Friday, October 06, 2006
Golf: Eat Your Words
If the game of golf has proven anything, it is that fun for executives does not require the excessive sophistication it takes to be an executive itself.
It can be too boring behind those chilly doors. God have mercy if your companion in the floor are machines; your cell phones, laptops, intercoms, pagers, ipods, fax machines, photocopiers and what have you. You would have no better wish than to be with real people. Modern corporate lifestyle is tending away from the interpersonal relationship.
If you are a King Sunny Ade (KSA), a training session on a football field could draw some uncontrolled attention, or imagine other popular citizens trying to unwind like El-Rufai, Professor Charles Soludo or perhaps the VP; Atiku Abubakar.
But in golf it would hardly fetch more than a passing nice shot! Or hey, was that a one-wood? It doesn’t really bother a golfer who the heck you are outside of the golf course. And perhaps that has been the catch these days for most of the new golf converts.
Charles Soludo has filed in application to be a member at the IBB International Golf and country Club Abuja and presently his request is being openly displayed; he needs a Hail Mary pass to sail through that stage else his dream of being a golfer could take longer time.
Same for the minister for Sports and Social development, Honourable Bawa Ka’oje whose form is at the whims of his new trainer at the IBB Club in Abuja on one hand, and his studiousness on the other hand. Not about being a minister!
The Nigerian R&B group; P-Squared told of how they feared the Lagos mob, whenever they are identified. Maybe they need to know that some bigger celebrities are having life cooler out here.
I spoke with KSA’s trainer at Ikeja Golf Club recently in Lagos and he blatantly told me his student needs more seriousness. Its like he has been absent from his classes for too long and I feel he’s got some hell of drilling waiting for him on return (Maybe that’s why he has extended his holiday). But I bet he will be back.
He would be back for the same reason that Sunday Ehindero (the Inspector General of Police), the Head of Service Mr. Yayale >>>>, and other top government top shots are always coming back. They want to be like us, because they are like us. They are just (like the New Yorker said) the overexposed version of us. And deep down in our urban arrogance we know this especially when the burden of measuring up is overbearing on their social life. They need all they can to play down the toga of societal celebrity.
Upper weekend, I had an early afternoon date to keep with the group of Global Golf; the franchise holders for the World (Amateur) Golf Championship (WGC) in Nigeria at Ikoyi club in Lagos. Mr. Obinna Duru their spokesman is a master communicator and I told him just that.
Later that afternoon, we ate lunch at a local dive (Iya Aroso) somewhere by the fairway of the 18th hole. Not that the club sandwich, curry stew and other high-class menu at the club were not there. It was the feeling that we wanted.
The golf course cuts through various class segregations. The players are of a particular class, the caddies and workers belong somewhere else. And somewhere in the arrangement of the settings there were always meeting grounds. Iya Aroso has its version at the IBB International golf and country club Abuja. It serves its class of people. Same for the Minna Cantonement Golf Club in Niger state, while in Abeokuta Golf Club, there is a small community right side of the hilly clubhouse that takes the commerce off this advantage.
Interestingly too, these dives have as long as the list of the clubs celebrities in the customers list. Can you imagine your MD doing the Ewedu and Amala or starch and Afang in a restaurant on the street?
Nobody would come asking for your autograph there and would not be bumped in by reporter and his paparazzi seeking exclusive once you are identified. Nearly everybody around you is making the best out the fun of being himself and you had better do too.
After the four-hour (the average time it takes to complete a round) driller, some folks get baptized in buckets of beer others replenish mildly, but most of the time the activities that goes on with foods and drinks is most times of serious commercial value.
The National Golf Federation, in the United States has food and beverages as one essential part of the economy that the game impacts greatly along with tourism, transportation, clothing and textiles, hospitality and real estates. And this has in no small measure affected the adjunct communities.
Our growing Nigeria Golf Federation or the Golf Union of Nigeria (the union of golf club captains and secretaries) counterpart may not be able to put it in terms of Naira and Kobo. In the Unites states this is valued at some $64billion dollars (the economic impact of golf in the US) this was as at four years ago.
Unfortunately for golf, it still cuts the prodigal picture of a totally pristine crowd that don’t want to have anything to share with the publics including the game and the privacy of its players. In the past it however has been helpful for the game to be viewed this way but it has not been developmental. And golf today has benefited every community that has demystified it to the public.
Truth is, the structure inside the game is just the same that obtains on the outside. It would teeter more when more golf facilities go public. Presently over nine and half out ten of them are owned by private firms and individuals.
