The show’s hosts, who describe themselves as “tragically obsessed with the game at every level”, will welcome a new guest on the podcast each week, for insights into the behind-the-scenes stories that we don’t see on TV.

Robbie Greenfield and Zane Scotland. Supplied

Serendipitously, The First Tee launched last week with an interview with New Zealand star Ryan Fox, who would then go to land the biggest victory of his career just days later at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. “Clearly we are a good luck charm, and we hope Ryan is generous enough to spread the word that if you come on the show, you are guaranteed a trophy,” commented Scotland, tongue placed firmly in cheek.

“As a former tour player himself and now a highly respected instructor, Zane brings a lot of professional credibility to this partnership,” says Greenfield. “I bring unbridled enthusiasm for the game and as I hope my long and so far unsuccessful battle against the chipping yips demonstrates, some amateur perspective!”

The podcast is a collaboration between the DP World Tour and Dubai Eye 103.8’s Off Script Extra Time show, that will see the station ramp up its golfing coverage as we approach November’s season-ending finale at the DP World Tour Championship.

Fans of golf can find the show on Apple and Spotify, with regular episodes running all the way through until next year’s revamped Desert Swing.

This week’s second episode, which was released on Tuesday, features a comprehensive Ryder Cup preview with Claude Harmon III and interview with Italian three-time tour winner Guido Migliozzi. Future guests include Tommy Fleetwood and G4D world ranked No.1 Kipp Popert — the first disabled golfer to qualify for the British Amateur.

Episode 2 is available here:

or click this link for Apple

Claude Harmon III. Andrew Redington/Getty Images

The post Listen in to The First Tee podcast as Claude Harmon III previews 2023 Ryder Cup with Robbie and Zane appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Zane Scotland’s evolution from battle-scarred tour pro to player-coach makes him a rich resource for youngsters making their way on the MENA Tour

By Kent Gray
The Golfing Machine owns pride of place in Zane Scotland’s golf library. The thing is, as much as he loves Homer Kelley’s classic textbook, he’s loath to recommend it for fear it might fall into impressionable hands. You’ve been warned.

One of the most comprehensive, and some argue complicated, tomes on the golf swing, The Golfing Machine is meant for professional instructors. It has enlightened those with the requisite base knowledge but with it’s “simple geometry and everyday physics” has also confounded just as many well-meaning but unqualified seekers of the secrets to golf for the past 50 years.

“There’s a book from years and years ago [it was first published in 1969], that if you try and read it, it messes with your life, let alone your golf,” says Scotland when pressed for the foundation of his coaching philosophy.

“It’s so confusing because there is so much stuff going on in it but pretty much, most modern coaching is based off of that or versions thereof.

Scotland was in hot demand in his heyday, including being summoned to a promotional photoshoot during the 2008 Malaysian Open. (Getty Images)

“So for me, from a technical point of view, there’s Mac O‘Grady, what Pete Cowen’s done is fantastic, a guy called Andy Plumber, almost too many to name, to be honest. So it’s The Golfing Machine but on top of that someone who I think does an amazing job is Butch Harmon who almost looks like he wouldn’t even use a camera so much, he just knows the person and can work from there.”

Just as Kelley’s fabled work doesn’t prescribe one particular style of swing, Scotland’s wide-spread coaching influences are a melting pot of the game’s best swing theorists. What’s not clouded is the 37-year-old Englishman’s growing reputation in the field of coaching, a vocation the MENA Tour’s most successful player has fallen into sooner than anticipated.

Scotland always envisaged this route in the game but not until his mid to late 40s. However,  after competing alongside and tinkering with the games of now rookie professional Todd Clements and the Englishman’s big-hitting compatriot Joshua White in 2015, the decision to delve into coaching fulltime was accelerated when the pair sought a more permanent relationship the following season.

Now, as well as his record 10 tour wins, Scotland boasts two titles as a coach although he humbly takes more credit for MG Keyser’s victory at the Dubai Open in March than he does for Daniel Gaunt’s emotional Troon Series-Al Zorah Open triumph the previous month.

The Englishman in action during the 2010 Open Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews. (Getty Images)

While South African Keyser is part of Scotland’s stable alongside Clements, White, fellow Englishmen Joe Heraty, Taylor Carter and Zak Morgan and Saudi Arabia’s pioneering professional Othman Al Mulla, Gaunt merely sought remedial help after a long layoff through sheer frustration with our maddening game. The Aussie has since gone on his merry way but wanders just off the M25 in Redhill south of London and you’ll find Scotland hard at work at Bletchingley Golf Club honing the games of clients at the ZS Academy, many of the MENA Tour’s biggest names regularly among them.

Scotland offers a holistic approach to game improvement at his “boutique academy”, from traditional swing mechanics to the perhaps more important mental side of making it in the cut-throat professional game.

