The IBB International Golf and Country Club, Abuja has unfolded a series of activities that will formally terminate the tenure of Captain Banjo Obaleye-led executive committee of the club.
The programme, dubbed 2024 Captain Banjo Obaleye’s Cup, started on Monday with the staff and caddies kitty and tennis matches for all categories and continued yesterday with Pros tournament and tennis quarterfinal matches.
A special kitty and tennis semifinal for double matches hold today ahead of the official climax on Saturday with the main Captain’s Cup that will incorporate the presentation of prizes and a gala night.
No fewer than 500 golfers will compete in the stroke-play event over the par 72 IBB golf course.
In addition, handicap indexes 16.7 and above Men, 23.9 and above ladies, all veteran’s categories (Men & Ladies) as well as tennis finals for veteran singles, men’s doubles and Ladies matches are billed for Thursday, April 18, while sponsors and lower handicap indexes 9.9 to 16.6 Men and 14.5 to 23.7 Ladies will have their turn on the 18-holes Green Golf Course on Friday, April 19. Briefing newsmen at the Club House yesterday, chairman of the organising committee, Senator Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru, said Captain Banjo Obaleye’s Cup 2024 would leave a legacy at the club that the participants and club members will remember for many years to come.
He said the event has distinctive features in accordance with international best practice that will give the club a facelift.”We are doing this to celebrate a consummate sportsman, astute administrator and a serial entrepreneur, Dr Banjo Obaleye, who brought his experience in public service, property management and administration and finance sector to bear in the administration of the IBB International Golf and Country Club in the last 12 month with a lot innovation and improvement on the golf course,” Senator Basiru said.
Senator Basiru said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed his minister of sports development, Senator John Owan Enoh, to perform the ceremony tee off of the tournament on his behalf on Saturday, April 20.
The celebrant and outgoing captain of the club, Dr Banjo Obaleye said his administration had in the last twelve months laid a strong foundation that will solve structural issues facing the club.
“In the last one year, we were able to do a lot of things. The problems in many organisations are from the roots and if you start only cutting trees from the top, it will stop it from growing. So, you have to look down to see where the problem is coming from and how it can be tackled, but you can’t tackle a problem in one tenure, it is a gradual process.
I’m happy to say that we have laid a strong foundation to solve structural issues the club is facing and the club is now on a sound footing to come up with better information and programmes that will benefit everybody.
Golf has become a game to reckon with globally, years back, it was restricted to the elite but now we have discovered that many others who are not in the elite category have found their ways there through hard work and it has become a million dollars game. The Master Golf Tournament ended on Sunday and we saw multi-million dollars won by different participants. “We are not attracting institutional sponsorships that can get some of our talents to global golf space.
A few months ago, the Ladies Open was held here and we discovered a young girl who came up as a promising player for tomorrow if necessary support is gathered for her. She just finished secondary school and she is 17-year-old. So, we have decided to look at this area by putting in place an endowment fund for golf development among the youth from age 9 to 17. We proposed that the club should champion this with the seed capital of N10million while we look for donors to see how we can sponsor some of these talents.”
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