Le MeridienResort:

GREAT GOLF COMES UNDONE

If the script written for the new Le Meridien Golf Resort in Uyo is fully played out, there is hardly any existing competitor in view.

Colin Montgomerie, Retief Goosen and Nancy Lopez have their name emblazoned on the commissioning plaque, making if the most exotic around (even when the cost of having them is in the region of $3 million US dollars- government wont confirm, anyway) the new resort facility is a ground of endless charm. Apart from its lonely spotting at a clear community outside town, it also boasts of the only deliberate heli-pad (on a golf course) in the country.

Even Dominic Andrew, the assistant resident professional at IBB International Golf and Country club in Abuja (Which is till-date grandest facility) admitted that there were flickers of excellence in the layout.

“This is a championship course any day, and when fully matured would complete with any standard course in the country and anywhere in the world”

Monty, who would be praying that his appearance in Ibom gives him his first professional Major win in almost twenty years as a pro, also commented the edifice, claiming that the course can host any championship event.

One other high point of the course is the jetty access to the course which the state governor says is a 15-minute access to the TINAPA business facility. And definitely it is expected to be one of its highest patrons including the five star le Meridien Hotel that is the icing of the resort.

However given the spread of the golf community the membership expected at the Le Meriedien Golf Resort may be that of country members drawn from the expatriate community down in the Niger-delta.

Most golfers (about 65%) are spread across the west and northern regions while golfers down in the south-south regions are basically temporary membership apart from scanty local players which are majorly domiciled in Port Harcourt.

Abu Odihili, a renown local golf architect and former captain of Benin Golf club says there is need device a membership drive that would encourage the facility to be maximized and eventually be able to cater for its own maintenance rather than depending on government subventions to run it.

Technically, because of the water table character of the region, it is highly worrisome what becomes of the numerous water hazards that dot the layout.

At the nine-hole exhibition play by the invited foreign pros one observer noted that there was no visible Surface Erosion System to dislodge excess water in case of overflow, which rainfall could cause easily. The argument is that the course is at the risk of being over flooded and the lives of the newly grafted grasses could go for it.

“We want to believe that there are provisions fro the water to be dispensed in case of overflow because they are not apparent from here and it is a major danger for this beautiful layout. Although if there is none already it can be incorporate in no time” he said.

During the exhibition play too, one major obstacle to free-flow of play was the bumpy putting green which gave toned down the player’s fairways skills.

Odihili offered that: Dwarf Bermuda and Kenyan Kikiyu brands of the grass would have performed better on the turf than the Bengo version that is already growing algae on the newly Le Meridian turfs”

The layout for most of the green although is flat and gives the approach shot an easy sit after the crafty fairway challenge.

Although not all golfers agrees that the putting surface tones down the challenge most 1BB Golf Course players vows that that is one of the edge that IBB has over it.

Dominic Andrew says that most players when used to the layout would find approaching the 1BB very difficult “some of the positioning of the green are cheaper that of our home course” he says.

And from the architectural viewpoint Lovett Omoighe form Ikoyi Club added that being flat to the ground, the green could be easy trap for flowing water and rainfalls which could be the bane of the grass.

For now, the fairways parades cornucopia of grasses, which hopefully could still be transplanted for uniformity and beauty of the fairways.

As grand as the course promises, there are still pockets of changes that the Akwa Ibom government needs to make, including what needs to be put in place to keep the golfing community especially those in the western and northern part to keep coming back to Uyo, after a bone-crunching one hour trip from Calabar (the nearest commercial flight stop).