By Kent Gray
Steven Kelbrick works hard at his game and golf continues to reward him richly.

Consistency – as in eight top 5s in 12 starts including a pair of runner-up finishes – saw the Trump International Golf Club Dubai member (pictured centre) capture the 2016-17 Emirates Golf Federation order-of-merit title last season.

His reward was a trip to the Thailand Amateur Golf Championship. After showing the EGF whippersnappers how it’s done, Kelbrick is now looking forward to an even more prestigious prize, a start in the 2nd Sharjah Senior Golf Masters presented by Shurooq next month.

Kelbrick earned the right to tee it up with former European Ryder Cuppers Des Smyth, Ronan Rafferty and Costantino Rocca after winning Sunday’s Amateur and Professional Qualifier at Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club.

Mark McNeilly also carded a 75 but Kelbrick’s superior back nine saw him edge the Jumeirah Golf Estates member on count-back. McNeilly needn’t fret – he’s through to the Staysure Tour (formerly European Senior Tour) event from March 8-10 as well, along with SGSC’s Namir Al Naimi who snared the final spot with a 79.

“I’m happy that we have such a prestigious event here in Sharjah,” said Kelbrick of the Sharjah Senior Golf Masters where South African Chris Williams is poised to defend his title.

“Shurooq is doing an incredible job to attract 13 Ryder Cup players here and a very good quality of field. The facilities in the Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club are excellent for the tournament to take place so I’d say that I am extremely excited to take part in such a great event with a lot of golfing greats.”

McNeilly is excited too.

“This was a great experience for me,” said McNeilly. “This is my first time in a Senior qualifier and I have been working hard for a long time to be where I am today.

“The course was in great shape, the greens were immaculate and everyone here is doing a great job so I am very impressed. Now that I am going to play with the shining names of the Staysure Tour, I am just going to enjoy my time in the Sharjah Senior Golf Masters and do my best.”

Entry to the Sharjah Senior Golf Masters is free of charge.

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The 57-year-old South African took full advantage of an early tee time in rattling off two eagles and five birdies in his pace-setting seven-under round, a stunning two-lap loop of the Peter Harradine-designed nine-holer which edged the previous record by a stroke.

Two bogeys meant Williams’ round wasn’t flawless and will see American Clark Dennis, Swede Magnus Atlevi and Dane Steen Tinning start Friday just a shot back after the trio carded matching 66s. A group of five were hot their heels at five-under-par, setting up the prospect of a thrilling contest over the weekend in Sharjah.

Welshman Stephen Dodd, a UAE regular, fired a four under 68 to lead the list of other notable first round scores. Barry Lane carded a 69 while defending order of merit and Senior Open champion Paul Broadhurst was also well in the hunt after a 70. Des Smyth has work to do after opening with a two-over 74 while Italian Costantino Rocca signed for a 75.

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Williams, who has one previous win on the European Senior Tour at the 2011 Aberdeen Brunei Senior Masters, got off to the perfect start with a first hole birdie and never let up on the smooth putting surfaces.

“There wasn’t much wind out there this morning and that’s when you’ve got to post your scores because it looks like the wind blows a lot here in the afternoon,” said the former Sunshine Tour player who negotiated the four par 5s in five-under-par, including eagles on the 4th and 15th.

“I birdied the first hole and that kind of set the trend for the round. I felt more relaxed after that and the two eagles were nice bonuses.

“I sunk a long putt on the 4^th and holed out from the bunker on the 15th so you’ve got to be pleased with that! Two eagles will always get your score down no matter what else you do.”

Tinning, meanwhile, got his putter going, a solitary bogey the only blemish in a round that included seven birdies.

“I’ve got a few new things going on with my putting and they all worked very well today. I’ve been practicing hard to try to be prepared for the first tournament so this is a great way to start.

“The course is great fun to play. At times you’ve got to really be careful but at other times there are birdie chances. The greens are rolling very nicely so you’re going to get low scores when the greens are like this.”

“The course is set up for good scoring and I think spectators can expect to see some really good scores over the weekend,” he said.

