Competition, an honour to celebrate Buhari’s leadership - Abubakar
Bauchi State Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar has described the President Muhammadu Buhari Cup Golf Tournament organised by Daily Trust as an honour to the president to celebrate his leadership.
The governor while speaking at the opening of the North East qualifying rounds of the tournament in Bauchi Saturday said that, the competition organised by Daily Trust has brought to the for the importance of Golf as a unifying sport in the country.
He said that, Daily Trust has been in the forefront of promoting the game in the country through initiating and partnering with others to engage Golf enthusiast, professional and amateur players in various competitions across the country.
“It is a fantastic innovation by Daily Trust. We are all in support of Daily Trust, because they are honouring our president and at the same time growing the game of Golf all over Nigeria.
“What is happening here in Bauchi between today and tomorrow has happened in Plateau for the North Central, in Dutse for the North West. What is happening here is for the North Eastern sub region of Nigeria,” he said.
According to him, the Bauchi Golf and Country Club has in recent years evolved as a major force not only in the North East but in the country and even beyond as its players have been making waves in most of the competitions they participated and came back with various prizes.
“We have been winning a lot of laurels. As it is today, we have the youngest professional in the Nigerian Golfing circle,” he added.
According to him, young players are coming up in the Club with a lot of talents waiting to be tapped from them adding that, the encouragement made young people to embrace the game and it has propelled most of them leading to the emergence of the youngest professional player.
“Aminu is the youngest professional Golfer and that was because, young players of this club have been winning laurels all over the country. We have been encouraging the young players and other young people living around the Golf Course to take up the game of Golf.
“They are actually our Caddies. The world over, Caddies make the best players. In addition to this, we are commencing a Golf Academy in the Bauchi Golf and Country Club to catch them young, nurture and turn them into excellent players,” Governor Abubakar added.
He promised that, he will work towards improving the Golf Course and the game in the state in order to promote its tourism potentials.
“My next vision is a complete turnaround of the Bauchi Golf and Country Club. I have already had a design done. We are redesigning the Course completely. We are turning it into green. As you can see, Hole 18, which is the hole just outside has already been turned into green and this is just the beginning of the green project for the Bauchi Golf and Country Club.
“I have engaged a firm of Architects along with a Golfing professional that has been involved in the design of Courses. He was the one who has done the green, the Hole 18 green. He is going to collaborate with the Architects to redesign the Course and provide water so that we can water the fairways and the Porting greens.
“So, my vision is to turn the Bauchi Golf and Country Club to a First Class Golfing destination. Even this club house that we are sitting in will be demolished and erect a modern club house,” he said.