Encomium
All is set for the MTN World Golfers Championship National Finals billed for the Ibom Golf Course, Akwa Ibom State. The event which will attract golfers from Nigeria and beyond is scheduled to start from september 12 to 14, 2014.
Already golfers who qualified from the regional championships in Nigeria are warming up for the national finals. Winners in the national finals will represent Nigeria at the World Golfers Championship slated for Durban, South Africa, later in the year.
The regional championship started from the South West region of the country in Lakowe Lake Golf Estate Ajah, Lagos. The medal-format tournament teed off with excitement. Flight after flight, players took to the course in contest for the limited ticket to the finals, with the sun mildly shinning over the turf until sometime past noon when a heavy downpour came drenching the players.
The train later moved to Port Harcourt, Rivers state for the eastern regional qualifiers. The excitement and buzz created by the tournament engulfed the entire Garden City as over 100 players filed out with their respective teams to the tee – off point, throwing banters at one other while cleverly nursing an ambition for a slot at the eastern regional qualifiers. The gentlemen’s passion for their favourite game came to the fore as scores of business and political bigwigs teed-off to compete for the 15 slots up for grabs at the qualifiers.
The Northern Regional Qualifiers of the tournament held Saturday, August 30, 2014, at the IBB Golf and Country Club, Abuja. It was an exciting moment for golfers who came from the northern part of the country as they wined and dined at a gala night on Friday that preceded the tournament which kicked off as early as 7am on Saturday.
For the past seven years, MTN has been consistently sponsoring the game of golf in Nigeria. This, no doubt, has contributed immensely in the development of the game. Through this corporate support, many would- be amateur players have gone ahead to register and take their golf lessons. Many have improved on their handicaps, with players who were on handicap 20-25 are now playing 0-5 handicap. Apart from players improving their games, activities that precede each golf tournament have become veritable networking platforms to interact. And some of these interactions have translated into mutually beneficial, long lasting relationships. These have been the case since the leading ICT and telecommunications company took over the title sponsorship of the World Golfers Championship in 2007.
-FOLUSO SAMUEL
