South African Mark Campbell and American Rusty Daggett both were big, literally and figuratively, as they won the NCB-Sanad Charity Golf Tournament that marked its return to Dirab Golf & Country Club as one of the major events of the year on Saturday.

Campbell and Daggett had a combined height of close to 13 feet and, with the skills to match, stood head and shoulders above everyone else that responded to the call for golf for a cause in near-perfect playing conditions.

The winning pair with a team handicap of 6 posted a 10-under score of 60 on the par 72 6,756-yard layout on the outskirts of Riyadh.

As Texas Scramble with handicap events go super low scores are, well, par for the course and Saturday’s two ball better ball format competition was no exception.

Faisal Salhab and Ali Balharith, the new poster boy and the old vanguard of Saudi golf, also enjoyed near-flawless golf in a performance that augurs well for the national team seeing action in the GCC Golf Championship to be hosted by Saudi Arabia Feb. 26 to March 1 at Dirab.

Salhab and Balharith, the national team coach, shot the low gross of the day at 64 but had to settle for second place as their handicap of 3 could only give them a net 61, one stroke back of the winners.

Campbell and the muscled 6-foot-5 Daggett returned a bogeyless round of 66 on nines of 33-33.

“Though we both played excellent golf I have to compliment my partner Rusty. He was dead center when it comes to putting. He putted like a professional,” Campbell, an engineer with Al-Salam Aircraft, told Arab News in an interview.

“I took care of the long game and around the greens. It worked out just perfectly. It was an awesome day. We’ll be there to play anytime to support children’s cancer charity,” added Campbell.

“If we played individually our scores would be 1 or 2 over,” he said.

The seven birdies from Campbell and Daggett included three in a row from the par-5 No. 13 and they finished with a flourish with another birdie on their closing hole at 1.

The Saudi duo holed eight birdies in all, five of them in a bogey-free 31 coming out. They also birdied holes 10, 13 and 18.

The next three places out of the first five winners were decided via the countback. Joe Smyth and Robin Williamson took third from Mujib Minhas and Tariq Sardar after the tiebreak was applied with both teams on 62, while Susan Tessier and John Barrett had 63 and won the countback for fifth place.

The men’s and ladies award for longest drive went to Robert Ruth and Martina O’Reilly and the closest to the pin plum to Filipino Alan Malawanda.

The National Commercial Bank through Saeed Al-Ghamdi supported the event, which had been shelved since its last staging at Dirab in 2008, with a sponsorship contribution of SR70,000. The other sponsors are Dirab Golf & Country Club, Ritz Carlton Hotel and Arabian Shield Insurance Company.

Golf course owner Khaled Abunayyan and representatives from Sanad Children’s Cancr Support Association attended the awards ceremony. Dirab Golf Committee chair Tareq Javed was also present.

This tournament followed the first two major events to open the year 2014 namely Sinoma Open and CCOR Canadian Open.