Wednesday March 20, 2013
In full swing for charity
For a good cause: (From left) Matteo Manassero, Charl Schwartzel, Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald before the start of the “Star experience for charity” game at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club yesterday KUALA LUMPUR: Golfers have hearts of gold too.
Yesterday, four stars – former world No. 1 Luke Donald of England, former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa, 2011 Maybank Malaysian Open champion Matteo Manassero of Italy and three-time Major winner Padraig Harrington of Ireland took time off from their practice session for this week’s Maybank Malaysian Open to do their part in a “Star Experience for Charity” golf game.
And a whopping RM80,000 was collected yesterday and it will go towards the Make-A-Wish Malaysia Foundation, which helps to make dreams come true for children with life-threatening medical conditions.
Several corporate golfers had pledged a minimum of RM5,000 for a chance of lifetime to play a Par-Three game with the stars under the scorching sun yesterday. It was a special moment for both the professional and amateur golfers as the money collected went towards the foundation.
A total of RM40,000 was collected from the amateur golfers and the amount was matched with another RM40,000 by Maybank’s charity arm — Maybank Foundation making it RM80,000.
While delighted to do his part for charity yesterday, Harrington said that it was not something new. He also does work for Special Olympics and Make a Wish Foundation back home in Ireland.
“A lot of professional golfers do it and it’s something we all enjoy. If the truth be known, we’re vastly overpaid to do a job, so we’re in a position to give back and it makes us feel good to do so. It brings some balance to our lives,” said Harrington.
“I have my own foundation, which generally sticks to things at home. We raised a quarter of a million for a paralysed guy earlier this year, but generally it’s smaller things. I also do some work for Special Olympics and Make a Wish Foundation, and oesophageal cancer, which my father died from. There’s a lot of things you can do and Ireland’s a small place so it’s easy to be an ambassador,” he added.
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