The 15-year-old Attieh, scion of a prominent business family in Jeddah who moved to Dubai two years ago to pursue his golfing career, is among the 156 qualifiers who will tee it up for the July 19-24 tournament at the Egypt Valley Country Club in the Grand Rapids area, Michigan.
The 156 players are survivors of the grueling sectional and regional qualifying tournaments that drew over 4,000 entries from across the United States. The Junior Amateur is one of 13 national championships conducted by the USGA, 10 of which are strictly for amateurs.
Attieh made the grade by finishing runner-up to Carl Jonson Bainbridge during the June 22 36-hole qualifying event at Gold Mountain (Olympic Course) in Bremerton, Washington. Attieh totaled 149 and Jonson 144.
Khaled’s father Walie Attieh, chairman and CEO of Attieh Group and the one who influenced his son to take up the game at 12, told Arab News in an interview that his son has been doing a lot of hard work the past several weeks in preparation for the big event.
“He has to wake up at 5 a.m. and be at the course at 6:30 a.m. The morning session training includes one hour each of bunker play and driving range, two hours putting and nine holes of golf. At 12:30 p.m. he takes lunch and shower before getting back to the course again at 1:30 p.m. for one hour of driving range and two hours putting before playing 18 holes. At 7 p.m., he hits the gym for weight training, have dinner between 8:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. before retiring for the day at 9:30 p.m.,” said the proud father of Khaled’s spartan training regimen.
Attieh’s Junior Amateur stint is definitely a big boost for the Saudi game and will go a long way in the efforts of Saudi Arabian Golf Federation to grow the game of golf in the Kingdom.
“This is a fantastic sport achievement for golf in Saudi Arabia in particular and the Arab world as a whole for the sport of golf. Khaled Attieh's hard work has started to see the benefits and I wish him the best,” said SAGF President Khaled Abunayyan.
“On behalf of all golfers in Saudi Arabia I would like to thank Khaled and his parents for the success achieved, and look forward to more wins from Khaled and his team mates in golf in the name of our beloved country Saudi Arabia,” added Abunayyan.
For his part, SAGF Secretary General Abulaziz M. Aldablan said: “On behalf of the Saudi Arabian Golf Federation, I thank Khaled for his great efforts, a special thanks to his great parents who supported him from Day One.We wish Khaled the best in the final round and not to forget his excellent coach Brett Saunders.”
Prior to the Junior Amateur Attieh, a scratch golfer whose personal best score is a 69 he set at the The Els Club in Dubai, is traveling to San Diego, California for the World Junior Golf Championship, according to his father.
Under Saunders the young Attieh, a Grade 10 student at the Dubai America Academy given the nickname Big and Easy by his father for his smooth and easy swing like Ernie Els, has enjoyed a run of successes on the golf course. His victories include the Junior Open, Junior Championship and Callaway Open, all at Arabian Ranches GC, and the MJT Okanagan Junior Classic at Predator Ridge Golf Resort in Vernon, BC Canada. He was runner-up individual and team at the GCC Championship in Doha early this year.
According to the USGA website, the Junior Amateur is among the most difficult of all USGA championships to win, because of two factors: the age limit and the tremendous number of fine young players who enter each year. Only one player, Tiger Woods, has won the Junior Amateur more than once, winning in 1991, 1992 and 1993. In fact, only five players have reached the final twice.
