The annual Lagos Amateur Open championship which teed off at the Golf section of Ikoyi Club 1938 on Monday will hole out later today. The three-day competition is an annual event sponsored by Nigeria’s premier and leading financial inclusion services provider, First Bank of Nigeria Limited. This year’s edition is the 59th in the series.
The competition, which is one of the longest running international amateur events in the country, is endorsed by the United State Golf Association (USGA) and the Royal and Ancient (R&A) of Scotland. Preceding the 2019 event, the golf tourney reached the notable milestone of being listed amongst the golf tournaments in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
FirstBank’s sponsorship of the event is in recognition of its health benefit to players whilst providing a platform to enable golfers achieve their dream of global recognition and participation. According to Harvard Health Publishing (Harvard Medical School), the health benefit of golf includes the burning of calories and participants generate an optimal amount of endurance exercise for their heart whilst walking across the holes in the course of playing the game.
Last year, Peter Eben-Spiff made history becoming the first Nigerian ever to get listed in the World Amateur Golf Ranking courtesy of his victory in the competition.