“There’s the traditional swing coaching, game coaching, technical pieces which I’m good at and then the next part is like, how do you play golf for a living? Not every young golfer is going to be the next Rory McIlroy.”

Scotland knows better than most that very few young golfers will ever be the next Rory McIlroy or Tiger Woods. The MENA Tour’s first life member actually won a competition to ‘find the British Tiger Woods’ in 1997 and went on to become the youngest Englishman to qualify for the Open Championship two years later, eventually missing the cut at Carnoustie the day before his 17th birthday.

But a stellar amateur career – he ascended to be Europe’s No.1 – is no guarantee in the game of life. Scotland turned professional in 2003 but a minor car accident that year proved a major pain in the neck, quite literally, to his progression in the pro game.

Scotland shows his style during the opening round of the 2015 Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates G.C. (Getty Images)

Scotland did tee it up in golf’s oldest major again in 2010, finishing a creditable T-55 on the Old Course at St. Andrews alongside, among others, Steve Stricker and above players the ilk of Jason Day and Ian Poulter. But the injury meant he was never healthy enough for long enough to keep a steady footing on the European Tour.

Rather selfishly, that’s been a boon for the fledging MENA Tour where Scotland has helped lift standards since the regional circuit’s inception in 2011.

Young players with big ambitious could certainly do worse than extract the choicest morsels from Scotland’s topsy-turvy journey through the game, from the highs of major championships to the lows of lugging his own bag on mini-tours playing for little more than beer money. So what wisdom would Scotland impart in such a conversation?

“Being honest with where you are. I think a lot of young guys, we’ve all done it, we hide away from the truth of what is actually happening,” Scotland beings.

“Especially in this day in age when social media is such a big part of life, everyone wants to look a certain way, to look like ‘I’m doing well’ instead of being okay with what you are not good at because then you can improve that.

“It’s about seizing your weakness or your downfalls as more fun areas that you can actually improve rather than hiding from them.”

Formulating that plan for improvement is one thing, building on it another.

“When someone is at the point of turning pro, just hitting lots of golf balls, ball beating, like, it’s lazy. It’s probably the 100 per cent easiest part of pro golf. What is difficult is trying to be smart… not many people do it.

Patron Darren Clarke and tour co-founder Mohamed Juma Buamaim surprised Scotland with a MENA Tour life membership at this media conference in 2017. (Getty Images)

“Someone that hits 500 balls a day, a 1000 balls a day, I’m not impressed. I’ve been there, done that and I’ve got the injuries to prove it. And you don’t get any better.”

Scotland’s perpetual quest for improvement as a coach means he is in no hurry to hang up his sticks. While he doesn’t have the time to beat balls to even a carefully prescribed practice formula like he once did, he’s trying to work smarter in a bid to add to his 10 wins, a legacy that included four titles in a breakout 2013 campaign where he ran away with the circuit’s overall order of merit title. Indeed, Scotland feels compelled to stay as sharp as possible inside the ropes.

“I’ve not had that much time to compete during the summer but you know, as any golfer can relate, I think to myself, if I can hit a golf ball, I could have a good week. That never leaves you,” Scotland said eyeing the MENA Tour’s five-event autumn swing which resumed late last month.

“I’m around good golfers and, you know what, I still try and play and practice just to remember how hard it is when you are teaching somebody. I think this is one thing a lot of coaches don’t do enough, they don’t play enough and practice themselves. You haven’t got to be amazing at it, you’ve just got to do it to be able to empathise with somebody. If you don’t, I believe you can lose touch with reality. It’s so important, a duty to the person you coach I believe.”

Scotland at a recent Mercedes Classic corporate day in England.
(Photo courtesy: TribecaMedia.co.uk)

While he hasn’t got rich from golf, the game continues to enrich the life of Scotland who is, coincidently, the nephew of the first woman to be appointed Britain’s Attorney General, Patricia Scotland QC, or just plain “Auntie Pat”.

Indeed, enriching lives is what makes the 20-minute drive from Scotland’s home in Banstead to the range at Bletchingley G.C. – like the regular trips to the Middle East – a breeze each morning.

“We’d like to think everybody could earn the 20 million that Rory’s going to earn this year but being realistic, that’s not going to happen,” Scotland says.

“Some guys won’t make a hundred grand in their career so if you can help them make 150-200 grand, that’s great isn’t it?  If you can at least double their career earnings or their earnings over a year by thinking better…”

Smart thinking. Now there’s an idea. Like getting someone else to decode The Golfing Machine for you. Scotland’s impressionable young chargers don’t know how lucky they are.

Photograph by Joy Chakravarty

The post Zane Scotland: MENA Tour record maker turned player creator appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
After winning his debut MENA Tour start by a record-equalling eight strokes last week, it’s hardly breaking news that  Robin ‘Tiger’ Williams has ridden into this week’s Abu Dhabi Open by Arena with oodles of confidence.

