By Kent Gray
How good was the experience of being inside the ropes as an amateur at the OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic?

For Emirates Golf Federation (EGF) Operations and Marketing Manager Robert Fiala and Emirati national team players Khalid Yousuf and Abdulla Al Musharrekh, it was priceless and not simply for the obvious reason.

Captained by effervescent English LET and LPGA Tour winner Charley Hull, the trio won the teams portion of the innovative LET Pro-Am at Emirates Golf Club. Representing Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA V), Hull’s quartet edged the Marianne Skarpnor-skippered OMEGA I team of Beatrice Galeppini Salani, Edoardo Galeppini and Max Burrow by a stroke, -45 to -44 in the scramble format. Gabriella Cowley’s JA Resorts & Hotels IV team of Natalii Gupta, Scott Flewellen and Peter England completed the podium on -43.

Fiala normally scripts and distributes media releases promoting the deeds of others at EGF events or when UAE reps such as +4-handicapper Yousuf are representing the UAE at Middle East and world amateur events such as the Eisenhower Trophy. It was sure fun being the news creator rather than a recorder of history for a change.

“Wow…super excited, said the South Florida seven-handicapper. “The format worked in our favour and playing with Charley gave us an edge. Khalid and Abdallah were perfect off the tee and that really paired nicely with my iron game.”

Winning was sweet but the ring-side seat with Hull for the opening 36 of the Moonlight’s 54-holes was what made the week for Fiala.

“Charley is impressive. We fed off her focus and competitiveness,” he said. “Her caddie Adam controlled the pace and force of the group very nicely. It’s completely different from other Pro-Am formats because the rounds count for the pros as well. It gives the amateurs a more competitive feel knowing your pro is playing for the ‘real prize’. The engagement between the pros, caddies and amateurs was amazing given the current COVID situation. Wearing the mask all the time between shots was tough but being able to play with a professional is worth it.”

For 32-year-old five-handicapper Al Musharrekh, the older brother of the only Emirati professional Ahmed Al Musharrekh, playing the Moonlight was an “absolute privilege”. He likened it the AT&T at Pebble Beach and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland that he watches on TV every year.

“Charley was fantastic to be honest,” said Al Musharrekh, a UAE national team rep since the age of 15, a 2011 Pan Arab teams gold medallist in Qatar in 2011 and a regular Pro-Am starter.

“Of course, she is playing the main tournament, obviously one of the top pros on the tour, ranking’s right up there, so what I initially thought is, okay, she’s going to be very serious, she’s not really going to talk to us, greet us obviously but that’s it, she’s going to be completely focused on her game throughout.

“I was wrong. She was fantastic. She was chatting with us, she was cracking jokes, she was asking about the UAE, about the heritage, what [tourist] things she should be doing, food, how the culture really works, so that was intriguing.

“When we asked her any questions she would happily answer so very, very friendly. Obviously she would zone into her circle when she was approaching her shots but beyond that she was very, very amazing to play with, such a pleasure to be honest. We got really, really lucky to play with Charley.”

A COVID-19 survivor, Hull entered as one of the pre-tournament favourites but had a topsy-turvy week, struggling to bounce back from a triple bogey 8 on the 16th in her opening round. The world No. 30 eventually signed for rounds of 72-69-78 to finish on 222 — 16 shots adrift of winner Minjee Lee — in a share of 35th place with Dame Laura Davies and German Esther Hensele who was runner-up at last year’s Moonlight.

Hull’s game still thoroughly impressed Al Musharrekh.

“I don’t think she played her best golf but what really impressed me about her, like if she made bogey, I would look at it and she made a bogey from such an easy situation, you’d say, ‘oh wow’, this is such a silly bogey, you know. With amateurs, if we make such a silly bogey, with me, I’d probably struggle to come back and make a string of pars and birdies. But she would come back and birdie the next hole. If you look at her scorecards, she did it so many times.

“What I also found really interesting about her game is, I think she hits it a very long way to be honest. I mean, I would consider myself a very long hitter and when I really catch it, I am longer than her but not miles longer. I’ve played in one or two other ladies Pro-Ams before and honestly my driver would be a comfortable 50-60 yards ahead of the pro on average but with Charley I think she is one of the longer hitters. She hits it really, really hard, you could see that in the swing.”

The post Charley Hull proves captain ‘fantastic’ as EFG infused team win Moonlight Classic Pro-Am appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Rayhan Thomas’ charge to second place in the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship justifiably dominated the headlines but wasn’t the only meritorious accomplishment by the Middle East contingent in Singapore.

