Bankers hit the mini-fairway to score money for charity

Staff from Bank of America Merrill Lynch turned the corridors of their Central offices into a nine-hole mini-golf course and raised a six-figure sum for charity.

More than 30 staff volunteers designed the par-34 course with carpeted fairways and created ponds and sandbanks with old office supplies.

It was the seventh year that the bank had held an office mini-golf day to raise money for Operation Santa Claus, the annual charity appeal organised by the South China Morning Post and RTHK. Nineteen teams of three players each registered for the afternoon of mini-golf on Friday and HK$121,470 was raised through entry fees, sponsorships and pre-event fundraisers.

Each hole displayed the creativity of staff as players navigated their golf balls though reams of paper, boxes, plastic tubes, old Ovaltine jars, shelving and even a narrow path bordered by balloons. The course weaved its way through two levels of the high-rise building, passing the research department, communal kitchen areas and meeting rooms.

Players came from a variety of departments including investment bankers, traders, research analysts and information-technology staff.

Each team could buy penalty vouchers to reduce their score, with all the proceeds going to charity. Joining the players were RTHK's head of English programme services Bryan Curtis and senior executive Gabriel Butler, who heads the bank's global markets division.