Nigeria’s biggest hope in women golf, Georgia Oboh, will today take her first step at qualifying for the Ladies Professional Golfers Association (LPGA) championship when she joins 31 other players in the qualifiers at the Tom Weiskopf-designed Ocean Club Golf Course in Paradise Island in Nassau, Bahamas.
Oboh is the only amateur player in the Pure Silk Bahamas Classic, which will take only two golfers to the main draw.
The London-based Ikoyi Club graduate was runner’s up at the Jones Doherty match play in Coral Ridge Country Club Championship at the weekend in Florida, United States and she is confident that would acquit herself creditably in Bahamas. She hopes to feature for Nigeria at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and believes that taking part in this kind of competition would help her to improve her game, as well as put her in good stead to qualify for the Olympic Games in Japan.
The 15-year-old Oboh is the youngest and first black girl or woman of African origin ever to be invited to participate or compete either as an amateur or professional in the LPGA tournament.
Already, Global Golf Management has described Oboh as a potential African golf star that can compete against the world’s best.
Oboh, who won the 2015 U.S. Kids Golf Teen World Championship, is a student of golf academy in Manchester, United Kingdom (U.K.). She will be aiming to take part in the main competition, which begins runs from January 26 to 29 at the same venue.
Over 108 golfers across the globe will compete in the fifth annual Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic. The field is headed by Rolex World Rankings No. 2 Ariya Jutanugarn, the 2016 Rolex Player of the Year, and No. 5 Lexi Thompson, plus defending champion Hyo Joo Kim and past winners Sei Young Kim, Jessica Korda and Ilhee Lee.
Four of the top 10 players in the current Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings are in the race, as well as 10 of the top 20 on the 2016 LPGA Money List.
There is over $1.4 million at stake at the tournament, plus a full allocation of points in the race to the CME Globe season-long competition. The winner receives $210,000 and 500 CME Globe points.
