The Custodian Group has announced the debut of their N10m purse Custodian Classic on the Professional Golf Developmental Tour (PGDT), scheduled to hold at the golf section of Ikoyi Club 1938 in Lagos from March 23rd to 25th, 2023.
Founder and Group Managing Director of Custodian Investment Plc, Wole Oshin, said that as a group, the company hasp looked out for ways of empowering the demography represented by the professional golfers in the country and that the Professional Golfers Development Tour provided that platform for Custodian to access it.
“Golf holds so much potential for the teeming youths we have in the country. Apart from helping to shape character, and helping to put their energy to productive use, it also represents a huge reservoir of untapped income for professional sportsmen in the country,” he noted.
The Custodian Group CEO stressed that his firm has been in the vanguard of promoting the game, and this serves as a new channel to invest in the country’s social structure.
The Professional Golf Development Tour, promoted by Meristem, was launched in January 2023, with an opening event; The Meristem Open, that was hosted at the Lakowe Lakes Golf and Country Estate in Lagos.
Group Managing Director of Meristem, Wole Abegunde, said during the launch spoke on the need to canvass development initiatives around professional golf through the PGD Tour.
He said: “Like in most sports, golf has produced some brilliant talents for the country, but because of lack of adequate structure to support professional golf talents, the growth has been limited.”
The Custodian Classic will be played over 56 holes and has already attracted over 80-signed players from Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Togo.
The entrants include the Ghanian duo of Vincent Torgah and Emos Korblah, who at different times had enjoyed successes on the Nigerian PGA Tour. Francis Ekpe, the Tour’s leading player, along with Sunday Olapade, Oche Odoh, Gift Willy and Kamalu Bako have all signed-up.
Oshin whose Custodian Group houses, Crusader Sterling Pension, Custodian Life Insurance, Custodian and Allied Insurance, and UPDC Real Estate said, he hopes for the event to become one of the pillars for unearthing and empowering golf talents that will end up putting the country on the world map.
“We are in this for the development potential it portents for the social and economic structure of the country,” he concluded.
