Members of Turnberry Golf Club have teamed up with an Ayrshire business to provide a cash boost to a charity organisation.
Turnberry member David McDowall and his colleagues have joined forces with Ayrshire Discount Golf Balls — with the aim of raising funds for Ayrshire Cancer Support.
The winning partnership has already boosted the charity’s coffers by nearly £600.
At Turnberry GC, members began a charitable venture back in 2003, when golfers kept finding errant golf balls, so they installed a barrel in the Clubroom, then encouraged members to donate unwanted balls.
The balls were sorted into Grade A mint condition balls then sold through Ayrshire Cancer Supports’ shops and practice grade balls sold to a recycling company.
David McDowall said: “Since the project started and up until the Covid pandemic took hold, the project delivered 1,232 dozen of the Grade A balls for sale in the shops, generating around £6,160.
“Unfortunately, the pandemic resulted in the closure of many of the ACS shops and suddenly we were building up a stock of the Grade A balls.
“I was alerted to Ayrshire Discount Golf Balls, who will buy used golf balls, clean, sift and sort, and then sell them on.”
ADGB was founded in July 2020 by Troon lads Campbell Mathieson and Andrew Bogle. They specialise in selling recycled golf balls.
David revealed: “Their website was impressive, including their charitable giving and so we now have a situation where we can sell the balls to them and they pay the monies direct to Ayrshire Cancer Support.
“Our first batch has resulted in a payment to ACS of £494.48 on top of which ADGB have added a generous donation of £100.”
Members at Turnberry Golf Club have been major contributors to the project and some members at Royal Troon have also contributed.
David added: “Most golfers will have unwanted golf balls lying in the bottom of their golf bags or lying in garages or sheds. It’s just a matter of devoting time to a search and we can try and turn these into funds for charity.”
More recently, Ayrshire Discount Golf Balls secured new headquarters in Irvine, filling their warehouse with stock of over 100,000 golf balls.
If any readers have golf balls lying around, you can always donate them to Ayrshire Cancer Support either direct or through Turnberry Golf Club.
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