But surely Yas Links, one of the toughest tests in the Middle East and especially so when the wind puffs up off the Arabian Gulf, has given the 18-year-old English amateur pause for thought? Apparently not.

“I think the wind will play a very big factor, the same as in Jordan [but] the course is not necessarily a difficult links course in that it’s quite wide fairways, the greens are very big and undulating and it’s very soft,” Williams said.

RELATED: Arena become umbrella sponsor of MENA Tour

“You can land the ball right at the flag and the drives are not really rolling anywhere. So it plays a little differently as a links course but we are right next to the coast so the wind is going to play like a links course so …you’re going to have to control your ball flight.”

The field for this week’s $US75,000 event, which was scheduled to start at 7am today with Austria’s Karl Ableidinger having the honour on the 1st tee, can’t say they haven’t been warned.

It’s not like Williams doesn’t know links golf. After growing up in South Africa, he moved to Scotland when he was eight and joined Royal Aberdeen, as he revealed to MENA Tour media manager Joy Chakravarty in this interesting tweet about how he was given the middle name Tiger. The teen also reveals his one-on-one with Woods at last year’s Ryder Cup where he teed it up for the European Juniors. Check it out:

‘I owe a lot to @TigerWoods.’@IAmRobinTiger reveals the story behind his nickname and how the 15-time major champion continuously inspires him.

Dare we say the England amateur’s win in Jordan last week was almost Tiger-like?#HarderBetterFasterStronger pic.twitter.com/4rOUEIFCcQ

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) October 6, 2019

Just in case Williams does need some strategic advice before his 9am tee time in the company of Englishmen James Allan and Craig Hinton, he need only seek out Luke Joy who has the penultimate 12.30pm tee time.

The Englishman, a two-time winner on tour, knows the test of the Kyle Phillips layout better than most as a Yas Links-attached player.

How do you tame a course that has consistently won accolades as one of the most strategic golf courses in the region?

We thought there was nobody better than @JoyBoy59 to ask the question. After all, @YasLinksGC has now been his home course for several years. pic.twitter.com/PFulatxlXa

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) October 6, 2019

After his Senior Open heroics at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, the performance of Steven Kelbrick will also be closely followed this week. The Trump Dubai amateur is off at 8.20am in the opening round of the 54-holer, 70 minutes after Journey to Jordan leader MG Keyser who will be hoping for benign early morning conditions in his 7.20am three-ball including amateur contender Curtis Knipes.

Steven Kelbrick made the cut at the Senior Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
Getty Images

Like Joy, Daniel Gaunt, second to Keyser in the OOM race and the tour’s new anti-plastic bottle poster boy, will face the afternoon conditions when he tees off at noon with Englishman Max Smith and Eliott Bradley.

After missing the cut at Ayla G.C. last week, 15-year-old Josh Hill will be hoping for better things this week. The Trump Dubai member certainly seemed to be swinging it well in practice, a day that looked super busy for his father Russell, a Studio City-based osteopath now helping out on tour. Make sure to scroll to the ‘injury’ shot in Russell Hill’s Instagram post…ooch! 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Very interesting day out on @yaslinksgc for the @themenatour practice round, had a bit of everything, on course treatment, accidents and great shots! @dubai_osteopath @optimaltherapydxb @optimalfitnessdxb #golfrehab #golfrehabilitation #golf #osteopathyworks #osteopathy #sportsrehab

A post shared by Russell (@russellhillgolf) on Oct 6, 2019 at 1:17am PDT

Zane Scotland, the tour’s most successful player and this month’s Golf Digest Middle East cover star, is out at 11.10am in the company of Americans Nicolas Wade and Ben Schlottman.

Do pick up a copy of @GolfDigestME this month. It features the most successful player in the history of our Tour – @ZaneScotland, a 10-time champion. pic.twitter.com/4lKo1hzypy

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) October 6, 2019

The post Red hot Robin Williams ready for test of ‘soft’ Yas Links appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Robin ‘Tiger’ Williams is poised to become just the third amateur winner in the MENA Tour’s colourful eight-season history on Wednesday. Even more impressively, he’s on track to achieve the rare feat in his debut appearance on the regional Pro-Am circuit.

The 18-year-old Englishman extended his first-round lead at the Journey to Jordan-2 tournament Tuesday from one stroke to five with an impressive, six-under-par 66 around Ayla Golf Club.

If the Peterborough-based England age-group rep can hold his nerve in Wednesday’s final round – and there is nothing thus far to suggest he won’t –  he’ll become the circuit’s 20th wire-to-wire winner and join Dubai’s Rayhan Thomas and Dutchman Pierre Junior Verlaar as amateur champions. Thomas created history as the first amateur winner when he captured his home Dubai Creek Open in 2016 while Junior Verlaar won the Royal Golf Mohammedia Open in Morocco the following season.

