RIYADH: Some of the biggest names in the Gulf including Kingdom No. 1 Othman Almulla and UAE No. 1 Ahmed Al-Mushareck lead a full field of 120 players in the DSCA Open 2009 golf tournament at the Riyadh Golf Club.
There will be two shotgun starts, 7 a.m. and 12 noon, for Thursday’s first round, where the best 80 qualifiers move on for the second round on Friday of the 36-hole competition.
Prizes worth a total of SR30,000 are up for grabs on top of the two cars, a Hyundai Genesis and Veracruz SUV, being put up as hole-in-one prize courtesy of Al-Wallan Automotive.
To underscore the growing stature of the event since its inception last year Bahrain has sent 20 of its best amateur golfers, led by defending champion Sultan Abdullah.
Sultan’s father Abdullah Sultan, the newly crowned Saudi Aramco Invitational Tournament champion, and Abdullah’s youngest son, 14-year old lefty Fahad Abdullah, complete the father-and-sons trio entered in the tournament.
The veteran Nasser Yaqoub, one of the leading golfers in the region, is also in the Bahraini group that travelled in nine car convoys to Riyadh. They arrived Wednesday morning and headed straight to the course for a practice round.
Yaqoub said the course is beautiful and that the newly planted fully grown date palm trees have added to the challenge on the par-73 rolling layout.
Mushareck, who practiced with Almulla, couldn’t agree more as he bids to make a good showing as the lone UAE entry.
Almulla, hoping to salvage an indifferent season with a victory here, said, “I’m happy a charitable organization is staging a big tournament at RGC, one of the best courses in the region. And for this year I hope a Saudi wins so the government can put in more money to the organization.”
To carry the Saudi challenge with Almulla are his fellow national team players Ali Al-Sahli and Fahad Al-Mansour and a clutch of junior golfers.
The Dubai-based former Kingdom junior No. 1 who now has moved up to the regular men’s team, Khaled Attieh, was to arrive Wednesday night, according to V.T.M. Rafi, the RGC golf director who is in charge of running the tournament.
The expatriate golf community will be well represented with Saudi Oger Amateur Golf Championship title holder Korean M. S. Kim at the helm.
For his part, Yusuf Eddiweesh, general director of Riyadh Development & Contracting Co. which operates RGC, said, “Mainly, the tournament already gained a reputation with 20 Bahrainis participating. Of course, the tournament’s main objective is to support the Down Syndrome Charitable Association. This is a good chance to showcase the talent of the best players in the region. This will benefit the players and golf in GCC in general.”
“Additionally, RGC’s intention is to introduce DSCA to the public and highlight the role it plays in the society,” he added.
