AHEAD of the upcoming 2011 season, former Professional Golfers Association of Nigeria (PGAN) Order of Merit leader, Oche Andrew Odoh, appears to be unrelenting in his bid to break into the world ranking.
Despite having thousands on its roll, currently, no Nigerian amateur or professional player is mentioned on the World Amateur Golf Ranking as well as the official World Golf Ranking for professionals, led by Englishman Lee Westwood.
Odoh, who took steps, including playing in a number of events sanctioned by the Royal and Ancient (Rand A) Club, St. Andrews, Scotland across the continent this outgoing season, told The Guardian recently that there was no going back on his determination to break into the elite class of golfers.
“In 2011, I will again make conscious efforts to break into the world ranking because it is not a pleasant thing to realise that there is no Nigerian there yet,” he said. “To attain this, I will try getting into either the European or Asian tours in the forthcoming season.
“I am really working towards getting a reliable sponsor ahead of the start of the season, because whatever step I will take will be really dependent on the sponsor I get and the tour, which calendar is favourable to my plans.”
Though his main goal for next season would be breaking into the world ranking, he added: “I am not looking the way of the American Tour because the way of life in Europe and Asia would be okay for me than what obtains in the States. Besides, it is in the European Tour that the main action is.”
Only recently, Odoh tied the development of the Nigerian tour to the quality of sponsorship it gets from within the country, even as he lamented that most professional golf sponsors in the country see their efforts as charity rather than business.
According to him, “there should be a distinction between sponsoring golf as business and doing charity, because that is how some of these big men in Nigeria see their sponsorship of golf. Professional golf cannot get anywhere with this kind of atmosphere.
“So serious sponsors should be sought, so that playing golf professionally can be seen as a profession that one can engage in and live as comfortable as other professionals are living. Without this kind of condition being put in place, the younger professionals will never aspire to dethrone the older ones.”
SOURCE:ngrguardiannews.com
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