Almost lost in the fervour of Thomas’ close run thing were the historic performances of Othman Almulla and Shergo Al Kurdi who became the first players from Saudi Arabia and Jordan respectively to make the cut at the prestigious event co-sanctioned by the R&A and Augusta National Golf Club.

Almulla limped on, quite literally, after a momentous opening round 69 at Sentosa Golf Club with a four-over 74 second round to make the cut by three strokes. His weekend wasn’t quite as the 32-year-old hoped for – rounds of 78-77 seeing him finish with a +18, 298 total, a not insignificant 31 shots behind Japanese champion Takumi Kanaya.

But with the beauty of hindsight, it was a breakthrough effort.

“It’s pretty special, to be honest,” Almulla said after finishing T-60 of the 63 players to make the 36-hole cut.

RELATED: Meet Othman Almulla, Saudi Arabia’s trailblazing amateur

“It was my goal this week to play four solid rounds. And to play four solid rounds, you have to make the cut.”

A nasty blister on his left sole didn’t help from Friday onwards, not that Almulla was looking for excuses.

“I wish I could use the blister as an excuse, but that really wasn’t the case. My body is used to heat, but I guess not the type of heat we have here in Singapore. It did not hurt much when I was swinging, but it was definitely painful to walk,” he added.

Almulla is set to tee it up in the Pan Arab Championship in Tunisia this week and hopes he can kick on from his performance in Singapore and help raise the profile of golf in Saudi Arabia.

“We have had a few good players from Saudi before, but I think what we now have is some very good support system back home,” he said.

“I am happy to make some history for my country but what would give me more satisfaction is if I can motivate a few youngsters to take up the game thinking that if I can do it, so can they. That would be the best outcome of my efforts here.”

Jordan’s Shergo Al Kurdi, at 15, was the youngest player in the field in Singapore.
Photo: Asia-Pacific Golf Federation.

Another notable cut maker in Singapore was Al Kurdi.

RELATED: Teen drawn with former Open champion Darren Clarke in Jordan’s MENA Tour debut

Al Kurdi, just 15, was the youngest player in the field and just like Almulla, became the first player from Jordan to record a sub-par round on Thursday (69). The reigning Jordan Amateur champion advanced to the weekend by a stroke despite an agonising triple-bogey 7 in his second round before closing out with rounds of 84-72 to finish 62nd on 301, + 21.

UAE interest, outside of Thomas, ended on Friday with both Ahmad Skaik and Abdulla Al Musharrekh missing the cut by five and 19 strokes respectively.

Here’s the final scores from all the Middle East* players in Singapore:

2nd: *Rayhan Thomas (India) 74-64-65-66 – 269 (-11)
T-60: Othman Almulla (Saudi Arabia) 69-74-78-77 – 298 (+18)
62nd: Shergo AL Kurdi (Jordan) 69-76-84-72 – 301 (+21)

Missed Cut (the cut line was 146)
Cut: Ali Abdulla Al-Shahrani (Qatar) 74-76 — 150 (+10)
Cut: Ahmad Skaik (UAE) 76-75 — 151 (+11)
Cut: Azzan Al Rumhi (Oman) 78-75 –153 (+13)
Cut: Ali Khazanbeik (Iran) 75-80 — 155 (+15)
Cut: Amer Abdulhasan Radee (Iraq) 79-76 — 155 (+15)
Cut: Saleh Al Kaabi (Qatar) 77-81 — 158 (+18)
Cut: Arthur Barakat (Lebanon) 78-80 — 158 (+18)
Cut: Saud Al Sharif (Saudi Arabia) 80-81 — 161 (+21)
Cut: Hassan Karimian Noshahr (Iran) 77-85 — 162 (+22)
Cut: Saqer Al Noaimi (Bahrain) 85-79 –164 (+24)
Cut: Abdulla Al Musharrekh (UAE) 84-81 – 165 (+25)
Cut: Mohamed Al Noaimi (Bahrain) 87-80 – 167 (+27)
Cut: Rachid Akl (Lebanon) 87-81 – 168 (+28)
Cut: Asad Al Rawashdeh (Jordan) 89-86 – 175 (+35)

* Thomas is based in Dubai.

The post Othman Almulla and Shergo Al Kurdi do Saudi, Jordan proud at Asia-Pacific Amateur appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.