Although I didn’t make it into the playoffs and the Barclay’s event, we travelled up to Westchester, NY, for a Pro-Am for Els for Autism at beautiful Century CC.
We had a great day with good weather and I want to thank all the pros, and of course the amateurs, who continue to support the event and the Foundation.
After that we headed back to Jupiter and I have been using this time to work on my fitness, but also strength conditioning. As I have mentioned before, when you are on Tour it is more about maintaining fitness and flexibility, but when you have a longer period you can really work on some of the strength building exercises.
As you’d expect, I’m always keeping an eye on what’s happening in the world of sport…and obviously golf in particular. So, big congratulations to Patrick Reed getting back in the winner’s circle last week at Bethpage Black and playing himself onto the Ryder Cup team. Congrats also to Bernhard Langer, who continues to play wonderful golf well into his 50s, on a fine win in the Boeing Classic. It was Bernhard’s birthday weekend, too, and a nice way to celebrate right there! It looked like another really successful week for Boeing in their hometown of Seattle.
Closer to home, here at The Els Center of Excellence in Jupiter, the kids are back in school and it is hard to believe we just celebrated the first anniversary of the official opening (pictured below). Not only are the Lower School students benefiting from the facilities on site, but with various programming initiatives we are also helping many families nationally and internationally. We have also had a really good response to our seminars, broadcast online, and also available post-event through our website. Even though the weather is seriously hot here in the summer, the Gerrits construction team have been working hard on the Upper School and that is really starting to take shape.
Of course, a huge part of the reason we’re in this position is due to the ongoing success of the Golf Challenge. Last week we had two huge events at TPC Boston and Duke University. The feedback has been great from those events and this week’s stop was at Baltimore Country Club, an event supported by amazing sponsors such as SAP and EY and led by event Chairman, Steve Peck. David Leadbetter was also on hand to give the players an amazing insight into improving their games through data analytics. Big thanks to them and obviously to everyone who took part. This was yet another event on the schedule that was sold out well in advance and it helps us close in on this year’s fundraising target of $2.5 million.
As many of you will know this is the sixth year that we’ve played the Golf Challenge – the largest charity-driven international golf tournament in history – and Liezl and I are just so humbled by the level of support we continue to receive. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed charity dollars and competed in regional events. You’re all part of a big family now and we look forward to seeing many of you in Las Vegas in a few month’s time (last year’s Golf Challenge Grand Finale is pictured below).
Please click here for more details on what we’re doing at The Els for Autism Foundation or if you’d like to take part in the Golf Challenge. There are still some slots available.
Finally, thanks to all my friends at Wentworth Club for supporting the South African braai hosted by Ernie Els Wines last Friday. Our representative on the night, Louw Strydom, reported back to me that it was a great night. He said that the various wines from our portfolio went down well with the members and that the food, all of it authentic South African produce cooked by a South African chef, was a big hit. Sounds like my kind of night! I am only sorry I couldn’t be there for that one.
Staying with the wine, we recently received nice ratings from Wine Spectator magazine with the 2013 Signature receiving 93 points and the 2013 Ernie Els Cabernet Sauvignon receiving 92 points and listed as one of the top ‘red wine values’. Please click here if you’d like to find out more about Ernie Els Wines, while in the dropdown menu bar at the top of this page (Wines, Distributors) you can find out where you can buy our wines.
Anyway, that might seem like a lot of thank you messages, but they’re all richly deserved. Thanks everyone!
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