Joel Ajayi
The maiden edition of the Rowland Adewumi Classic golf Tournament teed off in grand style on Saturday morning at the Prestigious IBB International Golf and Country Club in Abuja where both professional and amateur golfers are slugging it out for honour.
The competition was part of activities lined up to celebrate Otunba Rowland Adewumi’s 50th birthday
The celebrant arrived at the flourishing IBB golf course looking sporty and hearty in a celebration mood accompanied by his beautiful wife, Mrs Bukola Adewumi “The Yeye” as well as IBB golf Captain Ibrahim Babayo, Ladies Captain, and other dignitaries who graced the occasion as he officially teed-off the tourney when with he styles sent the ball into the fairway in his first drive to open the the tournament.
While speaking the soft-spoken Otunba Adewunmi said his reason for the tourney is part of his desire to grow the game of golf further.
According to him, I think the game of golf has been lagging, so I just decided to make my contribution to develop the game better.
“This is the inaugural tournament and I intend to make it a yearly affair in the spirit of developing the sport further, so apart from the game, we intend to do charity today, so we are supporting about four charity homes and orphanages and widows, so it’s not all about the game but at the same time supporting charity.
“The tournament has come to stay, I love the game, this is the inaugural one, and believe me subsequent years will even be better than this, and we intend to go international if possible.
“We need to support the pros in the country,, because if you look at the ranking in the world, Nigerian pros are not performing better, so I think the private sector, the government, and other stakeholders need to support the pros as well to lift up the game to a higher height,” he said.
In his remark, the IBB International Golf and Country Club Captain Ibrahim Babayo extolled the support and commitment of the celebrant toward the growth of the game of golf in the country and beyond.
“We are here to for the maiden edition of the Rowland Adewumi professionals and Amateurs golf classic and to also celebrate Adewumi who is an excellent golfer (handicap 7) who is celebrating his 50th birthday and also starting his Pro-Am tournament which he has told me is going to be a yearly event.
“We can thank him enough because this is what the game needs in Nigeria.
“We have got talents that are not opportune to be exposed to this game and this gentleman, a philanthropist is doing that, creating the platform for the talents.
“I can tell you what he has done for us in this club is unprecedented, so we wish him a happy birthday and pray
“We thank him for deepening the game of golf in Nigeria, we thank him for the sponsorship he’s been doing in IBB golf club, he’s one of our biggest donors and he’s been supportive of all our programs.
“In July we have an annual clinic, where for two weeks, the young ones come here to train and out of them we pick the best and we put them under our academy, we have an academy in IBB golf club that nurtures these young talents, we try to catch them young, so very soon we will be seeing some of our young talents, maybe in the West African tour, the African tour, the European tour and the ultimate maybe the PGA, so we that as a serious part of IBB golf club and Rowland Adewumi has been one of the people that have been supporting this cause for quite a while.”
However, the maiden edition of the Rowland Adewumi Classic Tournament highlighted the vibrant golfing talent in the country and provided a thrilling spectacle for all involved.
