The captain of the Nigeria’s Ladies Professional Golfers, Folashade Sharon Wesley, has made a passionate appeal for a more understanding among the players of the game to assist in creating avenues for professional female golfers in the country to strive and match their counterparts across the globe.
Wesley, who spoke to LEADERSHIP Sports on the sidelines of the ongoing IBB Golf Club Independence Tournament in commemoration of Nigeria’s 63rd independence anniversary, said the challenges facing ladies professional golfers in the country is lack of sponsorship and tournaments.
She said the ladies pros are ready to collaborate and partner with people of like minds that will create befitting opportunities to take their golfing career to the next level.
“Ladies professional golf just starting in Nigeria, we gave birth to it in the year 2020 and are still nursing it with the hope that in the next three to four years we will start have partners, sponsors and people of like mind with a vision to help ladies professionals golf to the next level where other countries are right now in golf development.
“Our challenge is lack of sponsorship and tournaments. We hardly get tournaments, for instance in a year, we may manage to play only two tournaments, which are not enough to propel us forward and develop because in this sport the more you play the more you become strong and earn ranking. We want sponsors to partner us to develop the game,” Wesley said.
According to her, ladies professional golfers would only improve if there are sponsors and quality tournaments. “We have to look at the quality of tournaments played annually; the content and participation.
“We are currently playing in some African countries like Gabon, Ivory Coast and Ghana in a couple of tournaments there, but we want more exposure. We want to be exposed to more tournaments and I’m really pushing for that.”