The Main Organising Committee of the ninth Awa Ibraheem Junior Open Golf tournament, which tees off next week at the Ikeja Golf Club, Lagos, has warned participants against ‘age falsification’ to maintain the integrity and credibility of the event.
The tournament’s Technical Team led by Jide Bolaji said the MOC has credible information that some players and their managers were colluding to register with false age.
Recall ‘06-16’ is the age limit for the tournament, which will be holding from October 20-22.
It warned that culprits would be punished as entrenched in the rules and regulations of the game.
A statement by Bolaji, who is also the Technical Director Nigeria Golf Federation (NGF) and Secretary, Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of Nigeria for the organisers 4E , with regards to the development reads in part:
“Dear Coaches/Parents/Accompanying Adults, our attention has been drawn to players registering with wrong age from some quarters.
“Please be informed that any player caught to have submitted wrong age will be disqualified from participating in any junior event. Golf is for people of integrity. If a player lies or is aided to lie over age, it means the player with the aider have no integrity and are not supposed to be in the golfing community.”
Against this backdrop, the organisers have advised all participating players to come to the venue with their birth certificates/affidavits during the accreditation.
The R&A sanctioned Awa Ibraheem Junior Open Golf Tournament has come to stay and providing the much desired opportunity for sport and education development for Nigerian golfing families through scholarship offers,” the organisers said.
The tournament is also Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) event, which implies a lot is at stake for participants to battle for.
A total of 140 players junior golfers are expected to participate in the tournament. Over 80 players have been registered, but will undergo physical screening. 20 slots are being reserved for National Order of Merit (NOM) still under compilation, while 46 children will be registered for clinic.
