The story behind #SergioAndFriends

Less than 24 hours after the final putt dropped at Royal Troon, 18 of the world’s best golfers assembled in Switzerland for an action-packed, star-studded charity day in aid ofthe Sergio Garcia Foundation. Introducing, #SergioAndFriends.

With the dust barely settled on Henrik Stenson’s incredible maiden Major victory at The 145th Open Championship, the proud new owner of the Claret Jug even made a last-minute dash from Ayrshire to Golf Club Bad Ragaz to honour his commitment to old friend and Ryder Cup team-mate Garcia, and the Swede was joined in the Swiss Alps by a plethora of golfing royalty.

Indeed, there were a total of six players from the current top 11 places in the Official World Golf Ranking in attendance at the charity day in Rory McIlroy (four), Stenson (five), Rickie Fowler (seven), Adam Scott (eight), Garcia (ten) and Justin Rose (11).

They were joined by 2015 Open winner Zach Johnson, Nicolas Colsaerts, Luke Donald, Thomas Bjorn, Lee Westwood, Justin Thomas, Gary Woodland, Alex Levy, Bernd Wiesberger, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Billy Horschel and guest of honour, José Maria Olazábal. That’s a lot of golfing pedigree right there – namely four former World Number Ones, 11 Ryder Cup players, a combined 303 professional wins and 11 Major titles. Not bad.

The pro-am event, christened #SergioAndFriends, helped to raise awareness of and money for the host’s charitable organisation – The Sergio Garcia Foundation – and local charity, the Children’s Cancer Foundation in Switzerland.

Garcia’s foundation was established in 2002 with the aims of promoting social inclusion, through the game of golf, for both economically deprived and disabled children.

Here’s how the day played out…

Sunday 8.39pm:Many of the players arrived in Switzerland before Stenson clinched the Claret Jug. Among them, Luke Donald, Billy Horschel, Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy and Sergio himself grouped around a phone by the pool to watch the end of The Open.

8.45am:As the day began at the Grand Resort in Bad Ragaz, players woke to sunshine, something they didn’t see a lot of at Troon.

9.02am:Less than 12 hours after holing a putt for 63 to win his first Major, Henrik Stenson was boarding a flight to support his good friend Sergio in Switzerland. Only difference? He had an extra piece of hand luggage.

9.26am:Former FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel took to Twitter when he woke up to share the view from his room at the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz.

9.45am:Horschel wasn’t the only player impressed with the view from the hotel.

10.30am:As players began to gather to warm up for the day’s Pro-Am, Angela Akins walked us down the range on Facebook Live, speaking to likes of Rory, Rickie and Justin about why they had come to Switzerland to support Sergio and his foundation.

10.35am:

The last man to arrive at the course, understandably, was the Champion Golfer of the Year, Henrik Stenson. He was greeted with a warm reception from the lucky few in attendance as well as a hug from the tournament host.

10.39am:Among the 18 man field at #SergioAndFriends were the last three Open champions: Rory McIlroy, Johnson and Stenson. This was the moment Stenson and Johnson met on the range.

11.05am:Once the players had hit a few balls and interacted with the crowd, Sergio gathered everyone together for a group photo. The players in attendance have over 300 professional wins including 11 Majors.

11.10am:We weren’t about to let this opportunity go to waste, and handed Sergio a GoPro to capture what we believe is perhaps the best selfie ever taken. Can you name all 18 players?

11.15am:Before heading out to the course, there was one more job for the host. With his friends and fellow players gathered around him, Sergio explained why we were all in Switzerland.

Introducing #SergioAndFriends...

Get your questions in for the best players in the world and we'll ask them. pic.twitter.com/qxAXOWtmTn

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) 18 July 2016

12.11pm:The images and videos coming from Switzerland started to go global on social media and several fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts on #SergioAndFriends

12.40pm:One of the invited players unable to make it to Switzerland, due to injury, was Garcia’s Ryder Cup teammate Ian Poulter. The Englishman, fresh off his analyst work at Troon, showed his support on Twitter.

12.45pm:The golf course in Bad Ragaz is a tight, short layout built in a valley amidst the north east portion of the Alps. Once play got under way in a shotgun start, Bernd Wiesberger was among those who took to social media to share a photo of the spectacular views on offer.

1.02pm:Throughout the day we were encouraging fans to get involved in #SergioAndFriends by sending in questions for the players to answer. First up, was Javier Pintos, who asked Sergio which course we were at.

1.30pm:Rafa Cabrera-Bello is enjoying a career season in 2016 and looks likely to be in the European Ryder Cup team alongside Garcia in September. We captured this photo of the World Number 27 taking aim at the picturesque par three 17th hole.

1.44pm:Among six US golfers in Switzerland was Zach Johnson. Who better to answer Keith Paterson’s question about what players do with the Claret Jug, than the man who has had it in his possession for the last 12 months.

1.55pm:Clearly Switzerland made an impression on Johnson.

3.07pm:This was Rickie Fowler’s first visit to Switzerland and the American made the most it, sharing this selfie from our Twitter account as well as posting a few photos and videos on our European Tour Snapchat account (european.tour).

3.35pm:Easily the most in-demand player at #SergioAndFriends was Open champion Henrik Stenson. The Swede signed autographs for the lucky few fans who attended the event and even took time to do a Live Q&A on our Facebook page on the 12th hole.

3.53pm:Next up to answer one of our Twitter questions was Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts, who was asked by Dan which player he would room with on holiday.

4.08pm:One player in attendance who was not playing was Jose Maria Olazabal. The two-time Masters champion has been suffering with a long-standing arthritic condition in recent months but kindly answered Warren’s question on Twitter about when we might see him back on the course.

4.25pm:Shortly after his round, Justin Thomas took to his social media accounts to tell his fans how much fun he was having in the Alps.

5.32pm:Clearly impressed with the players he was with on the course, England’s Lee Westwood joked on Twitter, curious about the potential World Ranking points available with a field like that assembled #SergioAndFriends.

7.50pm:Before jetting off to home to Belfast in the evening, World Number Four Rory McIlroy took some time away from the gala dinner to answer fan questions on Facebook Live.

8.15pm:Two players who enjoyed the dinner and party were Rickie Fowler and Thomas Bjorn. The pair took this selfie together on Fowler’s Twitter account.

9.35pm:As the players relaxed after a busy day raising around a $1 million dollars for The Sergio Garcia Foundation, they were entertained by the sounds of Kenny G on the saxophone.

Tuesday 8.19am:The morning after the day before, the last word of #SergioAndFriends goes to our host.