L-R : Mr Jaco Foot, Mrs Lisa Foot, Mrs Joy Verhees and Pro Uche Nkwor
4th Life Flour Mills Golf Classic : Ezekiel Michael Wins As Asagba, Ochulor, emerge 1st, 2nd Runner-up Respectively
15 Pros featured at the fun filled event
Ezekiel Michael, on Saturday, won the 2024 edition of the Life Flour Mills’ sponsored golf classic at the Sapele Athletic Golf course in Sapele, Delta State, Nigeria.
The men members’ winner Michael, Gross 71, Handicap 5, and Net 66 to emerge the overall winner of this year’s Life Flour Mills Golf Classic.
Stephen Asagba, and O. Ochulor, are 1st and 2nd runners up, respectively. Asagba, Gross 87, Handicap 16, and Net 71 to emerge the second best golfer at the just concluded Golf Classic, while Ochulor, who was the 2nd runner up Gross 96, Handicap 24, and Net 72.
The oldest golfer and former Captain of the Sapele Athletics Golf Club Pa.Amos Edoriagba, receiving his award at the just concluded 4th edition of the Life Flour Mills Golf Classic at the Sapele Athletic Golf Club in Sapele, Delta State
Other winners at the event are: Longest Drive category: Men winner: J. Obanor; Women winner: R. Izoje; Nearest the PIN : Men winner: B. Ibrahim; Eaglets category: Winner: Godbless Walter, Gross 82 and Veterans category: Winner: K. Orubebe, Gross 88, Handicap 27, and Net 61; Runners up: E. Esiri, Gross 88, Handicap 20, and Net 68. The 2nd runner-up is Clifford Ogbechi, who Gross 96, Handicap 22, and Net 74.
Others are: At the Super Veterans category, Peter Asagba emerged the winner. He Gross 102, Handicap 27 and Net 75. Chief FAITH Gbagi emerged the runner-up with Gross 113, Handicap 26, and Net 87 C/B. 2nd
Runner-up, Pa Amos Edoriagba, Gross 111, Handicap 24, and Net 87 C/B.
Best Gross category: Winner: B. Ibrahim. He Gross 73; Guest Men category: Winner: O. Asien. He Gross 79, Handicap 12, and Net 67 C/B. Runner-up: L. Ogunpitan, who Gross 88, Handicap 21, and Net 67 C/B; 2nd runner up O. Whiskey, Gross 83, Handicap 14, and Net 69.
Still others are: Ladies Member category: Winner is I. Esumeh, who Gross 110, Handicap 36, and Net 74. The runner-up here is L. Akpieyi. She Gross 95, Handicap 20, and Net 75. And the 2nd runner-up is B. Okafor, who Gross 115, Handicap 36, and Net 79.
Alexander Verhees, the Captain of the Sapele Athletics Golf Club and the General Manager of Life Flour Mills Limited ( Seaboard), the sponsor of the 2024 Sapele Athletic Club Golf Classic applauded the players’ brilliance and top-level competition at the fourth edition.
He said the competition keeps improving from one edition to the other, adding that this edition witnessed the invitation of 15 professional golfers from Edo and Delta State that added colours to the event. We continue to improve the quality of our tournament.
“We have about 70 participants at this year’s edition. We have invited Professionals golfers about 15 of them from Edo and Delta States, and they all represent the best in this tournament . We look forward to making this competition a platform for Nigeria and other African players to showcase their talent at the professional level,” he said.
One of the winners at this year’s event is Chief Peter Asagba, a former captain of the Sapele Athletics Golf Club. Speaking to journalists at the event, he said, “If you look at golf from the outside, you don’t see anything interesting. I worked for Shell for 15 years, I never stepped my leg on the golf course because I saw them as lazy people until I got committed. Golf is one of the best games in the world all over, and that is a game you can play from youth to old age as long as you can walk.
“Today the young ones are there. People think that golf is an elite sports and that is a wrong assumption. If you can not play from place to place, you can play in your locality and you will enjoy it.”
Another winner and current oldest member of the club, 84 years old Amos Edoriagba, who said he had to abandon tennis for golf. “I joined in 1986. At that time, we had foreigners playing golf here. People were coming to play, but now the interest has weighed down.
“When I was the Captain, there were a lot of people who wanted to play here. There were a lot of them who bought kits.
“The major problem we have is that people don’t even understand the importance of golf presently, they don’t know. By 1986, when three of us came to play golf, we never went back to tennis. Golf is a game of life,” he said.
The Captain of the Sapele Athletics Golf Club Alexander Verhees , post for the press at the Heineken stand at the just concluded Golf Classic.
The competition teed off on Thursday, October 31st, with the invited Professionals playing. The members of the Sapele Athletics Golf Club took the centre stage on Friday, 1st November, while the veterans and super veterans had their round on Saturday, November 2nd to round off the colourful 3 days event.
The Sapele Athletic Golf Club, which was once known as Sapelo and later Sapilo Golf Club, is reputed to be the oldest Golf Club in Nigeria. The club was said to have been formed in 1898 by a coterie of European sailors and captains of ships who were said to have traversed the Atlantic Ocean from the United Kingdom down to River Ethiope which has its source from Umuaja, a village in the present Ukwani local government area of Delta state. Others posit that the club was founded in 1908.
Its first documented competition was said to have been held in June 1914, and the tournament was won by H.M. Mansfield.
This is evident in the giant trophy still being preserved in the archives of the club donated in 1913 by Sir Owen Philip (KGMG) then Chairman of Elder Dempster and Directors of the company to “Sapelo Golf Club”.
Mansfield victory in 1914 was followed by the 1916 edition of the competition, which was won by S.D. Fraser, 1919 edition was won by J.W. Maskew.
In 1922 and 1923, by the names inscribed in the trophy, D.J. Martins won the two editions while the edition of 1931 was won by R.C Little. In 1933, Dr T.B. Mcalear won the tournament, and then in 1934, C.D. Avy won the tournament. There were many annual competitions then especially when the expatriates in Sapele and neighbouring cities patronised Sapele Golf Club.
Golf enthusiasts say geographically, with the topography of Sapele as a rain forest, it would take a minimum of five years using manual labour to build a golf terrain, an indication that the Sapele golf club existed long before 1913 when the trophy was donated and 1914 when the first tournament was held.
