The Ghana Golf Association (GGA) has organized a one day training programme for sports journalists aimed at furnishing them to be appreciative with the sport.
The event took place on Friday, October 25, 2024, at the Bok Nam Kim Golf Club near Burma Camp where participants were taken through the equipment, techniques, rules and terminologies in the game for proper reporting.
The media practitioners were made to feel the golf course, play with the club, taking different strokes with the objective of knowing the rudiments of playing and scoring.
Mr. Leonard Kwaku Okyere, president of the Ghana Golf Association expressed gratitude to the journalists, mostly members of Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) for their participation and help to spread the word to Ghanaians that golf is not an exclusive sport for the rich.
“I thank you for coming and hope that we help push golf to the wider Ghanaian audience. I also want to clear the misconception that golf is only reserved for the rich.”
“The only difference between golf and other sports is that you need a little bit of patience and it can also let us know when you are an honest person or dishonest based on what you do on the course,” Leonard Kwaku Okyere said.
Mr. Solomon Allotey, Secretary of the GGA named some of the upcoming tournaments as the Asantehene Open Golf Championship (Kumasi), Ghana Open Golf Championship (Kumasi), Accra Golf Championship, Tafo Golf Open Championship (Tafo) and the PGA Tournament in Damang later in the season.
All the participants were content with the programme and even called for frequent of such exercises for the media to provide more publicity and promotion of golf in Ghana.
Some of the lessons from the programme was Golf is Integrity, Credibility and Honesty.
It was also established that golf is not a game for rich people or the affluent in society, while golf can be played by people above 60 years.
The meeting also formed the platform to promote Ghana golf activities on social media.
Present at the seminar was Col John Armah Okai (rtd) captain of Bok Nam Kin Club, Mr. Rodney Odoi and Mr. Chris Atadeka who shared some insights on marketing, creating links and partnerships in golf.