THE Guyana Golf Association (GGA), in partnership with its flag sponsors Copa Airlines, will tee off its inaugural 3-Day Valentine’s tournament from today at the NexGen Golf Academy, Woolford Avenue. Among the various prizes, contestants will vie for the main prize of one roundtrip ticket to any of their destinations, during the ‘HOLE-in-ONE’ event, which gets underway from 16:00hrs to 19:00hrs today, Saturday and during Sunday’s final.
Copa Airlines and Nexgen Golf Academy will also be targetting a number of locations across the country such as Berbice, Linden, Essequibo and Leonora as part of the grand promotion of the Hole-in-One format Anyone can participate in the four categories – women, children, beginners (men) and experienced golfers – within the month of February, with golfers earning a free shot at winning a ticket (one try per person).

“Guyanese youth have incredible talent and only lack facilities and opportunities to play golf – something that we are focussing on providing. The Ministry of Education has done something amazing – opening up the sport to children, a programme now being copied by other countries.” said GGA president Aleem Hussain.
Hussain pointed out that it was Ms Melissa Dow-Richardson, Assistant Director of Sport in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, who in 2019 highlighted the fact that golf was on the CXC/CAPE syllabus. That jumpstarted the creation of a programme that was fully realised over the past few months by the Allied Arts Unit, CEO of the Secondary Schools and Minister of Education. This activity is the first of many planned for 2021 between the two entities, with schools and regions across the country being targetted as the sport seeks to use its fully COVID-19 compliant format to reach every household.