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Nigeria’s
former number one ranked golfer, Oche Odoh, will take to the field
today as this year’s edition of the MTC Namibia Open tees off in the
Namibian capital, Windhoek.

The championship,
which will see participants battling for a share of the 1.2million
South African rand (around 39million naira) prize money will be taking
place on the 6,570-metre par-71 Windhoek Country Club.

The star prize is
however 190,200 rand (around six million naira) and a strong field of
131 golfers, including Oche, will be hoping that they get to become the
winner of the princely amount come the end of the championship on
Sunday.

“I am very
positive. In a while I have not felt like this and I am very
confident,” said Oche who is the only Nigerian taking part in the
championship which is one of the biggest events in the Southern
African-based Sunshine Tour.

Odoh recently took
part in the Harare Open, but despite an impressive display of shots
that saw him progressing from the pre-qualifying rounds and into the
tournament’s main draw, he failed to advance past the second round no
thanks to a heavy downpour.

He is however
hoping to make up for his recent disappointment with a good display at
the Namibia Open, and is encouraged by the victory of his close buddy
Gift Willy in last month’s Gambian Open.

“Gift is my
room-mate in South Africa and it is comforting and encouraging to hear
the news of his win in Banjul,” Odoh said of his compatriot.

“We share the same dream of playing ourselves to the top of the world ranking. It is encouraging.”

The favourites

Odoh is scheduled
to take to the greens later today in the company of South Africa’s
Lourens Kleynhans and Finland’s Onkoshi Eriksson but he, as well as
other competitors at the Open will have to be at their best to get the
better of South Africa’s Branden Grace.

In the absence of
defending champion, Hennie Otto, and with the man who beat him to the
title in the final round of last month’s Telkom PGA Championship,
George Coetzee, in action in the Sicilian Open on the European Tour,
Grace, currently ranked seventh on the Sunshine Tour, is one of the
favourites for the title.

But he won’t have things all his own way as he will challenged by
his cousin Michiel Bothma, a four-time winner on the Sunshine Tour, and
fellow South African Oliver Bekker.