ST. Mark Golf Course Akpegede in Otupku would host the full assembly of the Nigerian Professional Golfers from February 1st to 4th, 2017 when the Pa Aikwuta Mark Memorial Championship will be in full swing.
The four-day will officially open the 2017 professional season as players start a fresh hustle for place on the Tour Order of Merit (ranking). Sunday Odegha led the 2016 Tour;s OOM, and he is the player to best when the event gets underway.
Tournament Director of the PGA of Nigeria, Uche Eze says that the first event is always a tensed one and it takes beyond your skills to finish well there; “you will need to be very calm and very focused otherwise you will pay deerly for every mistake” he said.
Continuing he adds that “The Tour first event is also our Tour Card event, where players are who falls outside top-thirty in the previous years are given chance to fight for a place in the exempt class that will not pre-qualify for events for the rest of the season. This puts a lot of burden on players naturally and calls for some measure of character to sail.”
The Tour Card event would tee-off on Tuesday January 31st ahead of the main event which is scheduled for February 1-4.
Tour number one player Odegha lost last year’s version on play-off to Ghana’s Vincent Torgah and believes this event sets the tone for his to get his pound of flesh.
“I enter for every event to win it. I am doing pretty fine and I am in good spirit. This is the first event of the year and I am not going to be taking chances at all” he said.
Though Odegha has hinted that he is preparing to spend some time this season on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa, he is equally ambitious of keeping his rating back home.
Leave a Reply