THE Couples Resorts CEO Glenn Lawrence underscored the value of sports in general and golf in particular towards the enrichment of communities as the company’s charity golf tournament continued to make its mark after raising $2.2 million towards several organisations on Sunday.

The 21st staging of the two-man scramble event, which was held on Sunday at the Sandals Golf and Country Club in Upton, St Mary, pulled out 80 golfers at the par 71, 18-hole layout, which eventually saw Carlysle and Diane Hudson taking first place in net scoring with Raymond Rhudd and Nick Tassone walking away with top honours in gross score.

“We’re very connected to the community and the communities are connected to sports. There are very few sports that as a group and our individual hotels don’t play. We’re into cricket, we are into football, we’re into golf, we’re into tennis — and we support many of the tennis tournaments for youth development,” Lawrence told the Jamaica Observer.

“For 21 years we’ve been having this tournament and every year the monies raised have gone towards local charities. In the recent past we’ve focused on some of our schools which are less equipped than some in other areas and we’ve done classrooms, computer labs, and expanded areas for the schools’ safety so it’s been a good, collaborative effort between ourselves, the local community, and the golfers,” Lawrence added.

The nearby Three Hills Primary school is again a major benefactor of the proceeds from the tournament and Principal Slean Harris was grateful for the continued support.

“It has meant a lot. For the past seven years that I’ve been at the school the Issa Foundation, along with Couples Tower Isle, has helped us to accomplish all the projects we have managed over the years. Everything has been possible because of the foundation, the sponsors, and those who participated in this tournament. They spent over $5 million to complete two of the last projects, which were a multipurpose area that we utilise and a resource room with a widescreen and overhead projector,” Harris shared.

“This really means a lot to me, to the students and the school community. We are a small school and we also do not get a lot of financial assistance otherwise so this has been a major support for us over the years,” Harris said.

Meanwhile, Darragh Fitzgerald Selby, general manager at Digicel Business, a long-standing partner of the Couples Charity Golf Tournament, noted that the event aligns well with his company’s own commitment to giving back to the community.

“We’re delighted to support this and we’ve been supporting it for a good number of years. We spent the weekend with Couples and we met a lot of really important customers but the most important part of this is that Digicel’s values are very, very close to our foundation, and one of the reasons I’m most proud to work for Digicel is we have our foundation and we’ve donated over US$42 million to the country since our inception,” said Fitzgerald Selby.

“When you look at Couples, they’re similar, and what they’ve done is year after year they run this tournament and the importance of giving to the community consistently is just phenomenal. The organisation, the people that are here, the commitment and the energy to the whole event are fantastic and it’s, for me, a shining light to other and senior corporate organisations to do more for the community and for people,” he added.

On the course, Carlysle and Diane Hudson shot 63 to top the net score rankings, winning for themselves a two-night stay at Couples and a gift basket from NCB.

Rhudd and Tassone, who scored 63 gross to come out on top in that category, also won a two-night stay at Couples and certificates from Bignal Medi Spa.

Robert Chin and Mike Gleichman were second in net scores with 64.5, with Gifford Wilmot and Carl Brown (65) taking third place.

The second-place finishers in gross score were Oshane Haye and Zandre Roye, who scored 63.

Joe Allen won the putting contest while the closest to the pin winners were Leon Lue (hole 4), Paul chin (hole 7), Sedwick Gordon (hole 11) and Roy Howe (hole 15).

– Andre Lowe