RIYADH, 3 September 2007 — Members of the Saudi junior golf team are among the 40 junior golfers that joined the 2007 Junior Golf Development Session II, which was launched on Friday at the Dirab Golf Club here.
Open to both Saudi and expatriate jungolfers the program is run under the aegis of Dirab golf course owner and president of Saudi Golf Committee Khaled Abunayyan and Dirab Golf management.
Sessions had been scheduled on weekends in the next two and a half months, according to Bouchaib El Jadiani, who is in charge of the program.
He said the training program is aimed at helping prepare the Saudi junior team that will play alongside the regular men’s team in the Pan-Arab Golf Championship, which the Kingdom is hosting in November, and getting the youths to take up the game.
In January 2006 Dirab organized a similar junior training course albeit this was exclusive to Saudis.
As the host country Saudi Arabia is allowed to field two teams in the Pan-Arab event set for Nov. 10-13. Also, SGC is keen to give the juniors exposure in a bid to emulate Egypt and Tunisia which both run successful junior golf development programs. Now in full swing at the Dirab Golf Academy and Dirab championship course, the training intends to develop the physical and mental skills of the players. The juniors will also play against single-digit Dirab golfers.
Among the Saudi junior golfers who attended the launching of the event were Abdullah Hussaini, brothers Abdul Rahman and Mansour Al-Mansour, Khaled Attieh, Turki Al-Hussaini and Khaled Eddiweesh. Except for the Jeddah-based Attieh and Turki these players did two weeks of training camp in the United Kingdom as part of the Saudi-British Sports Cooperation Program signed in 1987.
Meantime, Bouchaib said registration is now open for the Saudi National Day Golf Tournament to be held Sept. 23. Slots will be limited to the first 100 registrants, Bouchaib added.
