• Several professional golfers competing in the tournament in Sitges, together with staff members and volunteers, finished the first day of the tournament by participating in a beach clean
The first day of the Estrella Damm Ladies Open presented by Catalunya, being played at the Terramar Golf Club on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Sitges, Spain, concluded in a very special way, as several golfers, staff members and volunteers came together to clean Santa Margarida beach, adjacent to the 15th green.
Players including Slovenian Katja Pogacar, Maho Hayakawa from Japan and Carmen Alonso and Harang Lee from Spain, listened to volunteer experts from CRAM Foundation to hear about the effects of waste on marine life and then divided into small groups to clean the beach in the best possible way.
This activity was organised in a joint initiative by Deporte & Business (tournament organiser), Estrella Damm (main sponsor of the competition) and the CRAM Foundation (a private non-profit entity dedicated to the protection of the marine environment) and falls under the LET Celebrating the Green Presented by Dow sustainability initiative, which aims to support, recognise and participate in the sustainable work being done by the Ladies European Tour community.
The group removed 22kg of rubbish from the beach, the majority of which was plastic and Laia Torrents, Environment Educator from CRAM (Conservation and Recovery of Marine Animals) explained: “The rubbish on the beach can make its way into the sea and into the stomachs of sea turtles, sea birds, finback whales, sharks and dolphins.”
Harang Lee commented: “I think it’s super important to educate people about this. It’s so sad to see all these animals in the ocean stuck in nets and swallowing plastic. In the end, we only have one planet and we should take care of it. I don’t think we realise how much rubbish we generate. That’s why I was excited to get involved in the beach clean. I saw a lot of things that I didn’t expect to see beside the ocean, like baby pacifiers, lollipops and a lot of small things.”
Carmen Alonso added: “I think everyone has to be careful to keep the beach clean. For us, it takes a moment to throw a bottle or something away, but animals can die from these actions. We should all be good human beings and keep our planet clean.”
