Time to reshape Rayfield Golf Club
The Rayfield Golf Club, founded in Jos in 1913, has endured a century long years of being tied to the apron of white settlers who ruled the club for close to some 70 years. And with these settlers long gone, things have refused to change with the Club. I was at the Rayfield for the whole of two days last week and all that stared me in the face still bore the stamp of the ‘whites’.
For a Club that is older than the Kaduna Golf Club and the Ikoyi Golf Club, not much was on ground to really suggest the whites once held this hallowed course as a major playground. Wherever you turn, you see old and odd things that bear no similarity to present day civilization. Things are still being done like in years past.
From the tee boxes of the front nine to the back nine that expressly force you to attack General Martin Luther Agwai Road, nothing has really changed. A discerning mind would ask why the 18th hole wouldn’t take off from across the road and end in a putting area somewhere around where they have their Car Park recently. It could a short Par-3 and it will still good than crossing over the road when you have putted out in the 18th. This thing needs a little re-engineering that could be perfected over time. Just do something differently and not follow the course the way the Whites dumped it.
I indeed shuddered when I saw the Proshop since I have not been here for a long time. For one, the Proshop looks like someone’s nightmare. Just the way the Whites left it and it is even worse. It faces the Bar in the Clubhouse which is not healthy enough. And even the shutters of the Shop are broken with no care to replace them. The Clubhouse itself needs a total turn around. All those archaic pictures of Gary Player and those who played in his century adorning the walls of the Clubhouse are indeed uncalled for. I mean if those who call the shots here are incensed with foreign Pros, why not introduce pin-ups of youth prodigies like Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Paul Casey and even Martin Kaymer, at least to inspire the youths around that zone.
It still beats my imagination that a Club that has seen through several Military Generals could still have most of its fairways parched as if it’s a Polo field. This is unacceptable and efforts should be geared to locating funds and give the fairways a total overhaul. And only God knows why a Club that has clocked over a century will still play through Sand Putting areas. If some claim Greens can’t survive here because of its soil texture, then why are Greens in nearby Lamingo Golf Club blooming?
At once, there will be need to reshape Rayfield, a Club with a peculiar history as one that made the white settlers really feel at home in Nigeria. There could be the urgent need to launch a fund raising where all the great people who have passed through the Club could be beckoned upon to come and give back to the Club which once provided them with much succour and fun. And when enough fund is gathered, the whole Clubhouse should be mowed down and in it’s place will be an architectural landmark that could add to the pride of this place. The fairways will be overhauled and every hole shall adorn a Putting Green.
It can be done, especially now that Plateau State is blessed with a golf loving Governor in the person of Rt.Hon. Simon Lalong, who through plenty of goodwill can make many donate millions so Rayfield could come anew.
Rayfield, call for the fund-raiser today. Not a day later.