00:00It's always good to take time to celebrate success, and that's exactly what happened
00:04in Tobago this weekend as young golfers from the Sister Isle celebrated at the Magdalena
00:10Grand Resort.
00:11The Let's Learn to Golf Tobago NGO and sponsors Republic Bank feted the young golfers after
00:17another successful year.
00:20Let's Learn Golf Tobago was created to make golf accessible to junior golfers in the Sister
00:23Isle, while allowing them to access competitions, but also promote social inclusion.
00:30The program concluded with the Let's Learn Golfers Tournament at the Magdalena Grand
00:34Beach and Golf Resort, in which 27 young golfers competed in four divisions.
00:40Speaking at the ceremony was THCA Chief Secretary Farley Augustin, who touched on the value
00:46that it can bring to Tobago.
00:49Golf is emerging in our space as a very important sport.
00:57We are finally getting to see the potential of golf for our tourism product, sport tourism.
01:05We are finally getting to see that golf can actually transform lives and can position
01:11young people in places they didn't even think possible.
01:16And so we are happy to support this sport in any way possible, and certainly to support
01:22the youngsters.
01:24And Sport Minister Shanfa Kiju spoke about her own experience growing up near a golf
01:28course and seeing how the sport has, from being able to reach out, to being accessible.
01:36Nobody really sending you to club, you don't have that money.
01:39The average family did not have those kinds of means.
01:44But when you talk about golf, golf was further out of our reach.
01:49Because in those times, it seemed like it was a sport for a certain class, for a certain
01:54people, and you couldn't imagine yourself playing golf.
01:58It was something that the tourists would come and play, and you would hear about them.
02:03But coming out of Bethel, you have people like Sexy Baines and those folks learning
02:10as they played, and played alongside the tourists and so on.
02:15So today, I look around in this room and I say, look at us, look at us, we, the normal
02:23people, the average Joe, our children, participating in golf.
02:29We can say, give the golfers a round of applause, and the golfers are our children.
Comments