Steve Oma-Ofozor,
Lagos
About 500 golfers are expected to participate in IBB International Golf and Country Club Captain’s Inaugural Tournament tagged ‘Harmony Inaugural Cup’ in Abuja between July 15 and 16, 2022.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Andrew Yakubu, who is chairman of the Captains Inaugural Tournament Committee said that the tournament would hold at the club’s standard golf course with 18 holes covering over 100 hectares.
Thus, the event aimed at officially ushering in the tenure of the new club Captain, Mike Ekoja, will on Friday July 15 witness Day-1 event with Men Handicap 19-28 and Ladies Handicap 19-36 in action, just a cocktail comes up at 6:00 p.m. same day.
Saturday July 16 is the ceremonial tee off with ‘masters of the game’ in action – Men and Ladies Handicaps 0 – 18 as well as IBB Club’s Professional in action; dinner and prize presentation is at 6:00 p.m. to round off the event.
However, Yakubu, a former Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) now Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, noted that the club established in 1991 has over 5000 active members making it, “one of the largest golf clubs in the country and places us at the premier status of golf courses in Nigeria.”
“We have two major event days – Friday and Saturday. On Friday, we are going to have the higher handicap men and ladies event. It will be followed immediately with a cocktail that will introduce the main tournament of the lower handicap people, who are the more experienced players coming on Saturday.
“Every activity will attract a range of prizes and trophies that will be presented to those who did well. It’s always an exciting period. Golfers look forward to this tournament – to these trophies and prizes – and they will be presented on the last day when we will be having the end-of-tournament dinner.”
Yakubu affirmed that about 500 golfers are being expected as he used the occasion to correct the impression that golf is an elitist game: “The game of golf is not necessarily an elitist game and that is why anytime we have a programme, we look for sponsors both within and outside the club. The whole idea is to remove this major barrier.”
He added, “So, most of the time, these tournaments try to open up a level playing field for participants: you don’t have to be the richest person to play this game; we promote amateurs, we promote professionals; we have professionals that don’t have the means of sponsoring themselves; when atalet identify a talent, you support them. We have quite a number that we have done, either as a club or as individuals.
“I know that quite a number of us here have the privilege – once a talent is identified, we support them; quite a number of them have gone to South Africa, some are right now in Zimbabwe; they were training to become professional golfers and that is an opportunity they have to launch them into both the local and international scene. Once they are spotted, the sky will never limit their progress.”
Yakubu noted, “For the children, in fact, in a week’s time, we will kick start what we call the Children’s Clinic. It normally comes every summer and in a week, the children will assemble and nobody takes record of who their parents are. We are sponsoring this one here. A few weeks ago, we did one in Kaduna…and all over the country to stimulate the interest of the younger ones in this game of golf and to remove that impression that it is an elitist game.”
The ex-GMD of NNPC recalled that the club held its Annual General Meeting in April where it elected a new leadership led by the Captain in 2022, Michael Onoja Ekoja, who is the 25th captain of the club.
He said, “Traditionally, when the captain comes in, he has two major events in the middle of so many other activities that he drives during the year, starting with the Captains Inaugural Tournament, this is the tradition of the club. The captain has captioned this edition, ‘Harmony Tournament.’ This is the ceremonial aspect of kick-starting his tenure.”
