Golfers to enjoy Nigeria’s top clubs this weekend

This weekend, I will be golfing in Lagos, Nigeria, where I will hopefully be representing Kenya’s ‘‘primitive energy’’.

This trip thankfully is not another punishing golf trip courtesy of my editor, this time you can blame the dean of the Strathmore Business School who is sending the 2012 Owner Manager Programme (OMP) Class to the Lagos Business School for a week to interact with leading Nigerian entrepreneurs.

And no, this is not a golf exchange programme, it is a brilliant course that teaches entrepreneurs how to better run their businesses and hopefully retire early to a life of leisurely golf.

Our first stop in Lagos will be the Ikoyi Club, one of the top golf clubs in Nigeria. Ikoyi was established in 1938 and it now boasts membership of over 5,000 including over 2,000 golfers making it one of the busiest in Nigeria.

The water features that cut across much of the 18-hole, 5,838m layout at Ikoyi make this golf course a real adventure.

There is water behind the first green and the tee shots for the second and seventh hole are over water. In 1991, the club created a lake around the 7th green giving the golf course much needed character.

Ikoyi comes complete with a floodlit driving range that was inaugurated in 2002.

In 2011, Ikoyi team visited Kenya on a tour that included 25 golfers. The visitors played at Kenya’s “Home of Golf” the Muthaiga Golf Club, the Windsor Golf Hotel and Country Club and the Karen Country Club.

Back then, the team was led by their captain Frank Gboneme, vice captain Victor Akinbayo, secretary Patrick Ukah and the contingent also included past captains Charles Majoroh and Demola Mumuney.

This weekend, Gikonyo Gitonga, David Mureithi, Bernard Kiraithe and myself will be making a “mini-return-leg” to Ikoyi and hopefully we will make a good account of Kenya’s golf community.

Mr Gikonyo will carry the spirit of the Limuru warriors, Mr Mureithi will represent the young up-coming golfers while Mr Kiraithe will represent the Royal Nairobi Golf Club, the oldest golf club in Kenya.

On my part, I will try my very best to represent all that is Kenya’s primitive golfing energy.

Depending on how hard our hosts at the Lagos Business School will drive us, we aim to also sample one or two other golf courses in Lagos, and there are several good courses to choose from including the Dolphin Golf Club, Ikeja Golf Club, Lakowe Lakes Golf and Country Estate and the Green Elephant Cement Golf Club.

Away from the golf courses of Lagos and the belly-warming “fufu” that Naija brothers love, we will be sampling the sights and sounds of Victoria Islands and hopefully we will get to watch a Nigerian movie live.

That would be a real highlight. (I just hope the Dean does not read this!).