RIYADH: An early tee time of 6 a.m. was just dandy for some 90 players hoping to finish a round before the stifling sun beat down hard on their collective backs at the 2009 Dirab-RGBB Golf Championship yesterday at Dirab Golf Club.
When the dust settled, Filipinos Eric Liquigan and Flore Bouzane scored their first brother-sister double after winning the First Division (0-10) and Ladies Division in the tournament organized by Riyadh Group for British Business in cooperation with Riyadh Golf Club.
Formed in 1981, RGBB consists of about 300 plus individual members who strive to develop and improve British business interests in the Kingdom, according to the group’s website.
Rattling down the Dirab highway in little over 30 minutes from Naseem area to catch the early morning start, Liquigan, with a 6 handicap, won via the countback from Mark Campbell after both players returned a net score of 73. Campbell, a 9 handicap, shot a gross score of 82.
Playing in a group with some of Riyadh’s finest shotmakers Bouchaib El Jadiani, DGC manager, M. S. Kim and Fahad Al-Mansour, Liquigan settled down after a hurried start to shoot nines of 37-42 for a gross round of 79 on a windless sunny day. Using a borrowed FT Callaway driver, Liquigan just missed two fairways in a consistent display off the tee.
Like his younger brother Bouzane also birdied the eighth hole to highlight her nines of 42-51 (93) that gave her the title in the division with a net 70, two under on the flat but challenging layout nestled on the Tawfiq valley some 70 kilometers southwest of Riyadh.
Third place in the First Division went to Sam Montgomery who returned a net 74 from his effort of 83.
In the Second Division (11-18), 14-handicap Michel Joly won by two strokes over John Freel. Joly had a net 69 to Freel’s 71, while Chris Cowburn came third on 73.
Richard Davis, a 24-handicap, shot the day’s lowest net score of 67 to rule the Third Division.
But the real stunner of the day was when the 9-handicap Michael Sykes fired a 71, 1-under on the par-72 layout, to claim Best Gross honors. John Morris and Moiz Ahmed took the second and third position in the Third Division on countback after both golfers returned a matching 70s. Gudrun Barnden and Japanese Mami Tsukuda on 76 and 77 rounded out the Ladies Division winners.
The longest drive awards went to Liquigan in the men’s division and Mitsuyo Saito in the ladies division.
The closest to pin award winners were John Walley on No. 7 and Davis on No. 11. Winning the raffle draw prizes of Titleist staff bag, Callaway X wedge and Callaway pencil bag were John Morris, Graham Hayward and Shin Yong-Gi.
RGBB Chairman Gary Richardson handed over the prizes to the winners during the awards ceremony at the clubhouse.