Then this Lacuna would be filled especially those that represent improper perception of golf and its players. including that our taste bud is too savvy. Maybe then you can begin to eat your words.
It can be too boring behind those chilly doors. God have mercy if your companion in the floor are machines; your cell phones, laptops, intercoms, pagers, ipods, fax machines, photocopiers and what have you. You would have no better wish than to be with real people. Modern corporate lifestyle is tending away from the interpersonal relationship.
If you are a King Sunny Ade (KSA), a training session on a football field could draw some uncontrolled attention, or imagine other popular citizens trying to unwind like El-Rufai, Professor Charles Soludo or perhaps the VP; Atiku Abubakar.
But in golf it would hardly fetch more than a passing nice shot! Or hey, was that a one-wood? It doesn’t really bother a golfer who the heck you are outside of the golf course. And perhaps that has been the catch these days for most of the new golf converts.
Charles Soludo has filed in application to be a member at the IBB International Golf and country Club Abuja and presently his request is being openly displayed; he needs a Hail Mary pass to sail through that stage else his dream of being a golfer could take longer time.
Same for the minister for Sports and Social development, Honourable Bawa Ka’oje whose form is at the whims of his new trainer at the IBB Club in Abuja on one hand, and his studiousness on the other hand. Not about being a minister!
The Nigerian R&B group; P-Squared told of how they feared the Lagos mob, whenever they are identified. Maybe they need to know that some bigger celebrities are having life cooler out here.
I spoke with KSA’s trainer at Ikeja Golf Club recently in Lagos and he blatantly told me his student needs more seriousness. Its like he has been absent from his classes for too long and I feel he’s got some hell of drilling waiting for him on return (Maybe that’s why he has extended his holiday). But I bet he will be back.
He would be back for the same reason that Sunday Ehindero (the Inspector General of Police), the Head of Service Mr. Yayale >>>>, and other top government top shots are always coming back. They want to be like us, because they are like us. They are just (like the New Yorker said) the overexposed version of us. And deep down in our urban arrogance we know this especially when the burden of measuring up is overbearing on their social life. They need all they can to play down the toga of societal celebrity.
Upper weekend, I had an early afternoon date to keep with the group of Global Golf; the franchise holders for the World (Amateur) Golf Championship (WGC) in Nigeria at Ikoyi club in Lagos. Mr. Obinna Duru their spokesman is a master communicator and I told him just that.
Later that afternoon, we ate lunch at a local dive (Iya Aroso) somewhere by the fairway of the 18th hole. Not that the club sandwich, curry stew and other high-class menu at the club were not there. It was the feeling that we wanted.
The golf course cuts through various class segregations. The players are of a particular class, the caddies and workers belong somewhere else. And somewhere in the arrangement of the settings there were always meeting grounds. Iya Aroso has its version at the IBB International golf and country club Abuja. It serves its class of people. Same for the Minna Cantonement Golf Club in Niger state, while in Abeokuta Golf Club, there is a small community right side of the hilly clubhouse that takes the commerce off this advantage.
Interestingly too, these dives have as long as the list of the clubs celebrities in the customers list. Can you imagine your MD doing the Ewedu and Amala or starch and Afang in a restaurant on the street?
Nobody would come asking for your autograph there and would not be bumped in by reporter and his paparazzi seeking exclusive once you are identified. Nearly everybody around you is making the best out the fun of being himself and you had better do too.
After the four-hour (the average time it takes to complete a round) driller, some folks get baptized in buckets of beer others replenish mildly, but most of the time the activities that goes on with foods and drinks is most times of serious commercial value.
The National Golf Federation, in the United States has food and beverages as one essential part of the economy that the game impacts greatly along with tourism, transportation, clothing and textiles, hospitality and real estates. And this has in no small measure affected the adjunct communities.
Our growing Nigeria Golf Federation or the Golf Union of Nigeria (the union of golf club captains and secretaries) counterpart may not be able to put it in terms of Naira and Kobo. In the Unites states this is valued at some $64billion dollars (the economic impact of golf in the US) this was as at four years ago.
Unfortunately for golf, it still cuts the prodigal picture of a totally pristine crowd that don’t want to have anything to share with the publics including the game and the privacy of its players. In the past it however has been helpful for the game to be viewed this way but it has not been developmental. And golf today has benefited every community that has demystified it to the public.
Truth is, the structure inside the game is just the same that obtains on the outside. It would teeter more when more golf facilities go public. Presently over nine and half out ten of them are owned by private firms and individuals.
Then this Lacuna would be filled especially those that represent improper perception of golf and its players. including that our taste bud is too savvy. Maybe then you can begin to eat your words.
