Ikeja Club to honour legendary Oyebajo with tournaments

FORTY years after he resumed duty as resident professional at the Ikeja Golf Club, from Ikoyi Club, where he started his pro career, upon his return from Scotland for training, the Ikeja Golf Club has concluded plans to honour the immediate past director of the Professional Golfers Association of Nigeria (PGAN), Jamiu Oyebajo with a tourney.

The 40th anniversary celebration is the brainchild of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IGolfMDC and first PGA Tour Commissioner in Nigeria, Sola Lawson. The golf fiesta will comprise five tournaments played over a six days of competition for its members and guests.

“We have created a new tournament – the Jamiu Oyebajo Masters Match Play – as the flagship event of the 40th anniversary. It will feature the top 64 players of the club. This will be played annually in honour of Uncle Jamiu’s stewardship at Ikeja. We will also be playing specialist tournaments for the caddies, ladies, veterans and guests in a golfing fiesta from Thursday 12th to Saturday 28th November, 2015,” Lawson explained.

Competition Secretary of the Club, Victor Enosegbe in confirming the 40th anniversary Golf tournament said: “Uncle Jamiu is one of the few longest serving members of Ikeja Golf Club family. Almost all the registered members in the club went through his tutelage to become the avid golfers that they are today. In fact, he is a living witness of the development of the club from the early years up until today. When IGolfMDC sent in their proposal to the management committee, the captain and members welcomed it and gave approval.”

Not many golfers are aware that Oyebajo, Festus Makelemi, Emmanuel Lawrence and Patrick Okpomu are Nigeria’s first (and most senior) golf professionals and could rightly be said to be the fathers of Nigerian amateur and professional golf.

After returning from their professional training, these four professionals were posted to different clubs in the country and started training both amateurs and professionals in the sport.

The Oyebajo 40th anniversary golf fiesta certainly is the first of its kind on the Nigerian golfing calendar and possibly marks the beginning of the end of the first era of golf in Nigeria that was ushered in by these four that pioneered the sports elder statesmen of the sport in the country.

The 40th anniversary is sponsored by numerous members of Ikeja Golf Club who are appreciative of Jamiu’s contributions to the development and sustenance of the sport at club in particular and Nigeria in general.