Sunday Ehigiator

Newly appointed Lady Captain of Ikoyi Ladies Golf Club, Peggy Onwu, has unveiled her plans to promote sustainability and biodiversity within the club and its members.
She made this known while speaking with journalists over the weekend during her inaugural programme as Lady Captain of the club, themed, ‘Go Beyond, Reach It, Live It, Play It.’
According to her, “My vision for this year is sustainability and biodiversity. The theme is called ‘Go Beyond Golf and Golfing’ because we see that in current days, most of us pick up a sport and in this case, golf, and we just play the sport. And I think that it is time for us to give up on ourselves and do other things other than the sport.
“We must impact society, we must impact our environment, and we must impact people around us. We must make a meaning and leave a mark in the sands of time when we are given an opportunity to.
“This year’s theme is aimed at playing the game and also reaching out to those things animated and inanimate in our ecosystem.
“So, the golfing environment has the lakes, we have trees, we have plants, sometimes we have garden litter from those trees so we need to clean up the place so that it can be aerated.
“We have animals that stay in the water, we have fish, we have birds that go on the trees, and we must make sure that these things are also breathing and living happily. So, for this year, as I said earlier, we must make sure that these things in our environment and our natural ecosystem are preserved.
“So, the lakes are cleaned, the birds have natural nesting places, the fish can breathe properly in the water, the water is cleaned.

“We will recycle because there’s a lot of hydration going on, so people have bottles, and somehow, you have a lot of plastics, so we want to create hydration centers.

“And then by extension, we want to be able to see if we can take the seeds that come out of some of the trees and give women who make sustainable living so they can blend and bring out oils and sell and create a living.

“On the part of golfers, we also intend to ensure that you have the caddies, those who help carry the bags, and you have the main golfers. Some of these caddies need sustenance, so they’re here; they’re trying to make a livelihood and a living. We want to ensure that we create a pathway for them to lead.

“Some of them want to become professional golfers, so you want to encourage them in that suit so we’ll have skills, we’ll have tournaments that will bring out the best of them to go into these skills. Some of them may want to go into golf administration.

“We want to be able to encourage them and look for sponsors who would encourage them to train for golf administration or even the cost management.”

Earlier in her address, the Chairperson, Sustainability Programme, Irene Ubah noted that the idea for the chosen theme is to go “beyond ourselves in achievement, in our chosen sport, in our lives and our community, specifically in our golf community.

“One of the ways we are looking to go beyond our sport and ourselves is by making a conscious effort towards contributing to the environment of the golf course, which we are so lucky to have.

“Where else in Lagos, especially on the island), do we have so many hectares of beautiful greenery in nature, available to us for our relaxation and comfort?

“To make a positive contribution to this environment, we have to be intentional in living our lives both on and off the course, in a sustainable manner.”

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