RIYADH, 21 October 2007 — For the second straight year the country’s premier golf clubs, Dirab Golf Club and Aramco Rolling Hills Golf Club, staged at the weekend the home-and-away series of Ryder Cup-style matches here.
But unlike last year host club Dirab dominated the matches big time to put itself in position to claim the Oasis Cup from Rolling Hills, which had won the inaugural event by winning the away and return legs of the competition.
Dirab will take a whopping 22-11 lead when it travels to Alkhobar next month for the second round of the series.
Eleven four-ball better ball matches and 22 singles matches were played Thursday and Friday in benign conditions at Dirab Golf Club. Captained by Fahd Al-Mansour, a member of the Saudi national team, Dirab ended the first day with 7 points to 4 by Aramco. The pairs of Eveline Hayler-Kahkshan Ali and Sue Mature-Hewan Abrahaley beat Janet Knowlton-Claude Ward and Eunice Lee-Irene Jaeger to give Dirab the cushion after their men’s counterparts had taken a slim 5-4 lead in the fourballs.
Dirab then showed the depth of their lineup on the final session of the two-day tournament by winning 14 and drawing 2 out of the 22 singles matches. The score was 15-7 for the hosts.
The top Dirab pair of M.S. Kim and Fahad Al-Mansour got the ball rolling for the hosts with a victory over Aramco’s David Armstrong and Roan Shuttleworth. The visitors then won four of the next seven matches to pull even before James Williams and Francois Demazieuz grabbed back the lead for Dirab by beating Byung Lee and Oscar Reyes.
Filipino Philip Cortejos sparked a run of six Dirab victories in the singles by beating Dennis Latenderesse. Both teams swapped wins in the next five matches before Hayler and Knowlton drew followed by two more wins by Abrahaley and Kahkshan in the concluding three matches.
Mansour finished the tournament undefeated by also winning the singles against Shuttleworth although his partner Kim halved the point against Armstrong.
Also with a perfect 2-for-2 record for Dirab were Mansour Tirmzi, Ali Hernandez, Al Cieluch, Cortejos, Tariq Sardar and Williams. Joining them were ladies teammates Abrahaley and Kahkshan.
The awards for closest to pin and longest drives on the first day went to Paddy Rogan and Abrahaley and Jay Ward an Claude Ward in the men’s and ladies division. The second day awardees were Shan Bukhari for closest to pin men’s division and Talal Sarieddine and Irene Jaeger for longest drives in the men’s and ladies division. Dirab Golf Club Manager Bouchaib El Jadiani and Dirab Golf Committee chair Tom Matthews presented the prizes during the prize distribution ceremony at the clubhouse. Noel Alipoyo of OR Madarat did the video coverage of the tournament proceedings.
