Birdies4Rhinos: The conservation initiative championed by players

In honour of World Wildlife Day, we’re taking a closer look at Birdies4Rhinos – a charity started and championed by European Tour players Justin Walters and Dean Burmester.

Birdies4Rhinos is a charity which was fuelled by a desire to aid wildlife conservation and the protection of rhinos in South Africa.

Started just over five years ago by European Tour players Justin Walters and Dean Burmester, the charity raises money to help in the fight against poaching of rhinos through every birdie recorded by players involved.

Walters was the initial instigator of the idea, having been motivated to do something one day after noticing a worrying lack of rhinos on a game drive with his family.

Knowing he wanted to protect rhinos for future generations, Walters approached both his manager and Burmester about creating an idea that would see them give back by using golf to help.

“The idea for our charity Birdies4Rhinos was actually born at the Alfred Dunhill Championship five years ago,” explained Burmester in his player blog last December.

“On Tuesday evening Justin Walters had gone into the park for a long drive with his family and didn’t see one rhino and realised he didn’t want his kids to grow up not knowing what a rhino is.

“The next morning he spoke to our manager, and he then came up to me in the players’ lounge and said ‘listen Burmy I’ve got this idea, are you on board?’ and I said ‘dude, let’s do it’.

There is no obligation or set amount for players to donate but rather a policy to ‘donate what we can’, and it’s an initiative which has only grown in strength and numbers over the past few years. Now, a Birdies4Rhinos leaderboard exists throughout the year, and the charity also works with sculptors to help create pieces that they auction off.

“It’s snowballed into this amazing project we have now; we work with great sculptors who make sculptures for our auction, and we’ve now got a total of 18 golfers. We’re all passionate about it, and we all just donate what we can.”

One of those ambassadors is Justin Rose, and Burmester said his agreement to join was a big moment for the cause.

“A big moment was when Justin [Walters] approached Justin Rose in Ireland, and he said ‘I know you were born here, I know your mum is South African, you’ve got to be passionate about it’, and he jumped on board, which helped raise our profile a lot.”

In addition to the money raised by players and donations, the charity is also now involved in a project with ‘Connect Conservation’ that helps to protect rhinos in Sabi Sands.

“We’ve also joined Connect Conservation, who save wildlife all over the world, and we’re involved in a project that helps protect rhinos in Sabi Sands using a lot of technology,” Burmester explained.

“In the last five years they’ve only lost one rhino in the whole project, which is amazing. They’ve really taken us to a new level the last two years, and Dimension Data and Doc Watson need a lot of credit for that.

“We’ve had the opportunity to go there and experience the whole process, and it’s humbling to know that the better we play the more difference we make, so it’s a cool motivation. We all just want to save these beautiful animals, and hopefully one day we can get the poaching down to nothing.”

Find out more: @Birdies4Rhinos