Golfing for charity

By Vicky Burger, ITWeb portals content / relationship manager

Johannesburg, 12 Mar 2008

Over R100 000 was raised for charity and 120 golfers participated in ITWeb's fifth annual Technology Golf Challenge.

The event took place at Pecanwood Golf and Country Club and gave golfing fans from the IT industry a chance to raise money for a worthy charity while networking and enjoying a round of golf.

Prizes were awarded to the top 12 four-ball teams; the top three were Paracon in first place, Centratel in second and BJ Pro Welding in third.

Other prize winners included Lewis Taljaard for closest to the pin on the third hole sponsored by Microsoft; Ndaba Nkomo, closest to the pin on the eighth hole sponsored by Paracon; and John Plant, for the longest drive on the ninth hole sponsored by Accenture.

Paracon sponsored a prize for the heaviest four-ball but ended up winning the category, so instead awarded it to the second heaviest team, Konica Minolta. The Konica team, comprising Jaco Jordaan, Johnny Burger, Jason Coussens and Nico Hollander, came in at a combined weight of 399kg.

Other prize donors included Southern Sun Hotels, Pecanwood Golf and Country Club, The Golfers Club, Autoway Service Centre, Blank Bottle and the Hyatt Regency Johannesburg.

In addition, Business Connexion and Gestetner sponsored lucky draw prizes. The prize of R30 000, sponsored by Rentworks for a hole in one on the 17^th, was not won.

One of the highlights of the event was the auction, which raised a total of R18 700. Supporters of the auction included Mike Vos from Faritec, Jacques de Klerk from Rentworks, Neill Nortje from Neotel, Pierre Lundberg from Business Connexion, Mark Jurgens and Graham Bentley from Paracon, Chris van Niekerk from McAfee, Derek Hughes from Vistar, Geoff van den Bosh from Blue Turtle Technologies and Robert Mace from ITWeb.

Two items in particular raised a lot of interest. One of these was one of only 50 autographed four-piece photograph collages that include action photos of cricketers. The other was a signed limited edition (one of 100) Springbok jersey. The jersey is numbered and was signed through a licensed signing session conducted by MSCSPORTS and SA rugby. Signatures on the jersey include those of Jake White, Schalk Burger, Butch James and Jacques Fourie.

Other items auctioned included cricket stumps and cricket balls from Fanie de Villiers, tennis memorabilia featuring Roger Federer, and four gift bags courtesy of Accenture, each containing a signed Tiger Woods book, a cap and a golf shirt.

Softline, Softline Accpac and Blue Turtle Technologies raised additional funds. Softline raised R2 700 on its hole by having Adriaan van Rensburg, current world long drive record-holder, take shots for the players in exchange for a donation.

Softline Accpac had a jar of jelly beans at its hole and collected R1 400 by getting players to give a donation and guess how many beans were in the bottle. Gary Sweiden from DataPro's four-ball guessed just one short of the correct amount of 641 to receive his prize.

Blue Turtle Technologies raised R1 100 by selling Mulligans at its sponsored hole.

After the game there was a wine and whisky tasting sponsored by Blank Bottle and an 'extreme' long driving and trick-shot show sponsored by Softline and hosted by Van Rensburg.

The evening closed with a dinner and prize-giving. Jovan Regasek, ITWeb's director, thanked everyone for their assistance and announced the event had raised over R100 000 for the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. He said this was a wonderful achievement that could only be obtained with the help of all involved.

The day's sponsors included the title sponsor, Softline; platinum sponsors DVT and Microsoft SA; gold sponsors Faritec, Choice Technologies and DataPro; as well as a number of hole sponsors, including Accenture, Blue Turtle Technologies, Business Connexion, Centratel, Fulcrum Business Solutions, Gestetner, McAfee, Netxactics, Paracon, Rentworks and Q-KON.