October 23, 2015 By Sahr Morris Jr.
The International Golf and Country Club in Abuja will play host in December to the inaugural tournament of the West Africa Golf Tour, a new invitational event created to promote and develop the game in the region and to expose new talents from the region.
According to This DayLive, the goal of the West Africa Golf Tour is to become a world-class golf event that allows West African golfing talents to compete and be put on the world stage at international tournaments.
The tournament will focus its attention on regional talents and to reach a wide audience that will stimulate development of new golf courses and sports facilities, providing better playing, business and career opportunities in West Africa.
With Sierra Leone’s James Lebbie the only West African among the 108 African golfers who have been inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame, the tournament aims to break that jinx which also sees majority of Hall of Famers — 92 — are South Africans. The list includes 10 Zimbabweans, two Namibians, one Kenyan, one Zambian and one Egyptian.
According to the This DayLive, after the inaugural West Africa Golf Tour Abuja invitational tournament in December, events will be staged monthly in different tour destinations in Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
The medium also reported that all tournaments will have a minimum prize purse of $50,000 and for players to be eligible they must be registered members of the tour.
The tournament format is stroke play with 120 players. The top 50 players and ties will make the cut after 36 holes. The tour will end with a $100,000 championship featuring the top 50 players, with the most points playing in at least half the official tournaments.