Significant strides made by Saudi Arabia in promoting golf in the Kingdom and across the region will take center stage when the American Express Dirab Golf Championship, the fourth tournament on this year’s MENA Golf Tour, gets under way Oct. 4 to 7.
Open to both amateurs and professionals, the tour event will provide emerging talent from the region especially with an opportunity to showcase their rising standards in a competitive environment at Dirab Golf & Country Club — the only all-grass 18-hole par 72 championship course in Saudi Arabia.
Leading the Saudi challenge will be Othman Almulla, who will be joined by some of the top golfers from Morocco and England, in particular, in the amateur division. Almulla is no stranger to competing at the highest level, having featured in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on a couple of occasions.
Fahad Almansour, Ali Alsakha and Omar Hariri are other Saudi amateurs who have also entered the amateur division which promises to unfold an interesting duel for honors.
The professional division features a host of former winners on the MENA Golf Tour, including Luke Joy and Lee Corfield, both of England, Paul Doherty (Scotland) and Shafiq Masih of Pakistan.
Masih, a former Dirab Golf and Country Club golf instructor, hopes his experience will give him an edge as he aims to regain the title he won there in 2012.
“I am pretty familiar with the course, where I have been a teaching professional for a number of years,” he said.
“Local knowledge and memories of the win in 2012 make me feel great coming back to Dirab Golf and Country Club. It will be a lot of fun if I can win here again. Anything can happen in golf, but my confidence is on a high.”
“We are delighted to be returning to Saudi Arabia for the third time and I would like to thank the golfing authorities there for providing all the support we need to put together a first-class event,” said Mohamed Juma Buamaim, chairman of the MENA Tour.
“We would be more than pleased to see home-grown Saudi talent vie for honors in the event in the near future,” he said, adding: “It’s great to see a well-recognized and quality brand such as American Express offer their support to the Tour event which has the potential to put golf in Saudi Arabia on a trajectory for growth.
“The tour, as a whole, will also benefit from the Amex association as it will send out a positive signal to the golfing community about the strides being made by the tour events in putting the region on the sporting map.”
How the script will unfold at the lush tree-lined fairways and perfectly manicured greens only time will tell, but with the MENA Golf Tour reaching its business end in October, the tournament at Dirab is headed for a compelling contest.
Under the auspices of the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation and affiliated to the Arab Golf Federation and the R&A, the MENA Golf Tour features 11 tournaments this season.
