Over 150 golfers enter Saigontourist tournament

      Over 150 local and foreign golfers have registered to join the yearly Saigontourist Golf Tournament 2009 which opens Saturday at the East Course of the Vietnam Golf and Country Club in HCMC’s Thu Duc district in HCMC.
According to the organizing committee, Saigontourist Holding Company, the competitors will include consuls and businessmen who are the partners of the company.
Golfers will compete for the two hole-in-one prizes, each a Mercedes C200K Elegance, and 17 other prizes.
A prize ceremony will take place in the five-star Caravelle Hotel on Saturday night where participants will have a chance to win a lucky draws.
Saigontourist aims to raise VND500 million from the tournament for the HCMC Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients.
"We want to include our business with charity activities for the company’s social responsibility," Nguyen Huu Tho, general director of Saigontourist, said in a company press release.
Tho also said Saigontourist wanted to promote golf combined with tourism.
The tournament sponsors are the Vegas Club of the five-star Caravelle, RGB and the Bold Look of Kohler, other co-sponsors and around 30 members of Saigontourist.
The event was first launched in 2006. Since then the company has raised nearly VND1.3 billion for charity via three golf tournaments.
The company reported that it donated nearly VND8 billion for charity activities each year.