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hen Des Smyth first landed in Dubai 28 years ago, the United Arab Emirates was a mysterious outpost even for a relatively well-travelled tour professional.

It was 1989 and the then 36-year-old Irishman, already a six-time European Tour winner and two-time Ryder Cupper, was among the star names lured to the inaugural Dubai Desert Classic.

“Oh gee whiz, it was fantastic,” the 64-year-old says all schoolboy like before painting a verbal picture of the before and after photographs of Dubai that regularly infiltrate social media feeds nowadays.

“It was all new going out there, we didn’t know what to expect. When we went over the river [Dubai Creek], there was about one building on the left I remember and between there and the Emirates [Golf] Club, there was a hotel and it was just one straight, two-way road the whole way out. You couldn’t imagine that today.”

Smyth, with his trademark dip through impact, would go on to finish T19 as Mark James toppled Peter O’Malley in a playoff in what was then the Karl Litten Desert Classic, named in honour of the course architect. He’s been a regular visitor ever since, 12 times as a Desert Classic starter and more recently as a brand ambassador for the Dubai Duty Free-sponsored Irish Open.

The trip never gets old. He still marvels at the pace of expansion as he reminisces about Emirates GC when it was a “green oasis surrounded by sand and pretty much nothing else”. The futuristic skyline that now serves as a backdrop to the Majlis and The Faldo, its since added sister course? Simply unfathomable.

“It’s been fascinating to see the development,” Smyth says. “That was always the vision. We heard it from a young Sheikh Mohammed at the time, what they were going to build and we thought, yeah, we probably won’t live to see this but it has certainly happened in a hurry. It’s an amazing place.”

Fast-forward to 2017 and Smyth is very much alive and well save for a few golfing “aches and pains” and the odd wrinkle or three that comes standard after 43 sun-kissed years on tour. In a nice synergy, he’s once more serving as a pioneer for European Tour golf in the UAE, this time in Dubai’s neighbouring emirate and for the over 50s crowd.

Smyth’s thrilled so many of his old mates from that very first Desert Classic – fellow Ryder Cuppers Ronan Rafferty, Gordon J Brand, Barry Lane, Philip Walton and hopefully Paul Broadhurst among them – will return with him to headline this month’s inaugural $425,000 Sharjah Senior Masters.

Just as the Desert Classic has flourished from humble beginnings, Smyth hopes Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club will become a regular stop on the European Senior Tour. Indeed, he’d love to see the event become the unique nine-hole centrepiece of a two or three tournament Middle Eastern swing to start the old timers’ season.

Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club

It’s a nice thought but not so easily achievable. While SGSC has a guaranteed three-year shelf live, the European Senior Tour has flirted with the Middle East over the years without ever being able to establish the long term relationship like the young bucks on the European Tour, or even the Ladies European Tour.

There was the Abu Dhabi European Seniors Tour Championship, hosted on The National in 2000 and won by Dennis O’Sullivan, and back-to-back Arcapita Seniors Tour Championships at Riffa Views, now the Royal Golf Club, in Bahrain. Smyth won the first of his five European senior titles in Bahrain in 2005 before Brand won the following year.

But just as women’s golf struggles for column inches and airtime in a golf landscape dominated by the PGA and European Tours, so to does senior golf find itself a bottom feeder when it comes to chicken and egg combo that is corporate support and media coverage.

Even things on the super rich Champions Tour in the U.S, where Smyth won twice during a six year stint following his 50th birthday, aren’t all champagne and cigars as Kenny Perry outlined rather pointedly just 13 months ago.

“I don’t think anything on the Champions Tour means anything to anybody, to tell you the truth,” said Perry who counts three senior majors among his eight over 50 wins and also boasts 14 PGA Tour titles. “The media, golf fans, they look at us as a freak show. We don’t get any publicity. None of our tournaments mean anything. I think it is sad because the golf out here is tremendous.”

Smyth can sympathise but is also more positive about the future of the European Senior Tour.

“Yes I suppose it is [like Perry’s summation] but with the experience I’ve had in my career, I played the Champions Tour and now playing the European Senior Tour, the players are at a certain stage in their lives and their careers where their families are raised and they give a lot more back,” he says.

