Oche Odoh was one of five Nigerian participants in the recent Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Golf Tour, but failed to win any of the major prizes on offer at the event. But he is satisfied that the competition has given him and the others an invaluable experience that would aid them in their careers in the future. In a chat with Eno-Abasi Sunday, Odoh, who is one of the country's current best golfers, relives his experience in Dubai, as well as other issues in the Nigerian game.FORMER Professional Golfers Association of Nigeria (PGAN) Order of Merit Leader, Oche Odoh, says though the Nigerian players that played at the recently concluded Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Tour failed to pick any of the three invites to play at the mega-purse Dubai Desert Classic, they learnt a lot of useful lessons, just as the exposure it afforded them also count.Five members of the PGAN took part in the Tour, which featured four events in four weeks with a cumulative purse of over $200, 000. They are Odoh, Gift Willy, Mike Ubi, Kingsley Okparaku and Samba Niang (a Senegalese PGAN member).Recounting his experiences on the Tour, Odoh, who is Assistant Resident Professional at the IBB Golf and Country Club, Abuja, said he joined the others in the second event and 'for you to play in the final event, you must have earned some reasonable points from the three earlier events.'In my case, going into the third event on the Tour, which was actually my second event, I was lying in 37th position and only the first 40 on the pecking order got to play in the final event.'Unfortunately, I experienced some ups and downs in that event. I shot 1-under par the first day and 9-over the second day. That was not good enough so I missed the cut. Entering that event, all I needed was just about 100 points to qualify for the final event. That was how I missed out of the Tour Championship.'However, even though I felt bad not making the final event, I cannot start hitting myself because it was just one of those events I went out to play in after a long lay-off in the Nigerian Tour. It also helped me to gather some useful experience.'Commenting on some of the factors that worked against the Nigerian contingent out there, he said, 'The place was extremely hot and windy and since some of our colleagues like Mike Ubi and Kingsley Okparaku and even Samba Niang had not played in such conditions before, it was definitely going to be a tough one. Gift Willy and I had played in such conditions before, so it was not very difficult for us to cope, especially with the wind. If you look at how I played in the two events, you will agree with me that I was able to contain the weather conditions.'For instance, in my first event, I was placed in the top 10 on the first day only for me to play badly on the final day and finish joint 14th. In my second event, I also played well in the first round, but I sort of lost concentration in the second round and that was where I lost everything. So it is clear that the conditions did not affect me that badly. By and large, because of the circumstances I found myself, it was not a totally disappointing outing.'Asked to compare the MENA Tour with Nigeria's in terms of organisation and standard of play, Odoh said there was no basis for that as the former were high up there.He said, 'To be honest with you, there is no basis for comparison, both in terms of organisation and standard of play. We cannot write ourselves off completely because you need a proper and conducive environment for these things to happen. As it is right now, they have the right environment to let things happen and it would be a surprise if they fall short of expectations, anyway.'However, we are getting there slowly but definitely surely. As you would expect, the quality of play is also higher than ours here because there were players from the Challenge and Asian tours to play because they are off season.'Having garnered some experience from this outing, Odoh says he would definitely sign up next year for it, adding, 'Doing so would largely depend on my schedule. Like this year, I was thinking of going back to the Sunshine Tour in South Africa, but things are playing out differently. But if I have a bit of support, I will still be going there to play in the Dunhill Championship and the South African Open qualifiers. If nothing happens, I will stay till next year, but I want to play a lot next year, so I will take the chance, wherever I get it.
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