Nigeria may miss World Amateur Championship

Nigeria’s participation in the World Amateur Team Championship (WATC), scheduled for Mexico in September, is hanging in the balance following the country’s inability to meet the registration deadline.

The WATC will hold from September 17 to 19 in Mexico.

According to the Nigeria Golf Federation (NGF), the country failed to raise the $1,500 (N315, 000) registration fee within the stipulated time and was placed on the standby alongside other defaulting countries when it finally made the payment.

An NGF official, who pleaded anonymity, explained that the situation has placed the country’s participation in the championship in the balance “there is no 100 per cent guarantee because there are other countries still waiting too.”

However, it is not a totally lost because whatever happens, according to official, Nigeria will still benefit from the biennial conference scheduled to precede the championship.

“It is a conference that will congregate all the world golf federations to discuss way forward for the game from September 15 to 16, 2016.

“Nigeria stands to benefit from the conference because it will give us recognition in the political scheming of the game and also enable us to share ideas with other people. Staying aloof will not give us such advantage,” he added.

If Nigeria missed the WATU due to poor finances, it would add to the list of events in NGF’s programme that have been thwarted or stalled by paucity of funds.

Till date, the President Cup (Nigeria Cup), which should have been held in December 2015, is still in the oven as there are no serious sponsors to fund the event.

The country could not send any home-based player to the just concluded World Junior Masters in the United States because it had no money to meet the demands, just as it could not help the U.S-based players to attend the same competition due to the cost implications.