“They’re a happier bunch, they’re prepared to go to their functions and whatever else is going on and they’re interested in passing on their knowledge, they give lessons, and they are kind of enjoying the fact that we’re still in business, you know.”

We’re a happier bunch kind of enjoying the fact that we’re still in business.

So could a seniors Desert Swing get off the ground?

“This will be a bit of an eye opener I hope for any prospective companies that are interested in getting involved in the Senior Tour. I know the field is very strong, we’ve got a lot of our big guns going out. I hear Paul Broadhurst is going and I know Barry Lane is going and there’s a lot of very young top class players [coming on tour].

“There’s always the possibility, if there were two or three in a row, you’d get Monty [Colin Montgomerie ] and a few more going as well. It’s a long way to go for just one week.

“After the financial crash, it certainly hurt our tour as you can imagine, companies that are rationalising, they can’t be seen to be spending money. But there are good signs now that we are going to pick up new events.”

Des Smyth of Ireland in action during the first round of the Acorn Jersey Open played at La Moye Golf Club on June 4, 2015 in St Helier, Jersey. (Photo by Phil Inglis/Getty Images)

Smyth says the Senior Sharjah Masters presented by Shurooq, believed to be the first main tour event staged on a 9-hole course, shows how valuable senior golf can be to potential cities, sponsors and the game in general.

“That’s the point I’m making about the Senior Tour, you know, they are adaptable. The players love playing golf, they love being competitive and it gives them an opportunity at a later stage in their lives to show off how good they can play. We’re keen to support these new types of ventures.

“I’ve played the course on a press thing last year and it’s a very fine nine hole course. They’re going to have two sets of tees just to mix it up a little and I think it should be an exciting event.”

The PGA Tour has long trumpeted the tagline “These Guys are Good” to promote its tour. The old blokes mightn’t be able to bomb it as long off the tee, but elsewhere the standard of golf is still high, Smyth promises.

It’s a very fine nine-hole course. I think it’s going to be an eye-opener…

“Most weeks that we go out, depending on how hard the golf course is, but most weeks you’ve got to shoot 10 or 12 under par for your three rounds if you’re going to be in the shakeup. It is quality golf and I can tell ya, these guys practice.”

Smyth, an assistant to Paul McGinley when Europe retained the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in 2014, might be in the “twilight” of his career but it doesn’t mean he’s heading to Sharjah for a week’s holiday in the sun. He’s put in the practice too, at home in Drogheda (30 miles north of Dublin) and even took himself off to Spain for a week of ball hitting to ensure he’s “not too rusty” for  Sharjah.  So, what have you been working on in practice?

‘It’s the ever lasting quest [laughs],” Smyth says before reminding everyone there is still fire in the belly.

“I have only one ambition left, I want one more win. I’ve been very fortunate, I’ve won in five different decades but I’m in my 60s now and time is running out. I’d like to win one in my 60s but I know time is not on my side so I’m trying to up the ante…I think this is my best shot this year.”

A super sign-off in Sharjah after being a main tour pioneer in Dubai and a senior tour ground breaker in Bahrain? Gee whiz, that would be fantastic.

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Des Smyth, Ronan Rafferty, Jose Rivero, Gordon J Brand, Steven Richardson, Gordon Brand Jnr, Philip Walton, Costantino Rocca and Barry Lane are all confirmed for the opening event of the 2017 European Senior Tour season at Sharjah Golf and Shooting Club from March 16-18.

Another former European Ryder Cupper, reigning Senior Open champion and senior tour order of merit champion Paul Broadhurst, is also expected to compete for the $63,750 winners’ cheque in a field set to include the top 20 from last season’s money list.

Also confirmed are two-time senior major champion Roger Chapman, former moneylist winners Peter Fowler and Paul Wesselingh and Welshman Stephen Dodd, who won the 2005 World Cup of Golf.

“We are all very excited about the inaugural Sharjah Senior Golf Masters and would like to extend our grateful thanks to Shurooq for enabling our very first event in Sharjah to see the light of day,” said European Senior Tour chief David MacLaren.

