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Poor finance may halt Georgia Oboh’s march to history at Lalla Meryam Cup

By Christian Okpara
31 March 2018   |   5:02 am
Despite her struggles with sponsorship, Georgia Oboh has continued to brave the odds, laying new pathways in her quest to be among the best lady golfers in the world.

Georgia Oboh

Despite her struggles with sponsorship, Georgia Oboh has continued to brave the odds, laying new pathways in her quest to be among the best lady golfers in the world.

The teenage golf sensation has been invited to the Ladies European Tour (LET) Morocco event, tagged Lalla Meryem Cup, but her participation is hinged on her ability to secure a sponsor for the the trip.

If she eventually made it, Oboh would become the youngest and first Nigerian to play in the LET event holding at the prestigious Dar es Salaam Blue Course in Rabat.

Being an amateur player, she will not share from the 450,000 Euro tournament purse. However, it will help her in preparing for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in which she would also become the first Nigerian golfer, male or female, to feature in.

Oboh captained the Nigeria girls’ team to the last All Africa Junior Challenge in Morocco and her performance prompted the organisers to invite her to the LET event.

The tournament will be played on one of the courses at the Royal Dar es Salaam, the blue course, while the Hassan trophy for the men would be played in the red course.

Oboh says her primary goal is to learn a thing or two from the lady professionals whilst honing her own skills because among the notable lady professionals, who have signed up for the tournament, are LET veterans such as Trish Johnson and Lydia Hall of the U.K. and recent winner of the Lalla Meryem 2018 qualifying school and rookie, American Casey Danielson.

Oboh is worried she could miss the event due to poor finance. “It will be a shame to miss out on my biggest invite yet, but funding is an issue. I am appealing to corporate Nigeria to support my quest for honour at the LET tournament. I hope I can get the support that I need and put Nigeria once again on the golfing map,” Oboh said.

The Lalla Meryem Cup is a women’s professional golf tournament in Morocco under the high patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI. It was held in Rabat until it moved to Agadir in 2011. It moved back to Rabat in 2016. The tournament has been played annually since 1993 and is held alongside the Hassan II Golf Trophy.

In 2010, it was added to the Ladies European Tour (LET) schedule and upgraded to a full field tournament having previously been limited to around 12 players. Both tournaments moved to Agadir in 2011.

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