RIYADH: If the scene of Faisal Salhab on the podium Saturday with a trophy looked all too familiar it really is. After all, the talented young Saudi national golfer has never looked back after scoring his breakthrough victory at 14 during the 2010 Wartsila Golf Championship.

Flash forward to 2015 and Salhab, now 19, added to his growing collection of titles when he won the overall Best Gross crown in the 10th Annual SABB Open Golf Tournament 2015 at Dirab Golf & Country Club on the outskirts of Riyadh.

The long-hitting Salhab was dialed in on another beautiful day for golf, shooting a 2-under 70 that dwarfed the 74 effort of legendary Bahraini golfer Nasser Yacoub. Both played in the same group with two others.

“It was a fun game. I recovered very well each time I hit bad shots. Overall it was good round,” Salhab told Arab News in an interview.

Playing confident golf, Salhab mixed four birdies and two bogeys in nines of 36-34. He hit accurate irons on his approach shots to convert 2- and 4-footers on Nos. 5 and 7 before back-to-back bogeys from the eighth hole pulled him back to even par at the turn.

Salhab, a second year civil engineering student at Prince Sultan University in Riyadh, got those dropped shots back with consecutive birdies on the next two holes in which he sank a tricky downhiller from 15 feet after a 4-iron tee shot and 52 degrees wedge from 120 yards out on No. 10 and chipped in just off the green for birdie on the par-3 11.

Salhab has had at least three more birdie chances including on par-5 No. 15 where he could have easily made two-putt birdie when he deposited a 5-iron second shot in the middle of the green after a monster drive. Instead, he three-putted to save par.

In his first tournament back after playing the MENA Golf Tour’s American Express-Dirab Golf Championship in October, Salhab said he would like to put more focus on the game.

“I just wanna have fun. Enjoy golf. Play with the national team and do good,” said Salhab who also scooped up the skill prizes for longest drive and closest to the pin.

As an added incentive Salhab as the Best Gross champion also becomes the club champion 2015 as did the overall Best Net champion Richard Davies who fired a sparkling 64 from a gross score of 83 and handicap of 19.

Dan McLaughlin was the men’s First Division (0-9 handicap) winner on 66 (70-4) with another Saudi national team player, Ali Al Sakha, second, and Stephen Thompson third on countback after both 6-handicap players tied on 72. Al Sakha’s backnine score was 36 to Thompson’s 41.

Ruhan de Kock claimed the Second Division (10-18) after firing 67 (85-18). The countback to decide the next two places went all the way down to the last three holes, with Kevin Haponek taking second place and Paul Stanton third place. They were deadlock on 70 after the regulation 18 holes.

The Third Division had Jon Wood at first place on 65 with Khaled Raja and Ding Garcia second and third places via the countback on 70.

The Ladies Division first three winners were Young Hee Kim 70, Petra Hahn 74 and Carl Cormack 82. Liz Kennedy was the ladies longest drive awardee in the tournament that attracted a full field of 120 players.

SABB Managing Director David Dew handed over the prizes to winners along with Dirab Golf Committee Chairman Tariq Javed.

Dew and SABB have long been in association with Dirab in the promotion of golf in the Kingdom. Also, DGCC would like to thank Naif Alabdulkareem, GM Retail Banking & Wealth Management; Bashar Al Qunaibat, head of Branch Network; and Bader AlBoqami, Senior Marketing Manager.