RIYADH: Neil Myres won his second Texas Scramble event in little less than two months partnering this time with fellow American Andrew Sullivan on Friday to win the inaugural staging of the Emirates NBD Open Golf Tournament 2015 at Dirab Golf & Country Club on the outskirts of Riyadh.

Myres and Sullivan drew on a dandy team handicap of 11 and a solid game to emerge champion on net score of 60 in this high profile launch of what was committed to be an annual tournament by sponsor Emirates NBD KSA.

With an array of handsome prizes including return air Emirates Airlines tickets with hotel accommodation and iPhone 6 smartphone the tournament has effectively raised the bar where quality and quantity of the prizes provided by a title sponsor is concerned.

The golf in pleasant conditions was superb, too with the countback to break multiple ties being used for final placings.

Three teams shot 62s with the 3-handicap pair of Dean Lewis and Paul Stanton taking the runner-up position. In third place were Adam Danahue and Eddie Salinas followed by Eyad Marzuq and Gamal Abdulqadir in fourth spot. Their backnine scores that were compared to resolve the deadlocks had Lewis-Stanton on 32, Danahue-Salinas 34, and Marquz-Abdulqadir 36.

Yet another countback had to be applied to break further ties for three more teams on 64. The top Filipino duo of Resty Sibug and Alex Arellano, with a combined handicap of 4, won out against fellow Filipinos with 12 handicap, Benjamin Santuyo Luke Lacaden, for fifth place 32-36. The husband-and-wife tandem of Patrick and Liz Kennedy settled for seventh place with a backnine score of 37 while the duo of Nikhil Lakhanpal and Kapila Nanayakkara likewise won on countback at 65 to round out the first eight winners.

New Zealander Julian Bennett was the men’s longest drive award winner with the same award for ladies to Paromita Mukherjee. Jeannette Hakansson took home the closest to the pin plum.

Myres, who won the 85th Saudi National Day Open Golf Tournament on Sept. 26 with Steve Backer, had one birdie each and dropped only one shot while parring the rest of the holes in a round of 71 (36-36).

Lewis and Stanton owned the low gross of the day, 65, thanks to seven birdies in a bogeyless round (33-32). Too bad, for all their outstanding display, Lewis and Stanton had lacked the handicap to miss out on the top prize by two shots.

The CEO of Emirates NBD KSA Eng. Loai Abduljawad attended the prize giving ceremony along with Qais Qureshi. Also present was Dirab Golf Committee Chair Tariq Javid.

And all the buzz was the raffle draw prizes as follows: 2 return Emirates Airlines tickets to Durabi with overnight stay at Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates won by Clark Windross, two nights stay at Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates (Sunday Chombe), gold coin (Dr. Ana Irfan), Iphone 6 (William Gregory) Taylor Made driver (Colin Reed) and Foojoy duffel bag (Bob Bruford).