Abuja based professional golfer, Kingsley Oparaku has forfeited his place at the on-going $150, 000 3E Actuaries Open Championship in Equatorial Guinea to feature in the first Governor Cup holding this weekend at the golf section of Aba Sports Club.
Oparaku, the only other Nigerian to have led the West African Golf Tour ranking outside Oche Odoh says his chances at the Mongomo event was very bright given his present form, but he has chosen to feature at Aba to communicate his gratitude to the course where he was raised and especially the government, for the investment in the game.
“ My place in the 3E Championship was purely on merit because it was only the top eight players from last edition that will be featured, but the state government’s choice of this week for the Governor’s Cup has not given me any choice, I just had to withdraw. I cannot trade anything for Aba; it is the place of my birth in golf” he said.
Oparaku says that the Governor’s Cup in Aba is also the first event that would be staged at the Aba Golf Club since all its putting surfaces were converted to green and it would be a new challenge for the players.
“For most players this weekend, this inaugural Governor’s Cup will give them a new side of the course as the greens would have changed the course from what they knew before,” he added.
Professional players would be vying for a slice of the N5million naira total purse staked the 72 holes contest billed for December 8 to 11 in Aba.
Amateur players would be joining the fray from Saturday, December 10, for a 36-hole play that ends on December 11.
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