RIYADH: The Irish-American pair of Kevin Murphy and Kelly Chiasson won the Castrol-Alkhorayef Golf Tournament 2015 last Saturday at Nofa Golf Resort on the outskirts of Riyadh.

In a tight finish Murphy and Chiasson, who are both working for airline companies Flynas and NasJet respectively, came through with a winning tally of 65 from a gross score of 72 and handicap of 7 in the two ball Texas Scramble format competition.

For their feat, Murphy and Chiasson each took home Ping G-30 driver in addition to their trophies.

“I would just like to say it was a pleasure to play in the Castrol tournament on Saturday,” said Murphy of their victory by e-mail.

“Many thanks to Nishad (Nofa golf club manager) and his team for having the course in such fantastic condition and ensuring the competition ran smoothly,” said Murphy.

“Nofa Resorts is a great setting to hold any event and we enjoyed the day immensely. Running a tournament is not easy and a special thanks to Castrol for sponsoring the event, the great prizes and a buffet lunch which ensured we all had a great day out,” he added.

The next four places were decided on countback after the four teams all tied on 66. Taking second place was the pair of Mike Woodage and Ian McDonald. Ian Mott and Jason Cust claimed the third position, Sunday Olweny and Mark Finney fourth and Waheed Aslam-Imtiaz Hussain Zaidi fifth place.

Woodage and McDonald played off 7 handicap and finished on 73 gross with Mott-Cust and Olweny-Finney matching cards of 75 and 9 handicaps while Aslam-Zaidi, with a 12 handicap, posted a gross score of 78. The four pairs respectively took home Sunmountain cart bag, Ping golf travel bag, Taylormade 3-wood and Wilson staff putter.

As well as the top prize Chiasson won the men’s longest drive for which he was awarded trophy and gift set. Also taking home trophy and gift set were ladies longest drive winner Amy Windross and closest to pin awardee McDonald.

Handsome raffle prizes added spice to the awarding ceremony. To Richard Dunn went the grand raffle prize of Taylormade Aeroburner driver, Paul Stanton claimed the Callaway golf bag, Malinee Shea Ping duffel bag, Graham Wilson Taylormade duffel bag and James Payne gift set.

Thirty-seven teams and 74 players participated in the tournament sponsored by Alkhorayef Lubricant Company in benign conditions including a cooperative weather that made for an enjoyable competition for all players.

Khurram Nadeem, national sales senior director at Castrol-Alkhorayef Lubricant Company, had a speech thanking all participants during the prize distribution ceremony.

Also present were Arifullah Sherif , regional sales manager; Jassim KVP, senior sales officer; and Nofa Resorts GM Eamonn Hanlon, who presented Nadeem and Sherif with a plaque of appreciation.