RIYADH, 29 April 2008 — The team of Mark Duda, Richard Devore, K. Applegate and Biedenbach claimed first place in the Al Rajhi Bank Golf Trophy at Dirab Golf Club on Friday.
The winning team posted a net score of 56 in the Ambrose Texas Scramble with 3/4 handicap format competition.
Al Rajhi Bank is the latest in a line of corporate sponsors to book tournaments at Dirab, reflecting the growing interest of companies to cash in on golf’s appeal to boost their corporate media campaign.
Korean M.S. Kim, another fine single-digit handicap golfer at Dirab, led his team to second place on 58. Teaming up with Kim were James Shin, M. H. Lee and Dhahran-based Yousef Mahfouz.
In third place after losing the countback against Kim’s team were the quartet of V. P. Hirubalan, Alistair McIlroy, Paul Thander and Bernard Nolan, who combined for a matching 58.
The next two places were also decided on countback with the team of Patrick Kennedy taking the fourth position and Noel Alipoyo’s squad settling for fifth. Both teams signed for a card of 59.
With Kennedy on the team were Pakistani Tariq Javed, Ijaz Hussain and S. S. Bae.
Though beaten into fifth place Alipoyo’s group produced one of the day’s highlights on the difficult par-5 No. 13. The smoking drive by the promising Saudi junior golfer Faisal Shalhoub was the one selected and Ben Bollozos’s second shot reached the green for a potential eagle.
Team captain Alipoyo, a senior cameraman at OR Madarat, made the right choice in having Faisal putt first. With conviction, Faisal drained the 40-footer for eagle, the ball jumping up as it reached the cup before rolling in to the delight of the group that also included Randy Laclarir.
Gordon Bennie and Shin grabbed the prizes for longest drive and closest to pin
There were fabulous prizes in the raffle draw. The lucky winners were Francois Garcia, Abner Macapagal and Art Ubando. Garcia won a Mont Blanc pen, Macapagal Nike Pro combo set of irons and Ubando Taylormade Monza putter.
Executives from tournament sponsor Al Rajhi Bank that attended the awards ceremony were Kamal Taposeea, head of Financial Services; Bertie Lombard, deputy dead of Corporate Banking and Mohsin Habeeb, head of Service and Network.
Khaled Abunayyan, president of Saudi Golf Federation and Dirab course owner, also graced the event.
Meantime, Dirab Golf Club General Manager Bouchaib El Jadiani and Marketing Manager Andrea Corbett jointly announced all is set for the Sanad Charity Golf Tournament on May 8.
Last year, Dirab raised SR165,00 for the benefit of Sanad Children’s Cancer Support Society, which supports children cancer centers in the Kingdom with required financial or real resources.
Corbett said Dirab is hoping to raise more this year with the help of the club members.
Prizewinners snapped for group photograph.
