Mystery over 47 missing golfers

The Scotsman ^ | 7/11/02 | Gethin Chamberlain

[Nexus]

Mystery over 47 missing golfers

Gethin Chamberlain

ORGANISERS of the Open Championship have launched an investigation after 47 out of 48 Nigerians granted visas to enter Britain to take part in the competition failed to turn up for their games.

There are suspicions that some of the would-be golfers had no intention of taking part in the tournament but used the event as an excuse to get past immigration controls.

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club, which organises the tournament, has expressed surprise at the size of the entry from a country not normally associated with top-class golf, and concern about the failure of the golfers to show up.

The mystery deepened yesterday when both the Nigerian Golf Union and the Nigerian High Commission denied any knowledge of such a large entry.

Top-class golf courses are few and far between in the West African country and the annals of golfing history are not overburdened with the names of Nigerian greats.

Suspicions began to surface when officials at the Open qualifying tournaments reported that their Nigerian contingent had failed to turn up to play.

None of the 11 Nigerians expected at the Hadley Wood course in north London turned up, while Orsett in Essex found itself missing all 13 of its anticipated contestants. Only Trentham in Staffordshire reported a Nigerian golfer arriving to play out of ten who had been expected. Ifeanyi Chukwu went round in 76 but failed to make it through the qualifying round.

Yesterday, Peter Dawson, the secretary of the Royal and Ancient, said: "We did have a large entry from Nigeria in particular and a good number didn’t turn up.

"We are running a championship and we checked as many of them as we could but with the benefit of hindsight, something strange does appear to have gone on."

The Nigerian Golf Union conceded that the entry did appear to be considerably higher than they were aware of. A spokesman said they knew of only two golfers who had been recommended to take part in the championship.

[TC Rider]

The depth of Nigerian scams knows no limits.

They are the masters of identity theft and credit car scams.

They were known in the 80s for stealing long distance phone pins and selling 'calls' back to the home country.

In the 90s they mastered ID theft. They will romance single black women working in banks and Social Security offices. Once they had one hooked, they'd use her to obtain SSNs and bank account info.

More often than not, they were here on student visas attending 'traditionally' black colleges and univerities.

My wife attended a conference with FBI/Secret Service/Postal Inspectors and Credit Card security people where the whole thing was laid out. That was in the early 90s.

The credit card companies instituted new security measures, the USPS put more security in place at airports, where entire baskets of credit cards were being lifted off jets.

I doubt the INS, FBI or SS has done anything. I rarely hear of arrests.

[Cindy]

Almost everyday I get 1-3 or more Nigerian scams e-mails. I'd like to see all their sorry butts sitting in prison. Once in a while I write back and tell them to turn themselves in to the nearest Law Enforcement Officer. I'm sure they rush right out and do just that.

[Phantom Lord]

Those items are clearly allowed under the rules of golf. Both USGA and Royal & Anceint.

[Phantom Lord]

Why you picking on Payne?

[myrabach]

And they say the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist!! Oh yeah... then just where are those Nigerian golfers? Somthing "fishy" going on here.