Talented Filipino young golfer Christer Rem Sibug won consecutive events on two different golf courses to underline his stock as the new exciting player to watch in the Riyadh golf community.

A week after winning Division-A title in the InterCon Golf Club Monthly Medal, Sibug, 15, showing maturity in the game well beyond his years, shot a 6-over 79 that gave him the Best Gross title last Friday in the 1st Annual Castrol-Nofa Golf Tournament at Nofa Golf Resort outside of Riyadh.

“ I had a good start, birdied par-5 No. 13 and for the first time in a tournament I didn’t have three putts,” said Sibug of his game as he gained a psychological boost ahead of another big event he’s set to play, the Saudi Aramco Invitational Tournament, to be held next month at Rolling Hills Golf Club in Dhahran.

Another big winner on the day was Pakistani Qais Khuraishi, who was the Best Net champion after he fired a sparkling 66 in benign conditions from a gross score of 89 and handicap of 23. He returned nines of 46-43.

Irish Bernard Nolan emerged the Men’s Division A Net winner on 75 (90-15) with Nicholas Chirient the Men’s Division B Net winner on 73 (89-18).

Prizes in the men’s A and B divisions had been scaled down to the sixth place. Dave Elsdon, Norhalim Nasir and Andrew Hultson took the second, third and fourth positions on countback in A Division after all three players tied on 76. Indonesia Ambassador Abdurrahman Mohammad Fachir claimed the fifth spot from Ian Wakin after the countback was again applied to break their tie on 77.

William Butch took home the prize for second place in B Division on 73 (101-28). The next two places were decided via the countback with Orazio Morretti third and Filipino Jun Bantug fourth, who both shot net scores of 74. Rick Ball and Gordon Rees rounded out the podium winners on 75.

Chiara Cloe and Fiona Elsdon were the Ladies Divison winners on 76 and 84 respectively.

The closest to the pin award winners were David Hobbs (No. 4), Andrew Hultson (No. 6), Martin Wright (No. 12) and Irfan Hanif (No. 16). The awards for longest drive for men went to Shane Kennedy (No. 7) and Bob Bruford (No. 18) and for ladies to Liz Kennedy (No. 7).

Sibug opened with a par on his starting hole, the par-4 second, and finished the front nine with another par for a 41. Sibug, who was inspired by his father Resty to take up golf, had one birdie against three bogeys in his 38 on the back nine.

The tournament in association with title sponsor AlKhorayef Lubricants Company Castrol attracted more than a hundred players who enjoyed a day out on the par-73 course. In addition to Castrol the other sponsors are: American Express, Almarai Company and Riyad Bank (gold sponsors), Northern Trust and Saco (silver sponsors) and Nofa African Resort (lunch sponsor).

The chief guests at the awards ceremony, Prince Naif bin Sultan Alkabeer and Prince Mohammed bin Sultan Alkabeer, presented the four major prizes namely Best Gross, Best Net, Division A winner and Division B winner. Also, a special prize was presented to Bouchaib El-Jadiani for shooting the course record of 5-under par 68 (32-36) on Oct. 6, 2014.

The ceremony was also attended by sponsor representatives namely Abdulaziz Hamad Alkhorayef of Castrol, Priyan Attygalle (Amex), Mark Bion (Almarai), Mohammed AlRabeah (Riyad Bank), Michael Slater (Northern Trust) and Khaldon Shanata (Saco).

Eamonn Hanlon, general manager of Nofa Resorts, thanked the tournament sponsors and Nofa staff for their contribution to making Nofa’s first major tournament a big success.