Officials of the Gambia Golf Association (GGA) have disclosed plans to host the 2012 Gambia Open and Pro Arm tournament from the 26th-30th June at the Fajara Golf Course. The upcoming event is sponsored by the Gambia National Olympic Committee, GACEM Company Ltd and Lady Njaimeh Jawara.

The president of the GGA, Ebrima Jawara disclosed to TODAY Sport’s Fatoumatta Saho that they are expecting internationals, professionals and amateurs to participate in the event. “We have sent out invitation and already have response from the Ghanaian and Nigerian professionals who want a little bit more information, though the professionals will not be that many as compared to the previous championship but we will definitely see professionals from abroad,” he said.

The GGA president further stated that the tournament is open to any amateur golfer with a recognised handicap and any certified professional golfer. As part of efforts to ensure that this tournament is hosted smoothly, Jawara urged everyone to abide by the rules and regulations of the event.

He said: “It is one thing to have rules and another thing to have people abide by those rules and regulations. We know what happened the last time and hopefully there will not be a repeatwith the professionals having pledged to ensure that the rules are adhered to and we don’t expect what happened last time to repeat itself. And hopefully we will have a smooth Gambia Open this year.

“Our Immediate task as an association, we got our AGM on Wednesday and we will host the 2012 Gambia open and pro-arm towards the end of June, World Amateurs team Championship in Turkey in October where the GGA will be represented, the International Golf Federation biennial meeting in October in Turkey also the Gambia will be represented for the first time. The 2012 World Amateur Championships has a direct link with the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Naching in China.

“The top 26 teams that qualified for the 2012 Youths Games should be youths between the ages of 16 and 18 and would then qualify for the 2012 Youth Olympics and it’s important to have a team to represent The Gambia which we already have. “After the Gambia open and pro-arm, we will be running trials to select one male and female born between 1997 and 1998 who will then be trained to play golf for Gambia in the youth Olympics.

We are planning to have at least ten youths, five male and five female that we will sponsor fully, give them all the equipments, membership of the golf course among others, seek funding to have them go abroad to learn best practice in golf so that the next generation of golf professionals will be well rounded in order to compete with the best of the world.

Jawara also recalled that last year, the Baby Mariam Jammeh tournament was sponsored by President Jammeh and the 2010 Gambia Open where his Excellency was the chief patron and generously donated 10, 000 dollars as the first prize which is one of the highest in West Africa.

The GGA prezy used the opportunity on behalf of his Association to thank the Gambian leader for his continuous support and generosity. He added: “He [the president] has done immensely to get golf going again as the sport was dead for a few years and he helped jump-start it and that is why we are here today. The Baby Mariam Jammeh tournament and the Gambia Open which he generously sponsored have led us to where we are today.

“As a matter of protocol, courtesy and gratefulness we wrote to him and informed him formally of the event and invite him as the chief patron. The general public is invited to come and watch as well.”