DUBAI, 20 February 2004 — Twenty-two-year-old Yasin Ali, a graduate of the Nick Faldo Junior Series, will line up alongside the six-times Major winner after winning the professional qualifying round for the 2004 Dubai Desert Classic at the Emirates Golf Club.
And for Ali, now the Touring Pro for Dubai’s Nad Al Sheba Club, it’s a dream Desert Classic debut just four months after moving to the United Arab Emirates.
“This is the biggest moment of my career,” smiled Ali, after carding an excellent 36-hole total of 145 (+1) to win by just one shot from last year’s qualifier Simon Dunn. “I just missed out on both the European and Asian Tour Schools by one shot so to qualify for such an event means everything to me.” Ali — who was born in Kenya but has lived in Ealing, London, since the age of seven -- has played the famed par-72 Majlis Course on just four occasions but during the qualifier he played it with the skill and confidence one would expect from a graduate of Faldo’s Junior Series.
An opening 74 (+2) saw him two shots ahead of the Emirates Golf Club’s Andrew Whitelaw and three ahead of Dunn at the turn. In the afternoon, however, there were just two pros in it. Ali secured a 71 (-1) to finish on 145 (+1), while on his way to the round of the day with a sizzling 69 (-3), Dunn needed to hole his third on the par-five 18th to force a play-off.
But despite a brilliant attempt, his chip from the back of the green slipped agonizingly by and it was Ali who claimed the professionals’ qualifying invite from Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL), the main sponsors of the Dubai Desert Classic.
In the amateurs’ event it also came down the final hole with India’s Vikram Judge needing a par on the last to force a playoff with Sri Lankan Tisse Chandradasa, whose rounds of 74 and 77 had seen him the clubhouse leader on 151 (+7). Sadly for Judge it wasn’t to be and three puts on the 18th saw him finish with a bogey six and a two round total of 152 (+8).
In third place just on shot further adrift after rounds of 77 and 76 was Emirates Golf Club captain Butch Kamps of the USA on 153 (+9). Along with Whitelaw, who has already accepted a sponsor’s invite to play in the Dubai Desert Classic, Ali and Chandradasa will now join a field of 150 professionals — including Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and, yes Faldo himself — when the $2 million event is staged at the Emirates Golf Club from March 4-7.
