RIYADH, 26 January 2006 — The Saudi Golf Committee organized a highly successful training camp for junior golfers in line with its objective of discovering and identifying young talents to be tapped for future international competitions.
The one-week live-in camp that ended last Friday was held at the Dirab Golf and Recreation Center, and attracted 26 starry-eyed youngsters from all over the Kingdom under the supervision of camp manager Saad Al-Otaibi.
Dirab teaching pro Kamal Gartite, PGA golf professional and DGRC Golf Division Manager Bouchaib El Jadiani and Ali Hamad Belhareth, team captain of the Saudi national golf team, were the trainers. Under their watchful eyes, the students worked the following things: swing fundamentals, tee shot, fairway shot, wedge shot, sand shot, chipping, putting, course strategy, club selection, getting out from the rough, trouble shot and golf rules.
Capping the event were the Texas Scramble tournament for two age groups namely 6 to 11 and 12 to 20 and dinner awards ceremony attended by families of the camp participants.
This was the first time SGC, headed by president Khaled Abunayyan, organized the camp as the Saudi golf body mandated to promote the sport in the country broke ground in trying to build a talent base from which will come the young golfers to represent the Kingdom in international events, according to Al-Otaibi.
“This is a good start to get the young Saudis to take up the game of golf. It will take some time, but I’m sure with support of committee members Saudi Arabia will be able to field a strong team when it hosts the Pan Arab Championship in 2007,” Al-Otaibi said.
With Al-Otaibi in the Saudi Golf Committee were Ali Al-Sohaim, secretary general, Yousef Al-Mahfouz, representative from the Eastern Province and Youssif Eddeewish.
Among those who successfully completed the training camp were Ahmed Ali Hamad Belhareth, Barzane Faraj Al-Shammari, Sayyad Faraj Al-Shammari, Turki Abdulaziz Al-Mashaale, Mohammed Abdulaziz Al-Mashaale, Abdulrahman Abdulaziz Al-Mashaale, Bassame Khaled Al-Oumari, Feraj Khaled Al-Oumari, Nader Abdelhafid Al-Oumari, Haitham Saade Addaham, Raiyane Saade Addaham, Noafe Athaniyane, Mansour Athaniyane, Faisal Athaniyane, Fahd Moufli Al-Qahtani, Mohammed Mouflih Al-Qahtani, Moushari Moufhli Al Qahtani, Abdullah Mohammed Al-Qahtani, Nourah Mohammed Al-Qahtani, Khaled Youssif Eddeewish, Moushari Abunayyan and Ibrahim Abunayyan.
Meantime, SGC will sponsor the January monthly medal tomorrow at Dirab course. All members of the Saudi national team will participate to begin their training under new coach Gartite, according to team manager Al-Mahfouz. The tournament will be staged simultaneously with the Dirab qualifying event of the Belle Mare Plage Challenge Cup.
