Gary Player - The Legend

Ronan Keating, Ian Poulter, and Lee Westwood Serenade the Crowd at this Year’s NMI

Dec 15, 2004 | Filed Under: The Player Foundation   

Albeit the golfers and the supermodels, everyone that attended the Nelson Mandela Invitational hosted by Gary Player last month will remember Ronan Keating, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood live in concert at Arabella Country Estate. It was a rather unique musical moment.

Ronan Keating, a little lad with a powerful voice and a decent game, gave an unforgettable performance with a few hits like “When You Say Nothing At All” from Notting Hill.

Ian Poulter looks every inch the rock star, unruly Mohican and devilish grin not the most golfing of looks. Until you see his swing, you’d say the electric guitar looked more comfortable in hand than the three iron; the English Ryder Cup star looked equally happy with both.

Westwood was a more circumspect guest on stage, but after one or two warm-up notes where he sounded disconcertingly like Bette Midler after a night on the tiles, a quite pleasant English tenor emerged alongside Keating for one of the more unique performances of the year.

Ernie Els, who got to bed somewhere between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning still managed to pick up five birdies to win the tournament with fellow South African, Vincent Tshabalala. The winning alliance, comprised of Westwood, Hobday, Spanish supermodel Ines Sastre and Coca-Cola’s own Doug Jackson walked away with a score of 33 under par over two days.

At the end of the day, The Player Foundation and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund were the real winners. The R6 million raised will go along way, and with the profile of the Nelson Mandela Invitational growing enormously this year, the 2005 target of R10 million seems well within reach.

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