RIYADH, 27 October 2007 — A golfer’s high, when nothing seems to go wrong, comes every once in a while. For Mark Duda it came yesterday.
Duda shot a career-best 2-under 70 at the Dirab Golf Club to claim the overall title in the 2007 SABB Golf Championship. A total of 109 players enjoyed a day out on the course in pleasant conditions.
The long-hitting Duda, an American who took up membership at Dirab just four months ago, also won Best Gross and Best Net honors in Division A (handicap 0-9).
Playing to a 4 handicap, the lanky Duda had a net score of 66, well in front of Thai Somchit Nakhong and Ali Belhareth.
Somchit was five strokes back at 71 for second place, while Belhareth, captain of the Saudi national team, took the third position at 74 via the countback from national golfer Ali Al-Sahli.
Though there were a slew of sub-par rounds from the rest of the pack the day simply belonged to Duda, with Rahn Wood of SABB missing a potential overall crown on countback. As a result, Wood had to settle for the Third Division (19-28) title with his overall Best Net-tying score of 66.
Filipino Pedy Lualhati again played good golf to win in consecutive weeks, clinching the Second Division (10-18) crown with a 3-under 69 from Goran Anderson, who placed second at 70. James Shin snatched the third spot in the division by countback from another Filipino Art Ubando, of Samba Financial Group, after both players signed for a 71.
Seitaro Tsukuda came second in the 19-28 category handicap at 70 with Filipino lefty Ben Bollozos beating Mario Veracruz and Mark Davis on countback for the third position after all three posted 71.
Sile McLlory, Hewan Abrahaley and Canadian Sue Mature were the first three Ladies Division winners at 67, 73 and 75 in that order.
Rising Saudi junior golfer Khalid Attieh continued to improve his game when at 12 handicap he bested the Al-Mansour brothers Abdulrahman and Mansour for the Junior Division crown with a solid 69. Abdulrahman wound up second at 73 and Mansour third at 74. The awards for longest drive went to Somchit and Kahkshan Ali in the men’s and ladies division, while Y. K. Kim brought home the closest to the pin plum.
Khaled Abunayyan, president of Saudi Golf Committee and course owner, thanked SABB for sponsoring this tournament through the bank’s managing director John Coverdell. He reiterated his full support for the golf club with more development on the golf course for the benefit of members.
Mansor Tirmzi, chief financial officer SABB and Jehaan Ismail, CEO SABB Securities, presented prizes to the winners during the awards ceremony. Amr Abdel Fattah Saeed, manager Internal Communication, and Rima Alfaour, marketing manager, were the other SABB executives who helped make the event a success. From Dirab Committee there were members Fahad Al-Mansour, Andrea Corbett, Nasser Udin, and Cris Agunos. Senior cameraman Noel Arriola Alipoyo did the video coverage of the tournament proceedings.
Meanwhile, Dirab Golf Club Manager Bouchaib El Jadiani said Charles Terring, deputy managing director of European Senior PGA Tour, made an ocular inspection of Riyadh’s two courses, Dirab and Riyadh Golf Course, in connection with plans to have Saudi Arabia host an official tournament next March.
A media conference attended by Arabic press people was organized on Thursday during Terring’s visit.
