The Estrella Damm NA Andalucía Masters has shown once again that it is much more than a great golf tournament thanks to the initiative of the European Tour and the San Roque City Council. Hundreds of volunteers, students from schools in the area and neighbors joined their efforts with those of Santiago Tarrío and Alejandro Cañizares, two of the best Spanish players present at the tournament held at the Real Club Valderrama, to clean the Torreguadiaro beach Last Tuesday.
This initiative is part of the Green Drive program of the European Tour, created to promote social and environmental responsibility and generate a positive impact in terms of sustainability. In this case, the action that took place on the 12th had an immediate and visible mark, as the volunteers took care of collecting garbage and microplastics in this wonderful environment of the San Roque coastline.
Every year almost eight million tons of plastic waste end up in the sea and its presence is extremely harmful to marine life and, by extension, to humans, since it contributes to the reduction of biodiversity and the extinction of species. The Estrella Damm NA Andalucía Masters team organized this beach cleaning operation with a simple goal: to collect as much plastic and trash as possible so that the beach and sea are clean and safe for everyone.
The two players who accompanied the volunteers, the Galician Santiago Tarrio and the local Alejandro Cañizares, were fully involved and praised this initiative as nature lovers that they are, praising the role of the local entities and tournament sponsors that have promoted it.
“This type of action makes us all better, because in the end it is not only about playing golf, you have to teach children the impressive values that golf has, and with initiatives like this we show something more important: that we must respect the environment in order to respect ourselves, “declared Santiago Tarrío.
For his part, Alejandro Cañizares was very grateful for being able to participate in such an initiative, because being from this area of Andalusia he knows that it is necessary and that any help is welcome.. “The amount of garbage that is found on a beach like this is incredible, and we must become aware of once that we must take care of our environment, because that is to take care of ourselves too. Hopefully this will be done beyond San Roque, Andalusia and of Spain, because it is a global problem that we have to solve together, and it costs nothing to help and not to pollute, “said Cañizares himself.
The volunteers were rewarded for their efforts and their commitment as the first 200 participants received a pass to enter the Real Club Valderrama on Saturday and thus enjoy the Estrella Damm NA Andalucía Masters. It is also fair to thank His Excellency for his collaboration. San Roque City Council, the International School of Sotogrande for the selfless collaboration of so many of its young students, and the volunteers, whose effort served to clean the Torreguadiaro beach and collect more than 230 kilos of garbage.