With 44 tournaments held in 2019, president of the Lusignan Golf Club, Aleem Hussain has tagged the season as a “challenging but satisfying year” for the sport.
Stabroek Sport caught up with Hussain who reflected on the season and said, “[the season was] Challenging yet satisfying in that we struggled with our executive team and members to produce financials while still having to develop the club and sport.”
Hussain said that the body continued to make strides, doubling their competitions from 2017 in 2018 and adding two more this season.
He said that there were a number of achievements by the body including the maintaining of corporate sponsors as well as the historic partnerships forged with Marriott and Copa that together combined to bring a general improvement to the game.
Hussain repeatedly stated that, “Without the support of Macorp and several of its newer members such as New Trend Auto’s Rudy Ramalingum and Aditka Persaud, along with sterling performance by the grounds staff led by Mike Guyadin, Avinash Persaud, Dhanai, Barney, Phillip and Golin, the club could not have achieved the promise made to the members.”
The incumbent explained that he is proud to have 710 out of 720 playing days in the last two years since it was the administration’s “vision of transformation that began with upgrading the drainage and irrigation system to ensure that there would never be a repeat of the circumstances faced during previous years and Macorp’s CEO Guillermo Escarraga was quick to offer his company’s support.”
According to Hussain, he reckons that golf has now moved up the ladder to the third most popular sport behind cricket and football which has mainly come due to the development of the course that provides the hosting of not only tournaments but social activities such as fashion shows, wine tasting, weddings, Easter programmes, domino competitions and others which could not have been possible with the course flooding.
He revealed that as a country, Guyana finished in the top 10 of several tournaments in Barbados and Suriname. The golfers also did well in Jamaica, which marks a significant improvement for the country.
However, Hussain stated that there were a number of challenges the body faced including “developing new sponsor relationships through tough economic times and maintaining the course on limited funds.”
Looking to 2020 Hussain explained that in the pipeline will be the development of a new course, whose location will be revealed later, an implementation of golf in schools and surpassing 2019’s tournament aggregate.
He also indicated that there will be more emphasis placed on women and children involvement along with more major sponsorships and the implementation of a golf development committee.
