RIYADH: Zane Scotland and Duncan Stewart start as top favorites in the American Express Dirab Golf Championship that kicks off with the first round on Monday at Dirab Golf & Country Club on the outskirts of Riyadh.

The 54-hole event, which is the fourth leg of the MENA Golf Tour, attracted 74 players from 25 countries that will tee it up in groups of three starting at 8 a.m. Monday. The touring professionals in the fold will vie for prizes totaling $50,000.

Scotland, from England, is the Order of Merit leader and won last week’s third leg, Creek Open, in Dubai to add to his triumph in Morocco, according to Adrian Flaherty, GM of Golf in DUBAI, which runs the MENA Tour.

Scottish Stewart finished second recently in Kazakhstan which hosted a tournament on Europe’s Challenge Tour.

Defending champion Shafiq Masih, who rallied in the final round to win last year’s championship in a playoff over Craig Smith, is back to try and win back-to-back titles.

Six amateur players from Saudi Arabia led by newly crowned Almarai Saudi National Day champions Faisal Salhab and Fahad Almansour and including Prince Khaled Saud Al Faisal are seeing action in the three-day competition.

Now on its third year MENA Tour has grown to 10 events in its schedule including the Tour Championship in November in Abu Dhabi with a total prize money of $75,000.

“We are different from others. Our tour is 60 percent pros and 40 percent amateurs. The idea is we want to grow local talent in the MENA region which we could not do in the amateur ranks,” Golf in DUBAI Vice Chairman and CEO Mohamed Juma Buamaim told a press conference.

“The amateurs when they get better have no place to go and so we introduced this to allow them to compete and learn with the pros. Hopefully more and more people and companies would see us as community service kind of thing and sponsor events,” he added.

Along with Buamaim and Flaherty Saudi Gof Federation President and golf course owner Khaled Abunayyan, Priyan Attygalle, CEO of American Express (Saudi Arabia), and SGF officials attended the press conference and opening ceremony Sunday.

“We are delighted at participating once again in the Dirab MENA Tour. We are looking forward to a great performance like we had last year. We would like to thank Sheikh Khaled Abunayyan and Dirab which are synonymous to golf in Saudi Arabia, and we are happy to be part of it,” said Attygalle.

For his part, Abunayyan thanked the sponsors, SGF officials and Mohammad Ibrahim Abunayyan, chairman of Abunayyan Group, for making Dirab golf course available for the tournament.

“The weather is fantastic and we’re looking forward to a nice tournament,” he said.

Also, the commemorative marker for the tournament was unveiled during the opening ceremony.

Meantime, the players were impressed with the course setup after playing a practice round Sunday.

“The course is fantastic. It’s beautiful,” said Emirati Ahmed Al-Musharrek, a former amateur standout who turned professional last year.