Rory Starts His Foundation...

From an unbylined AP story.

And For Immediate Release:

‘The Rory Foundation’ launches with The 6 Bags Project

Today, Thursday 10th January at 1pm (GMT) in Holywood, Co Down, the birthplace of World Number 1 Golfer and 2012 US PGA Tour Player of the Year Rory McIlroy, details of the first fundraising initiative of The Rory Foundation were released.
 
The Rory Foundation – a registered charity (1137174) has been set up by Rory to help children from around the world. Rory said from Dubai today “When I was younger my parents sacrificed everything to allow me to play the game I love. Having that support from my family gave me the opportunity to chase my dreams. But I know that every child is not so fortunate. My aim is that The Rory Foundation will support children’s charities big and small, around the world, that try to give kids that helping hand”.
 
The 6 Bags Project is the first fundraiser that The Rory Foundation is undertaking. For each of the first 6 tournaments Rory plays in for the first four months of 2013 Rory’s golf bag will carry the name and logo of a children’s charity.  During the tournament the bag will be auctioned through www.roryfoundation.com with all monies raised going to the featured charity.  The aim where possible is that each charity will be active within the community where the tournament is being held.
 
The first charity whose logo will be carried on the golf bag in Abu Dhabi is a charity from Rory’s home – The Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children (NICFC).  Gillian Cleery, CEO for the charity said today “We are so proud to be the first of the 6 nominated charities benefiting from The 6 Bags project. This association with Rory will not only have a significant impact on children and young people who look up to Rory and are inspired by him, but will also help to maintain Rory’s very important links to Northern Ireland as he moves increasingly into a global circuit. Our aim is to create a brand new therapeutic centre for children and their families any monies raised from being part of The 6 Bags Project will go towards fulfilling this dream”.
 
Gerry McIlroy, Rory’s father who is one of four trustees of The Rory Foundation said “Myself and my wife Rosie are very proud of what Rory has achieved on and off the golf course. The creation of this Foundation is, for Rory, we feel a natural progression and is ultimately about giving back. “
 
The 6 tournaments are listed below with the respective charity that will benefit. The exception is The Masters where the charity has been decided upon but will be  announced at a later date.
 
(1)HSBC Abu Dhabi (17 – 20th January) – Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children

(2) WGC -Accenture Match Play Championship (20 – 24th February): Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson

(3) Honda Classic (28th February – 3rd March):  Child Protection Team of the Palm Beaches

(4) WGC-Cadillac Championship (7th – 10th March): First Tee Miami-Dade Amateur Golf Association

(5) Shell Houston Open: (25th -31st March):  Chinquapin School

(6) The Masters (11th-14th April):  To Be Announced
 
The 6 Bags Project is the first in a number of innovative fundraisers that The Rory Foundation is going to be involved with during 2013. As Rory himself said from Abu Dhabi  “I had a childhood, a great childhood and if The Rory Foundation can help one child achieve a better quality of life then job done”.

Comments

[Irish Golf Nut]

"I had a childhood, a great childhood ..." - and that for me is the difference between Rors and Eldrick.

Rory even bought his parents a house as a thank-you after his first win in Dubai in 2009 at the ripe old age of 19.

Good on you & hope you dont change

[Phil the Author]

That is a wonderful thing but I must ask, why limit it to 6 tournaments only?

[Ghillie]

@Phil: early days in this new venture. He probably has loads of ideas and perhaps after this runs out he will be ready to launch another.

[Elf]

Cool idea, best part about it is the local charities. I hope this is just the start and the foundation gets deeper from here

[Josh]

This is one of the best ideas I've heard of in a long while...great for utilizing local charities.

And I think the 6 keeps those bags a bit exclusive...If he auctioned off every bag he used, the novelty would quickly wear off.

[JSS]

I wonder as golf crumbles around the world, courses close, revenue down, if any of these golfers would give a dime to support the game and maybe help it grow?

FYI, The First Tee is not the answer.

[3foot1]

I like Rory, and I'm glad he's starting the foundation. The 6 Bags thing sounds like it will raise awareness, but will it raise much money? Will someone bid $20,000? $50,000? $100,000 If he wins won of the tournaments, he'll make around a million. What about offering 5-10 percent of his winnings to the charity in question? Surely his endorsements will bring him far more than his prize money, and offering to tithe like this might bring him even more endorsements.

[johnnnycz]

It's a noble way to get some tax write offs...i'll give em that. Not surprising with Rory signing with the big swoosh, I'm sure he got some advice.

Methinks the value of each bag is pretty much dependent on Rory's performance in each of the 6 events. If he does a vintage Tiger Woods special on the field at Augusta or Bay Hill...then the bag might attract a pretty penny and be of great benefit to kids who need it more than Rory does.

@JSS: That is a great question. I would answer in the negative, at least most wouldn't. It will be an issue in the near future I'm afraid.

[creek]

Give a dime to grow the game? To whom would they give their dime? What is the definition of growing the game and who gets to decide. Maybe tiger and Rory look around and figure that all by themselves they grow the game by doing their job. Or not. Maybe they decide they should practice and win golf tournaments and let other people "grow the game".

[Steve]

Caveat Emptor...since there's no shortage of celeb foundations used primarily to enrich the celebs family and friends...just sayin'.

[Ghillie]

Like the Payne Stewart Award or grant or whatever it is ($100,000) going to Tom Lehman, who apparently puts it into the Lehman Family Foundation. Will the latter now "award" it to the John Cook Family Foundation? Or the Tiggy-Woo Foundation (hard to see a connection there; Stewart and Lehman were both Born-Agains. Oddly enough.)? Wherever the original $100K came from, it could pretty well make its way around the PGA Tour without doing any good to anyone.

[smails]

where does it say how much rory is kicking into the charity?