The Springs Rugby Club, together with Rand Pro Insurance Brokers and other sponsors, brought players, supporters, and golf enthusiasts together for its first-ever golf day at Springs Country Club on September 25.

The event gave attendees an opportunity to enjoy a day of golf while supporting the club and strengthening its ties with the local community.

Speaking to the Springs Advertiser, the club’s president, Basil Steyn, said that the event was about more than raising money for the rugby club, with the club wanting to play a role in efforts to improve the town.

Steyn said the idea was linked to the rugby club and its motto, ‘Springs for Springs’, as well as efforts by the Springs Country Club to uplift the area.

“We said we will support them and have a golf day, but it’s about the whole upliftment of Springs,” he said.

According to Steyn, the rugby club has also had to find ways to maintain facilities despite not having a main sponsor.

He explained that the event also gave businesses and community members an opportunity to support the club while receiving something in return.

Steyn shared that the event was also about getting people involved rather than leaving the responsibility of improving the community to a few individuals.

Steyn said getting people to participate was an important part of building support for the wider upliftment of Springs because they are doing it for their town.

The club plans to make the golf day an annual event and hopes to grow it in the coming years. Steyn said the first event was effectively the starting point, with plans to improve the prizes, development and the club’s contribution to Springs Country Club, which he also described as a heritage site.

“To the people who missed out this year, we miss you. We are planning to do this annually and planning to make it bigger and better. This is the first golf day that we hosted but next year’s will be better and each year we will improve on it.”

Rand Pro CEO Melandri van Wyk told the publication that supporting the local club is about more than putting the company’s name behind a golf day.

Van Wyk said the partnership was driven by both community and personal ties to the club. The club has a special place in Van Wyk’s family, with her father having played there and her husband currently playing for the club.

Van Wyk said Rand Pro wanted to help the club attract younger people and ensure that the culture built by previous generations continues.

“It means a lot to us. We try and support the club where we can, obviously because of what they do for the community,” she said.

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She believes local businesses have an important role to play in keeping sporting clubs alive, particularly for younger generations.

She explained that without the support, sporting clubs could lose the resources needed to continue operating, taking away opportunities for young people to participate in sport and experience the sense of community that comes with it.

Rand Pro co-hosted the golf day with the rugby club after the two began working together earlier in the year.

“We decided to co-host all of the events and see what we can do alongside the club and how we can evolve and, obviously, grow the club and the community within the club,” said Van Wyk.

Van Wyk said the support showed that there was an appetite among businesses to get involved in initiatives aimed at strengthening the local community.

“That just means what we’re trying to do is starting to work. We’re moving in the right direction, getting other businesses involved and growing the support network,” she said.

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She noted that Rand Pro and its stakeholders had agreed that as their initiatives grow, they would look at ways to share a portion of what they achieve with the wider community.

She indicated that it does not end with the rugby club; next year everywhere where they are needed, they would like to grow with the community as well.

Van Wyk encouraged other businesses in Springs to support local sporting clubs and become more involved in their communities.

LD Koch was one of the participants who shared that his love for golf and community is what brought him to the event. He said events like this bring the community together and build relationships as community members through sports.

“We can build a stronger community and be together and we can raise the needed funds to build the community better and stronger,” added Koch.

Echoing the president’s words, Koch said that the community should come out next year because they missed out on a nice day.