FOUR Nigerian professional golfers have been drawn to play
in the second event of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Tour, which holds from September 30 to October 3 at the
Saadiyat Golf Club, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with $50,000
in prize money.
MENA Golf Tour, according to its promoters, is seeking to
create “new windows of playing opportunities” for all
international pros, MENA national pros and their amateurs with
a view to helping them advance their game as well as
enhance the overall development of golf in the region.
The top three pros and the leading amateurs from the Order of Merit will receive special invitations to
compete in the 2012 Omega Dubai Desert Classic and, possibly, other European Tour events in the
region.
The Nigerians are returning to action with a chance to redeem their reputation barely five days after all
members of the four-man team, which featured in the maiden event of the tour - the Dubai Creek Open
- failed to make the cut.
European Tour three-time winner, Zane Scotland, showed class and great strength of character as he
finished the job in superb fashion. The Englishman held off a late charge from experienced Stephen
Dodd to win the tourney.
Scotland, once hailed as the new Tiger Woods when he won a nationwide competition titled, Search
For A Tiger, aged just 14, closed his final round with a tidy one-under-par 70 to go eight under for the
tournament. The score placed him two shots better than Dodd and three off Pakistan’s Mohammed
Miner.
The Nigerian players who took part in the maiden event are Kingsley Oparaku, Sam Agbeyegbe,
Francis Isuku and Emeka Obi. The best placed of the quartet in that tourney was Oparaku, who was
also the only returning Nigerian player, having made his debut last year. He fired +6 in his second
round to miss the cut by five strokes.
Like his compatriots, Okparaku blamed his lackluster outing on the searing heat, which he said was
over 40°C and causing them extreme discomfort. According to the Nigerian players, matters were
made worse when they had to tee off their first round in the afternoon just two days after arriving in
Dubai.
They said they would have performed better had they been on ground to accclimatise to the weather.
However, to miss the cut, Agbeyegbe shot +16, Francis Isuku, +17, while Emeka Obi was 13 shots
adrift.
In the second event, Agbeyegbe will be the first Nigerian to taste action as he is drawn to play
alongside Englishman James Housby and Jakes Shepherd of the United Kingdom. They will tee off at
12:23.
Okparaku, Wira Saleh of Brunei Darussalam and David Gray of Scotland will follow at 12:32 while Obi,
playing alongside Paul Wilson, will have his turn at 12:41. The last group, which will tee off at 12:50,
has Isuku playing side by side Englishman Daniel Owen and Ross McGowan of the United Kingdom.