The Smokin Hills Golf Resort in Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State, will host the 2026 Business Network Golf Tournament on February 21.
The event, sponsored by Bode Adediji Partnership and Kontinental Developers Limited, aims to bring together businessmen, professionals, and artisans worldwide.
The tournament is said to be a way to contribute to the sporting community, according to Mr. Bode Adediji, a renowned estate surveyor and valuer. He believes the growth of golf is linked to a nation’s socio-economic progress.
The main purpose of this tournament, Adediji, a lover of the game of golf, says, “is our little way to contribute to the sporting community”. In his words, “there is a school of thought that tries to establish a linkage between the growth in golf players and infrastructural facilities, on one hand and the overall socio-economic progress of a nation, on the other hand”.
Usually, he observes, “it is an index of development”. Making reference to countries like Japan, China, South Korea, United States and Italy, where the game of golf thrives, he says it is not possible to have this game in an environment of backwardness and poverty.
To many people, the relevance of the game of golf to business growth as well as the development and management of urban infrastructure may not be clear enough. Adediji has this to say: “There are two major reasons why we are promoting the game of golf. The main reason is that it falls within the aspect we call leisure and recreation management which is an integral part of business and professional developments worldwide.”
On the choice of the Smokin Hills Golf Resort for the business networking, he says, Elizade Golf Resorts,‘The Smokin Hills’, in Ilara Mokin, Ondo State, was developed by Ondo born High Chief and Chairman of Elizade Motors, Chief Michael Adeojo. According to him, “the 18-hole golf resort is the latest addition to Nigeria’s list of growing golf courses”.
The course, which is just about 20 minutes from Akure, the Ondo State capital, is located in a university town and is the first and only golf facility in cocoa-producing Ondo State.
Arguably, Adediji says, it is one of the best courses in Nigeria today, saying that its sheer aesthetics value surpassed first time visitors’ expectations, as golfers who have hit the course are quick to compare it with IBB International Golf and Country Club, Abuja and Le Meridien Ibom Golf Resort, Uyo, the only Nigerian courses with world class attributes.
“Close by is the Elizade University and it is a course that takes patience and the ability to be creative around the Green. You could see this from the several bunkers and huge trees that dot the course. The course is completely entirely playable, even to a weekend hacker.
“Elizade University and the golf course is capable of handling any course anyone would think of in Nigeria and in comparison, with other similar universities /colleges across the globe,” Adediji remarked.