Why I embraced the game of golf- Justice Auta

Almost everyone who plays golf knows it by heart that the game is one of great tradition, of high ideals, of sportsmanship, one in which a strict adherence to the rules is essential.

For a moment, you will think Justice Ibrahim Auta, the Law Godzilla, who recently retired as the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, took to golf for those great values earlier enumerated. But things just got deeper here. This model of strength, fortitude and dignity simply joined because he didn’t want to develop pile like it was rampant among judges of his time.

Auta is gentle. He appears inscrutable and unrelenting. He’s a brave man with such resilience. In a group of distinguished men, he stands out as peerless.

Auta cuts the clean line of an athlete. For sure he’s one. He started with basketball. He was such a good guard that he made the national team in 1974. He indeed featured in three Nigerian University Games. He has got three gold medals to show for it. Such was his love for Basketball that when he was a magistrate, he would pack boys in his car, heading for a game.

He would soon cancel basketball out. This was at the point when he had out grown moving around with the boys. To fill the gap, he chose squash. Why? He loves sports that keep the adrenaline at the boiling point. He offered this little smile. His eyes suddenly became languid, softly serene. Then, clearly you see this sense of peace, another angle to dignity and grace about him that was almost eerie.. Then he asserted: “In those days, the blood was hot”.

In 1980, when Justice Auta arrived Lagos to work directly with the then President, Shehu Shagari, he came fully into squash. Up till this moment, he still plays squish. At this point, he was seeing golf from afar. But most of his friends were playing the game. He was merely mocking them. He thought golf was not fast enough... Something that could not get your blood on the boil. Little did he know that golf was not only energetic but equally predictable and playfully aggressive.

After life with Shagari. Auta would soon find himself in Calabar. There his interest in the game blossomed. But he wasn’t really playing much. Soon, he moved to Kano but he wasn’t having friends who were playing golf. Same thing when he came to Lagos. But at a time he moved to Abuja, his bosom friend, the Chief Judge of Abuja Court, ustice Lawal Gumi, indeed pushed him to play.

Eyes shining with a gentle constancy, Auta reeled off: “For years, I’ve not had time to play the game. But in the year 2000, when I came to Benin, there was no way I could have moved away from the game. Look at my house, look at the golf course. Besides since 1998, I acquired a brand new golf set which I just abandoned. I became really tempted. But I still played my squash between 7 and 8pm daily. Then I found out that I was adding weight. The thing is I needed to cut down on my weight. So instead of retiring to bed after work, I took on golf big time. It was then I discovered that golf was a real form of exercise. I mean through a round, you must have walked some eight kilometres. As a Judge, that is great for me. You know judges sit a lot. In the court room, they are sitting. In the car, they are sitting. That is why most of them have pile. But with golf, I don’t fall into this problem. You can see I’m looking young.”

Well, for someone born in 1952 in Jos, though he’s from Borno State, he’s quite not looking his age. But which athlete ever looks his age?

“Golf has contributed to my staying young”, he maintained. “I’m indeed grateful I came into the game. Without any doubt, my perception about the game has changed. Before now. I thought golf/was a lazy man’s game and that it is a game for only those who can afford it. But now I know better. You see golf is a game anyone one can play. There is never a day or even one hour that I cannot play. But things can’t come the same way. Because I play great today doesn’t mean I can replicate same tomorrow, even your Putting. Now, you Put okay. Try it again. And your Putts could get awry. This is the philosophy in the game. In golf, you can’t be too sure.. You know by the time you start playing golf, you read clearly the character of the people you play with. If he’s a gentleman or a patient man, you’ll know. If he’s an impatient man or a cheat, you’ll know. So golf brings out all the characters of the people and your own also.”

I thought golf/ was a lazy man’s game and that it is a game for only those who can afford it. But now I know better.