was perfect and the participating organisations and local artist Angela Key held exhibits to introduce the golfers to a variety of avian conservation issues. The stars of the show were undoubtedly Rocky, a Rockhopper Penguin and Columbine, an African Penguin that are being used by SANCCOB for educational purposes. The antics of these birds had the players in awe. Members of BirdLife Overberg worked at the halfway refreshment stands sponsored by Eastcliff Spar, Stretton’s Gin and Tru-Cape and this contributed to a great atmosphere on the day.
The highlight of the day was certainly the prize giving ceremony in the evening that was attended by the vast majority of participants, as well as other guests . Significantly, all of the 21 teams that won prizes, the winners of the eight closest to the pin competitions and the five lucky draw winners were present to collect their prizes. The third prize, a fourball at the Arabella Golf Course went to Chicken Basson of Lenvalco’s team. The second prize, gift hampers from Johnson and Johnson went to David Romburgh, Shawn Smith, George Sauerman and Andrew Phillip. The overall first prize, four weekends for couples to Protea Hotels was won by Paul Slabbert’s team representing Stretton’s Gin.
The members of BirdLife Overberg are proud to be the first bird club in South Africa to have presented such a golf day and would like to express their sincere appreciation to all donors, sponsors and players who have contributed to making this day such a major success.
