The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Range Hawks Golf Club, born out of the idea to provide some comradeship with retired golfers in their spare time at the Bahamas Golf Federation’s Driving Range, will host their initial Open Challenge on Friday, April 7 at the Baha Mar Golf and Country Club. The event will tee off at 1pm.

The club, which usually travels to Florida at least once a month to play golf because of the unavailability of playing facilities here, was also designed to assist a number of local charities, including the Children’s Emergency Hostel and the Children’s Home in Yellow Elder.

Their initial tournament will help to raise funds to assist their charitable organisations.

“Baha Mar has been very gracious to us in allowing us to use their golf course for this event,” said Rodwell Knowles, the tournament organiser for the Range Hawks Golf Club.

“So we are trying to get as much of the local golfers to come out to participate in this tournament because we’ve not had that many tournaments for the local golfers to participate in.”

Aliv, the newest telecommunications company in the country, will sponsor the event, which will offer prizes to the closest to the pins on all of the par-three holes.

The registration fee is $125 per player and is open to all golfers, but it is limited to the first 100 competitors who sign up to compete by contacting Rodwell Knowles at 456-6509 or Sammy Gardiner at 376-3306.

With golf now an Olympic sport, Gardiner, the Range Hawks Golf Club’s tournament organiser, said there is a lot more interest in the sport because there are many persons who are of the opinion that the Bahamas can excel at that level just as it’s done in all of the other sporting disciplines.

“We have some of the best golf courses here and historically we have staged some of the best PGA and LPGA Tournaments,” Gardiner said. “But somehow, with the demise of Cable Beach, the availability of facilities for us to hone our home grown talent has been waned.

“But as the elder statesman, I guess, it’s up to us to make sure that we peak the interest of those who are coming behind us. We also work along with the junior programme here because we feel we can make our presence felt on the world stage.”

Although they have not had a consistent golf facility to participate on, Knowles publicly thanked Craig Flowers for his initiative to develop the BGF’s Driving Range that is operated by Jim Duncombe, to stay actively fit for a tournament whenever it comes up.

And Gardiner said they are also encouraged by Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson, an avid golfer himself, who has been pushing the local golfers to take their game to the next level.

Hopefully with the opening of Baha Mar next month, Knowles said they will get the opportunity once again to participate in a lot more local tournaments as well with the staging of their initial Open Challenge in two weeks.