The first CCOR Canadian Open Golf Tournament was held over two days recently with the quartet of James Donald, Clare Hunter, Ian Wells and Don Murray winning the champion trophy at the Dirab Golf & Country Club.
The winning team put together a sparkling net score of 53 in the four-ball Texas Scramble format competition from a gross score of 64 and handicap of 11.
Donald and Co. banked on a mind-boggling front nine score of 29 to steer clear of the pack in an incredible seven-birdie binge that saw Hunter and Wells each sinking three birdies and Donald making one. They bogeyed the difficult No. 10 but birdied 11 and 13 courtesy of Donald and Murray to be 1-under 35 coming in.
The tournament attracted 30 teams and 120 players. At the end of the competition Thursday a gala awards dinner was held with Canadian Ambassador Thomas Macdonald handing over prizes to the winners. The Canadian Community of Riyadh organized the event in cooperation with the DGCC.
In second place two strokes back on 55 from a gross of 62 and handicap of 7 was the team of DGCC Golf Manager Bouchaib El Jadiani. The other members are Majed Sorour, Juan Rosado and Shaun Temple.
Two other teams actually matched the score of Bouchaib’s team but took the third and fourth on countback. These are the quartet of Declan White, Mario Marimon, Gordon Rees and Joan Stacey who claimed third place from the foursome of Raghe Hassan, Craig Gordon, Moretti Orazio and Gary Richardson. The two teams had matching gross scores of 66 and handicaps of 11.
Rounding out the first five winners were John Spitz, Nigel Gover, Tariq Javed and Macdonald who tallied 56 from a gross 67 and 11 handicap.
The longest drive award for men’s and ladies went to Faisal Salhab and Susan Tessier and closest to the pin plum to Les Pilkington and Ruby Klawikowski.
Xerox Corporate Golf Challenge
Meantime, Dirab Golf & Country Club will host a qualifying round tomorrow for the 15th Annual Xerox Corporate Golf Challenge.
The competition with a shotgun style start at 7 a.m. is a two-person best ball medal format.
