Director General of the National Council of Arts and Culture (NCAC), Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, has expressed excitement at the discovery of a golf tournament trophy dating back to 1913 at the club house of the Rayfield Golf Club in Jos.
Runsewe, an ardent golfer is excited that the presence of that trophy “is enough to stir lovers of the game into action and to also show that culture could relate with golf.”
And come November 28, a one-day amateur tournament has been scheduled to come up at the Rayfield Golf Club where that golf trophy etched in 1913 will be relished.
Over 350 golfers from across the nation will feature in that tournament with Plateau State Governor, Rt. Hon. Simon Lalong performing the ceremonial Teeing-off.
Said Runsewe yesterday:” We have a deep culture in all facet of human life in Nigeria. We have been able to substantiate that of Rayfield and we are picking it up from there.
“But we are not only going to celebrate Rayfield but we shall equally display cultural golf wears that would appeal to over three million Nigerians playing golf.
“Beside, we shall display how the game of golf has perfected the art of greeting by maintaining social distance in this Covid-19 era.”
Going down memory lane, white settlers who were into tin mining in Jos and environ engaged in the game of golf well before 1913.
In those early years, sports historians report that Nigerians were never allowed into the Rayfield Golf Club course.
Men like John Dankaro, Innua Gombe and Alhaji Jalingo who made efforts to play the game were not allowed until in the early 1970s.
Ever since, tongues became wagging why it took the locals so many years to venture into the game if indeed golf was first played in Jos before 1913.