“We believe that this may be the very first time that a full European Tour event of any description has been played over a nine-hole layout and this is sure to add a different and exciting dimension to a tournament that we would urge all local golf fans to support.”

Joining the elite European Senior Tour stars are Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club’s Ramli Sulaiman and Rene Larsen of Jumeirah Golf Estates who triumphed in a recent “Amateur and Professional Qualifier”, along with another local player, John Mills.

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The Irishman, an eight-time winner on the European Tour and a five-time winner on the Senior Tour, has been confirmed as one of the headline acts for the March 16-18 event at Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club.

“This is a huge step forward for Sharjah and it would be a wonderful scenario if it were to lead to two or three consecutive Senior Tour events in the Middle East,” Smyth said.

“I think it could revitalise the European Senior Tour. I can’t wait to tee off in Sharjah and get the ball rolling.”

Smyth has been a frequent visitor to the Middle East throughout his stellar career and won the Arcapita Senior Tour Championship at The Royal Golf Club in Bahrain in 2005. 

He was one of four European Senior Tour players who played in the Sharjah Senior Invitational Pro-Am presented by Shurooq last March, along with Paul Broadhurst, Ronan Rafferty and Malcolm Mackenzie.

“This is the first time the European Senior Tour has played an event on a 9-hole course but I found it an excellent layout and with the extra teeing ground it will be an interesting tournament with such a variety of tee boxes.”

Smyth held the record as the oldest winner on the European Tour at the age of 48 years and 34 days when he won the Madeira Island Open during his 28^th consecutive season on the European Tour in 2001, until Miguel Angel Jimenez took the title from him.

He played in the 1979 and 1981 Ryder Cups and was a Vice-Captain to Paul McGinley in the 2014 victory at Gleneagles.

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The 51-year-old Englishman will be joined by three other Ryder Cup blasts from the past – Mark James, Ronan Rafferty and Barry Lane – at the European Senior Tour event at Sharjah Golf and Shooting Club from March 16-18.

“I am greatly looking forward to starting my defence of the John Jacobs Trophy [order of merit title] in Sharjah in March,” said Broadhurst who won his first senior major at Carnoustie in July by two shots from American Scott McCarron before going on to capture the US Champion Tour’s Pure Insurance Championship in September.

“I have always enjoyed playing in the United Arab Emirates, and it’s great that the Senior Tour golfers now have a chance to return to a country where a number of us will have very fond memories.”

Broadhurst, who finished second at the Wales Senior Open, WINSTONgolf Senior Open and the season-ending MCB Tour Championship and had two other two 10s, easily captured the the 2016 order of merit title with €399, 285 from nine events. Swede Magnus P Atlevi, tied third with Miguel Angel Jimenez at Carnoustie, was second with €211,557 to tie up rookie of the year honours.

Atlevi will also tee it up in Sharjah which is one of five European Tour events scheduled for the UAE in 2017 alongside the this month’s main tour Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, February’s Tiger Woods-headlined Omega Dubai Desert Classic, November’s DP World Tour Championship and the Challenge Tour’s Ras-Al Khaimah Golf Challenge in October.

It’s the first Senior Tour event in the region since 2000 but a first professional tournament for Sharjah and the emirate’s Peter Harradine-designed nine-hole course.

James, a former Ryder Cup captain and two-time Senior Tour winner, won the inaugural Dubai Desert Classic in 1989, the very first European Tour event held in the UAE.

Northern Ireland’s Rafferty, winner of the European Tour Order of Merit in 1989, will go in search of a maiden Senior Tour title, adding to the seven he won on main tour between 1989 and 1993.

Lane will land in Sharjah fresh from winning the MCB Tour Championship.

Former Desert Classic champion Eamonn Darcy, a hero of Europe’s 15-13 Ryder Cup win in 1987, fellow Irishman and two-time Ryder Cupper Des Smyth and five-time Senior Tour winner and 2011 OOM winner Peter Fowler (Australia) have also been linked with to the Sharjah bow.

Photo – Getty Images

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