Jonathan Golf Course Opens to Public

All in Shade: First Lady of Kogi State, Mrs Faridah Wada (L) and Mrs Christy Adejoh, stand under the umbrella to reduce Sun effect at the Democracy Golf Kitty in Abuja

By Olawale Ajimotokan

The Goodluck Jonathan Golf Club, Abuja is now open to the public after it hosted some amateur golfers during the Democracy Day Kitty.

It was the first kitty to be held on the golf course since its opening in 2011.

The nine-hole layout straddles the Nigeria Air Force Base at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. Though it is a military golf course, the facility will be on record as the second golf course in Nigeria's capital city.

It hosted 99 golfers, who craved a refreshing experience, away from the routine traffic at IBB International Golf Club, where golfers spend hours before tee time allotment.

The golf course is named after Nigeria's President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

It is an open course with the total length of 2425 metres. Its unique 'brown' attribute enables the Nigerian golfers to connect with the past when most of them were alien to greens and had to putt on hand swept holes.

Two weeks ago, a new committee was constituted to run the club and allow guests enjoy the course, which before now was only open to a few top shots of the Air Force.
The Captain of the club is Air Commodore SI Onu, who incidentally is  the Captain of the Presidential Air Fleet, while the Vice Captain is Col EF Edafioghor. Mrs Ekamen Ekwueme, is the Lady Captain.

''It is a new course and the Democracy Day Kitty was organised to introduce golfers, particularly from Abuja and environs, to the existence of the golf course, as most of them were not aware of this place.  We hope to turn this place into 18-hole and our desire is that the President after whom the course is named will support us on this venture,'' Ekwueme said.

She also noted that the committee planned to stage a golf clinic to introduce children who reside in the area to golf. In addition the Northern Ladies Golf Tournament is billed for the NAF base in September.

The First Lady of Kogi State, Mrs Faridah Wada, who was one of the guests at the Democracy Day Kitty, said the course would be a beautiful and very challenging golf course to play in the future.

Wada, who was excited about the opening up of the course, listed areas that needed improvement and how the course should play.

''In future this course will mature into a good course. But first they need to plant trees for aesthetics. They also need to work on the fairway grass by introducing the Port Harcourt grass that will trim out the weeds. They also need more sweepers and put more markers so that people who are standing on the other side of the course do not get hit. They also need proper tee boxes which right now are more like mounds of earth,''  Wada said.

She praised the NAF for making use of what they had to develop a golf course, saying a course should not necessarily be hilly, rocky or undulating to be challenging.