Golf
The Nigerian Golf Federation (NGF) believes the country will continue to stutter in major multi-medal championships unless it changed its unfair treatment of other sports.
Joining in the call for government to also pay adequate attention to multi-medal sports instead of the undue concentration on football, the NGF believes that more Nigerian youths will find employment in sports when such disciplines as golf, boxing, athletics, wrestling and handball, among others, are helped to grow.
NGF Vice President, Kunle Dada, who spoke on the state of golf and ways to make the sport attractive as career choice for Nigerian youths, believe that Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, will be writing hi9s name in gold if he brought golf to the level it has attained in most developed countries.
He said, “Some of the richest sportsmen in the world come from golf. This is a sport that can take poor boys away from the streets and make them confortable in life.
“Apart from the economic implications, golf can yield as many as six medals for Nigeria in a major championship, unlike football which can only fetch the country one gold medal.
“It is also more expensive to fund football, which entails at least 23 players in a given competition, where as golf and other individual sports require only the player, his caddy and one or two officials.”
Nigeria is currently preparing for the World Amateur Golf Championship, which holds next month and the World Junior Masters slated for August in Las Vegas.
- Guardian