Ted Iwere, the outgoing Captain of the golf section of Nigeria’s foremost golf destination, Ikoyi Club 1938, has stated that the Club’s primary concern is not in increasing its membership figures but getting its facilities up to date, and consistent with what is obtainable in other parts of the world.
With the recent emergence of a number of golf clubs across the country, some of which can boast of modern facilities in line with the rate of technological advancements, it has become challenging for some of the established golf clubs to retain old members, or attract new ones, which, in turn, affects their chances of raising much-needed capital to maintain and update their facilities.
Iwere, whose tenure as Captain expires at the end of this week’s Annual General Meeting, is however not in the least perturbed about this development, insisting the challenge before him and the Club’s incoming Executive Committee is making the Club’s facilities world-class.
“Our problem is not membership,” said Iwere. “If you ask me, I’d say we have too many members, and I seriously mean that because in the Golf Section alone we have over 3,000 members. So our challenge is not to get new members, our challenge is to make our facilities world-class. We have enough members to play on this course.
“As it is I don’t know of any other course that is busier than this course, and I have played in many courses all over the world. I have not seen a course that is this busy.
“In a day we get over 300 people teeing off, so our problem is not membership; our challenge is how to keep our facilities in peak condition.”
He added: “Apart from the course, we have the Club House, and we need to make the Club House more comfortable and more pleasurable so that people can spend quality time. That way when they get on the course and play the game of golf, they would enjoy it. That is our challenge.”
Asked how Ikoyi Club 1938 is responding to this challenge, Iwere said: “We have all kinds of initiatives that are coming up but our biggest problem is getting the funding. But I am sure that in the years ahead we would, apart from looking at club funding sources, also be looking at sponsorship opportunities from the corporate community so that they can help us improve the Club’s facilities.”
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