RIYADH: Golf-loving bankers and others from the corporate world, all 80 of them, gathered at Dirab Golf & Country Club Saturday morning for the Xerox BFI Ryder Cup Match 2015.

Everyone had fun out on the course on a cool overcast day, with SAMA & Finance Companies scoring an emphatic victory over Banks and Insurance in the four ball better ball match play format competition that was 18 months in the making.

The scoreline was 14.5-5.5 points for SAMA & Finance team captained by Tariq Javed who paired with Abdulaziz Al Helaissi in the 1-up victory over Banks & Insurance captain David Dew, SABB Managing Director, and Teymour Alireza. Javed and Al Helaissi were leading by 3 with three holes to go when Dew and Teymour forced a tight finish by winning the 16th and 17th holes.

As the results came in SAMA & Finance steadily built a 7-1 lead with the top pair of Gordon Rees and Phil Gandier winning a full point against Graham Gunn and Derek Oherlihy.

Tony Coveney- Tariq Sardar defeated Taj Rahman and Christophe J Blanc, Leonard Dowling-David Treadgold scored against Fakhar Jamil and Alvin Wilson, Ronnie Lidman-John Ryan downed Jason Mundy-Ian Baklaw, David Lloyd Bantug and Tony Cotter beat Willy Tamonte -David Coffey while the pair of Jack Moloney and Feras Houhou got full point against David Adamson and David Kenney.

While SAMA was piling up points Vivek Hans –Mark Warwick managed to steal a point for Banks & Insurance, beating George Baaklini and Ole Frijs-Madsen. The other victories for Banks were Hasan Ahmed-Khurshid Ahmed over Chris Maslak-Paul Nicholls, Benjamin Santuyo-Mike Dy Liacco over Sreekanth Anantharaman, Jonathan Mortell-Irfan Hanif over Syed Mehdi Hassan-Brian Dreyer and Ric Camara-Tony Castil over Brendan Daly-Dave Bryan.

SAMA’s Rami Alsaihati-Jerry Don Carolis and Banks’ Imran Hameed-Shijaat Nadeem halved the point in the only draw of the match featuring 20 two-man teams on each side and players who are widely considered from the elite class of the golf community.

American Express CEO Priyan Attygalle and Mark Turner also scored for SAMA as did Anthony Gavin-Tony Robinson, Fahad Al Guthami-Neville Elias. The winning pairs respectively beat Ahsan Kamal-Abdullah Masoud, Thomas Fallows-Jean-Pierre Pallard and Abdulaziz Al Omran-Faisal Al Yousef.

Elsewhere, (SAMA teams first) Mike Holland-John Kirwan 1 Boiet Carigma-Abner Macagapagal 0, Mike Brennan-Abdulrahamn Othman 1 Craig Bell-Qais Quresi 0, Majed Sorour-Yassir Al Rumayyan 1 and Naveed Ahmed-Abdulhaleem Sheikh 0.

Dirab Golf & Country Club President Khaled Abunayyan attended the prize distribution ceremony and thanked the sponsor Xerox Saudi Arabia and participants, wondering aloud how such a big number of bankers and corporate people managed to get together in one golfing event.

For her part, Xerox Saudi Arabia GM Marketing Reem Al Bakry said: “I would like to congratulate the Saudi Xerox Team and Dirab Golf Club for making this unique event a great success.”

Flynas Director Marketing & Communication Bandar Abdulmohsen Al Hassan was also present at the awarding ceremony. He donated three return air tickets to Bahrain.

American Express and Marriott Riyadh Hotel also supported the tournament.