The new Lady Captain of Abeokuta Golf Club, Adetunji Oluwatoyin Alaba, has disclosed that the Course will play host to the ‘Third Abeokuta Ladies Open, 2023’ for female golfers from Africa continent between November 27 to December 3, 2023.

The Lady Captain made this known to newsmen at the official tee-off of the 2023 Ladies Sign Out and In Golf Kitty competition held at the Abeokuta Golf Club in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

Adetunji who is the current champion of Ikeja Golf club explained that, Nigeria Golf Federation Ladies has approved the date for the competition.

According to her, the third edition of the ladies open would allow players from Kenya, Rwanda, Gambia, Egypt, South Africa, Togo, and Mauritius to participate in the competition.

She stressed further that, as parts of her grassroots developmental programmes, the club will organize, as part of the ladies open, a ‘caddies day’ on November 28, 2023 to nurture them to stardom.

"In this programme, we're going to be bringing in caddies to play. Do you know that the caddies turn pro majorly. Because they are more trained once they follow a player, they watch your games and even become better than those that just come on board to play. So, because of that we're going to be having a caddies day on November 28.

"Then, we will have the pros. Then, we will have the ladies pros because we have ladies professional golfers in Nigeria right now. But that is still going to be November/December.

“So that's the first thing I did. I will also bring more tournaments for the ladies. When you have more competitions, the ladies will be excited to come out.”

She called on the government at all levels and corporate organizations to render support geared towards promoting golf at the grassroot levels.

Adetunji said there was the need to encourage more women to participate in the game of golf with corporate and government sponsorship.

Adetunji listed some of the programmes to encourage female participation in the game of golf to include absorption of more girls into the ladies section of the club.

She added that the government should not focus only on football but on all other sports, especially golf.

She said, "Instead of the government focusing their energy only on football, why don't we look for other chances, other places, where we can bring younger people on board? We have young people that are laying there and are fully talented, but they get no sponsor.

"People go outside to represent Nigeria every day, we have international competitions lined up, and just because we don't have sponsors, a lot of people could not go."

The new Captain added that her passion for the game to represent the country made her determined and focused on the game.

She revealed further that she will be representing Ogun state at the next National Sports Festival slated for Ogun in 2024, adding that she will also represent the country at international competitions including the Ghana Ladies Open.

Also speaking, the First Vice President, Ladies Golf Association of Nigeria, Evelyn Oyome expressed concern that other African countries had been making waves in the game on the continent.

She said there was the need for more sponsorships and support from the government for the country to sustain her giant of Africa status in the area of sports.

Evelyn who expressed satisfaction with the impressive participation of female golfers in the golf kitty said efforts should be intensified to ensure that females discovered at any competition were nurtured towards bringing Laurel for the country.

In his remark, the captain of Abeokuta golf club, Ladi Adegbite who noted that the growth of golf as a country is slow, said the club had embarked on various drive to encourage more participation in the game.

The Ladies Golf Kitty which attracted over 200 golf players from different states of the federation was put together to usher in new lady captain of Abeokuta golf club.

Meanwhile, Halimat Agbeniyi emerged the overall winner of the 2023 AGC Ladies Sign in and Out Golf Kitty with 42 points, while Biodun Hazzan of Ikeja Golf Club won the longest Ladies drive and Lateefat Muhammed of Sagamu Golf Club won the nearest to the pin shot.

Folake Omoniyi won the Ladies member 29 Handicap with 37 points, while Biodun Hassan won the Guest Ladies 17 Handicap with 38 points.