RIYADH, 20 February 2004 — Ever heard of anyone talk of Saudi golf in a big way as one does of other sports like, say, basketball or soccer? To be sure, not many do but last Friday the talk of the town was Saudi National Team's thrilling victory over British resident golfers in the Saudi-British International Golf Challenge here.
In benign conditions at the Dirab Golf Club course the Saudis overcame the Britons' final day charge in the singles to win the Ryder Cup-style event 10 1/2 to 9 1/2 points. The two-day tournament kicked off the collaborative efforts between the Saudi and British Golf Committees to promote golf in the Kingdom under the Saudi British Sports Cooperation Program, according to Saudi Golf Committee chairman and Dirab golf course owner Sheikh Khaled I. Abunayyan.
In a contest that pitted one team with a rich golfing tradition against another that is trying to develop one the victory was a big leap forward for Saudi golf. An overjoyed Saudi team captain, Ali Belhereth, proclaimed "Give me two years and I'll give you good players." He was obviously referring to the 35 Alkhobar-based junior golfers now in training that will form the Saudi talent pool. The present crop of national players though did well enough to impress Ali's counterpart at the British side, Clark Windross. "They were very good. The win was not a surprise at all. They will get better as more facilities are built around the Kingdom," said the long-hitting Windross.
The Saudis won all but one match in the Thursday afternoon foursomes to build a 7-3 lead after the first day when they also took three to UK's two in the morning four-ball better ball matches. Sulaiman Al Amri staked Saudi to an 8-3 lead when he won the first of 10 singles matches Friday against Graham Bollans 5 and 4. UK responded through Bill Greig who clinched the match against Abdul Abdullah on the 14th hole, Jasser Al Jasser and Dave Power halved their match before UK rattled in four straight victories including close ones by Norman Galloway and Des Dakin.
Galloway nipped Sattam Algosaibi 1-up while Dakin rolled in a birdie putt on the 18th to put away a tough Saeed Al Dossary. The Britons dominated the singles 6 1/2 to 3 1/2 but the Saudis gamely held on to win the 10-a-side match by a point thanks mainly to clutch victories by Belhereth and Mohamed Al Khaldi over Andy Tuckwood and Stu Vincent respectively in the singles.
Also winning the singles for Britain were Windross over Ali Al Shali, Ron Cowper over Abdullah Al Rotaai and Ron Thompson over Musaad Al Yami. The five four-ball better ball matches Thursday were marked by close 1-up victories by Saudi tandems of Belhereth-Shali and Mohammed Al Khaldi-Mussad Al Yami over Windross-Tuckwood and Vincent-Ron Thompson respectively.
