DUBAI: As the official title partner of the DP World Tour, DP World has been on a mission across the season to collect used and unwanted golf balls and give them a second life in grassroots golf projects around the world.
Unveiled at the Dubai Desert Classic in January, DP World created a shipping container that has been steadily filling with golf balls from various stops across the DP World Tour season. Along its journey, the second life container has stopped in Belgium, Holland, Sweden, France, the UK and has now come full circle, arriving back in Dubai for the season ending DP World Tour Championship taking place at Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai.
The 130,024 golf balls have been collected in numerous ways, with donations from DP World Tour players, fans, professional golf ball divers, ball-collecting dogs, and children’s golf ball hunts. It’s now time to give them a new life, with DP World joining forces with several golf organisations to support initiatives that provide a platform for the game of golf to grow around the world, making golf more accessible to all.
DP World has focused on three key areas of growth for the sport – golf for the disabled, junior golf, and women’s golf – hoping to inspire and encourage more people to take up the sport. The organisations that include projects in South Africa, Kenya, India, UAE and across Europe will now receive a proportion of the balls.
Representatives from all five organisations came together to celebrate the occasion ahead of the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai. Among them were the Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Sports and the Arts, Republic of Kenya, Hon Ababu-Namwamba, DP World’s Chief Commercial Officer, Daniel van Otterdijk as well as 2-time DP World Tour winner, Kurt Kitayama from America and reigning G4D Tour champion, Brendan Lawlor of Ireland.
A proportion of golf balls will be distributed to the South African Disabled Golf Association (SADGA) and the European Disabled Golf Association (EDGA), two organisations working to ensure the sport is fully inclusive.
The DP World golf ball container has made its final stop for the season at this week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship, where the world’s best golfers are battling it out to finish on top of the DP World Tour Rankings on the Earth Course on Jumeirah Golf Estates from 17-20 November.
