Golf: Otumfuo to host presidential candidates
As part of his contribution towards a peaceful general elections, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, is inviting all presidential candidates to join him in a weekend of ‘Golf for Peace and National Unity in 2016’ at a later date to calm nerves and lower the apparent tension in the country.
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Each one of the candidates would be expected to pick a team of golfers from his camp, both men and women, but would not play for their parties.
They would be expected to mix up with their opponents and devise a winning formula to carry the day.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu was addressing golfers at this year’s MTN-Asantehene Gold Cup 2016 at the Royal Golf Club in Kumasi.
This year’s competition, which coincided with the 17th anniversary celebration of Otumfuo’s ascension to the Golden Stool, also marked his 66th birthday.
During the Golf for Peace and National Unity competition, the Asantehene said: “We will take the opportunity to introduce the leaders who are not golfers to the sport and hopefully capture their abiding interest in the sport.
"I will invite the diplomatic community and the judiciary to be part of this initiative as well as the Ghanaian media to agree a voluntary ban on political discussions to create a politics-free environment in which the political leaders will relate to each other in the spirit of comradeship and true sportsmanship,’ he said.
The Asantehene said when party faithful see their leaders play together and talk together as well as cherish each other “through a weekend of boundless affection, any notions of civil strife and disorder will drain out of the system."
Otumfuo lamented the fact that the nation's total sporting focus was on football.
"It saddens me to think of how, as a consequence, our youth are missing out on the massive opportunities for personal advancement and national glory in golf and sports like tennis, athletics and cricket," he said.
The Asantehene said in 2014, the European Golf Circuit announced a tentative decision to admit Ghana to the lucrative circuit, thus offering the potential for Ghanaian golfers to compete at the highest level and for high level international golfers to play on our courses.
However, this was yet to materialise. He urged the government to find the need to support the realisation of this dream.
It will be recalled that Royal Golf Club’s Sammer Hagen picked the ultimate prize of this year’s MTN-Asantehene Gold Cup 2016 after recording a score of 142 net over two days in the Scratch event.