As NGF Unveils Maiden Oba Saheed Elegushi Open Championship

Nigerian golf has a new fixture on its calendar. The Nigeria Golf Federation (NGF) has announced the maiden Oba Saheed Elegushi Open Golf Championship, named in honour of the Elegushi of Ikate-Elegushi, His Royal Highness Oba Saheed Elegushi.

The tournament was unveiled at the second NGF Stakeholders and Golfers Summit in Abuja, a two-day gathering that drew representatives from more than 46 golf clubs around the country. Its theme, “Finding the Fairway: Sustainable Growth and Youth Development,” framed a conversation that went beyond scorecards to touch on infrastructure, investment, and how young Nigerian talent gets exposure at higher levels of the sport.

NGF President Otunba Olusegun Runsewe described the championship as a fresh platform for competition, one designed to give emerging players the kind of experience that translates into international relevance.

Oba Elegushi, who has served as a chief patron of the federation, welcomed the honour and used the summit to press a broader economic case. Nigeria, he argued, has the population and private capital to build golf facilities that meet international standards, rather than losing revenue to golf tourism abroad. “If we come together, we can develop our own facilities to international standards,” he said, adding that such investment would create jobs and strengthen sports tourism.

The monarch pledged continued backing for the championship, with hopes that it would grow into a permanent and prestigious part of Nigeria’s golfing calendar.

For a federation working to reposition the sport as more inclusive and economically relevant, the tournament arrives as both a tribute and a test, an early marker of whether royal support, corporate backing, and grassroots development can align to give Nigerian golf the platform it has long needed.