James Lebbie is a professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er born in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

. Lebbie is a touring and teaching professional and a member of the Sierra Leone PGA. He is Sierra Leone's most successful

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

. He played in many tournaments on Europe's second tier

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History The ...

, mainly those held in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, recording a solitary victory in the 1992

Nigerian Open The Nigerian Open was a golf tournament in Nigeria, played between 1969 and 1999. It was generally played at the Ikoyi Club in Ikoyi, Lagos. From 1997 to 1999 it was played at the IBB International Golf & Country Club in Abuja. It was an fixtur ...

. He has also won the Sierra Leone Open many times. Lebbie began playing golf at Freetown Golf Club in the beachside

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...

village of Lumley, and worked as the Head Professional there until the 1991 when the outbreak of the

Sierra Leone Civil War The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberia, Liberian dictato ...

caused Sierra Leone’s military to take over the golf course as a training base. He has since moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to take up a position as a teaching professional at The Capital City Golf School, in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

As of 2016, Lebbie was working as a

caddie In golf, a caddie (or caddy) is the person who carries a player's bag and clubs, and gives the player advice and moral support. Description A good caddie is aware of the challenges and obstacles of the golf course being played, along with the ...

Congressional Country Club Congressional Country Club is a country club and golf course in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. Congressional opened in 1924 and its Blue Course has hosted five major championships, including three U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship. It was a ...

in Bethesda,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Professional wins (8)

Challenge Tour wins (1)

Other wins (7)

* 1980 Ghana Open * 1985 Sierra Leone Open * 1987 Sierra Leone Open * 1988 Sierra Leone Open * 1989 Sierra Leone Open * 1990 Sierra Leone Open * 2007 Bill Bishop tournament

References

External links

*
James Lebbie in the Guardian
Sierra Leonean male golfers European Tour golfers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Africa-golf-bio-stub