RIYADH: With a 32-player draw, the first round of the 2016 Match Play Club Championship got under way last Saturday at Dirab Golf & Country Club with top seeds Clark Windross and Resty Sibug scoring contrasting victories to advance to the round of 16.

Briton Windross, a 2-handicap golfer, was pushed all the way to the last hole by 15-handicap John Molony to hack out a 1-up victory.

The Filipino ace Sibug, Central Region manager at Saudi-TKT electro-mechanical company, easily won his first round match against Graham Gunn.

Enjoying a good round of golf, Sibug rattled in late birdies and crushed Gunn 4 and 3 in the matchup between 6- and 7-handicap golfers.

Also winning by lopsided scores were Indian Shafiq Bandey who won by eight holes over George Baaklini and Jean Marc Coupet by seven over Samir Hariki. All four players had 24-26 handicaps.

Mixed results punctuated the opening round of the tournament where a set of irons and golf bad in addition to trophy awaits the champion. The abbreviated matches had Marbool Butt with 16 handicap beating Abdulla Habbal, 18, by 6; Monika Schiffer, 22, winning by 4 over Susan Tessier, 24, Tariq Said Khan,15, by 4 Ronny Lidman, 16; Chris Maslak, 13, by 4 over Gordon Rees, 13, and Tom Quinn, 26, by 3 over Hassan Turk, 26.

In an all-Filipino match FGA President Joe Vallado edged out Danny Naval 1-up.

The lone Saudi in the field, banker Abdulaziz Al-Helaisi, defeated Tarek M.

The match between 15-handicappers Medwyn Rowlands and Ralf Schiffer ended 2-up to Schiffer. Also winning by the same margin were Ichiro Ichihara over Kamal Fareed, who both played off 11 handicap, Jan Franks, 26, over Sofi Mohammed, 26, and Tariq Sardar, 12, over Niko Rukuosko, 11.

Barring upsets by mid-handicap players Windross, from the upper bracket, and Sibug, from the lower bracket, are likely to meet in the final middle of April.

Here are the round of 16 matches:

Windross vs. Schiffer, Said Khan vs. Butt, Vallado vs. Qureshi, Schiffer vs. Bandey, Sibug vs. Ichihara, Sardar vs. Maslak, Coupet vs. Franks and Quinn vs. Al-Helaisi.