COVID-19: Pro Golfers And Caddies Stepping Up In A Variety Of Ways
/Because we know pro golfers are generally the athletes most associated with charity, it’s nice to see the efforts they and some of their caddies are making to help on the COVID-19 front. This is by no means a definitive list, just some of the recent efforts I’ve spotted or that have been shared. (Ryan Ballengee at GolfNewsNet.com is keeping this running page.)
Brooks Koepka donated $100,000 to his foundation that will go to the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin County’s COVID-19 Response Fund.
This unbylined AFP story explains the efforts for Italy, Germany and Spain respectively by Edoardo Molinari, Martin Kaymer and Sergio Garcia. Molinari’s GoFundMe page, though it’s in Italian.
His EuropeanTour.com blog entry, however is in English.
Ewan Murray at The Guardian reports on the efforts of two of the top bagmen from European, Ian Finnis (Tommy Fleetwood) and Billy Foster (Matt Fitzpatrick).
Finnis distributed 1,000 raffle tickets, at a cost of £10 each, to people who donated. Prizes include signed flags by the European Ryder Cup team and Rory McIlroy, a hat autographed by Fleetwood, tournament caddie bibs and an online golf psychology session. The move was an instant hit with the golf fraternity; £10,000 was collected in just seven hours on Tuesday from around 460 donors. One anonymously contributed £500. “Unreal from the golf world,” tweeted Finnis.
Here is Foster’s Instagram page detailing the items he’s been auctioning to raise money for the NHS. And here was Sergio Garcia: