Camera: South African golf superstar Ernie Els holds court at the Right to Play gala

Photography by George Pimentel

July 24, Westin Harbour Castle. Organizers of the Right to Play gala achieved the near impossible: wrangling a slew of A-listers away from Muskoka, the Hamptons and/or Lake Como in mid-summer to boogie down in Toronto and raise money for athletics programs in the developing world. South African golf superstar Ernie Els attended, despite having won the British Open two days earlier in a breathtaking come-from-behind victory, after which he announced, half-jokingly, “I’m supposed to go to Canada, but I think I’m going to blow that thing off.” Els did more than make an appearance: he vogued for the press, indulged a gaggle of camera phone–clutching men and talked golf with RBC CEO Gord Nixon (with whom he shot a round at the Rosedale Golf Club the following day). He also found time to tend to matters of international relations. “I think Canada is a great place,” Els said to chuckles during his keynote address. “I’m really glad I came.”