Check out this short interview with Williams, whose middle name is Tiger, after he added the 66 to his opening 68 to move to 134 for the championship, 10 under par.

He is making his first start on @theMENATour and he leads by five shots going into the final round.

This is what the talented @IAmRobinTiger had to say after his second-round 66… pic.twitter.com/ItauF83bDk

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) October 1, 2019

Daniel Gaunt, the Australian who won the Troon Series- Al Zorah Open in February, is Williams’ closest pursuer on 139 after rounds of 70-69. Four players, including South African MG Keyser, the highest placed pro in the Order of Merit (OOM) in the field this week at No. 3, and amateur OOM pace-setter Curtis Knipes (England), share third place on 140.

Zane Scotland (143), the MENA Tour’s most successful player with 10 titles, inched into the top 10 with a second-round 71 while the Jack Floydd (ENG) in solo seventh on 141 made it three amateurs on the first page of the leaderboard.

[divider] [/divider]

2019 Journey to Jordan-2 – Top 10 after the second round

[divider] [/divider]

The post Williams poised to follow in footsteps of Rayhan Thomas, Pierre Junior Verlaar as amateur champ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 29-year-old Frenchman eventually settled for a 62 at Dubai Hills Golf Club and a five-shot lead over England’s Benjamin David, Scot Craig Ross and Dutchman Pierre Junior Verlaar heading into Wednesday’s second round.

Schwartz also has a share of two records to cling on to as others need to make big moves on moving day; his 10-under-par effort matched the developmental tour’s lowest round in relation to par, a mark he now owns with South Africa’s MG Keyser and Dubai amateur Rayhan Thomas who both shot 61s at the 2017 Dubai Creek Open. His five-shot buffer also matched the circuit’s largest 18-hole lead, equalling the advantage Zane Scotland enjoyed at the 2013 Royal Golf Dar Es Salam Open, a tournament the Englishman went on to win for the third of his record 10 MENA Tour wins.

The story behind this sensational card by Antoine Schwartz…https://t.co/DEt9L2fLNp pic.twitter.com/uldjoCBheW

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) March 5, 2019

Schwartz, who topped the Pro Golf Tour Order of Merit in 2016 and qualified for the European Challenge Tour last year, was two-under par after four holes with birdies on the 1st and 3rd, before unleashing a flurry of stunning shots over the next eight holes.

He birdied seven of them and eagled the 11th before cooling down. A bogey on par-4 16th, where he hit a wedge shot from the middle of the fairway into the greenside bunker and failed to make his up-and-down was his only mistake of the day. The 10-under par 62 round was his best as a professional, bettering an eight-under-par 62 four years ago in Austria.

“It was just an unbelievable day. I hit so many good shots today. Everything was just perfect,” said Schwartz, playing his first season on the MENA Tour.

“Of course, you are thinking about a 59. The last five-six holes here are tough, and even more in the windy conditions that we faced almost throughout the day. I just tried to stay aggressive and I even gave myself a couple of chances, but it was not to be. I’d love to shoot 62 every day, but this one was very special because the golf course wasn’t playing easy because of the wind.”

Schwartz hit 16 greens in regulation and needed just 24 putts to finish his round.

“I was doing everything well, but I think the key was that I did not miss a single putt from inside four meters (12 feet),” said Schwartz.

“I spoke to my coach, Guillaume Biaugeaud, last night and I told him that I felt I was getting too technical over my putts. He told me to just concentrate on the speed and hit my putt and not to think about the line. It worked.”

BITE-SIZE INTERVIEW
(With Antoine Schwartz)

After getting to 11-under par through 12 holes on a tough scoring day at @DubaiHillsGolf, Schwartz had 59 on his mind before finishing on 10-under 62 in Troon Series – Dubai Open presented by @T_A_Golf#HBFS #JourneyToJordan@troonint pic.twitter.com/44KWUOzYx5

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) March 5, 2019

Seven players were tied for fifth at four-under-par after 68s. That group included Scotland, Journey to Jordan money-list leader Matthew Baldwin and fellow Englishman Luke Joy who was forced out of last week’s tournament at Ghala Golf Club after a suspected case of food poisoning.

England’s Jack Floydd was the best of the 11 amateurs in the 120-strong field with a two-under-par 70, followed by his compatriots Curtis Knipes and Ben Davies (both 71).

The winner this week earns an invite to the European Challenge Tour’s Slovakia Challenge (July 4-7).

Dubai Open – Leading 1st Round Scores (par-72)
62 – Antoine Schwartz (FRA)
67 – Benjamin David (ENG), Craig Ross (SCO), Pierre Junior Verlaar (NED)
68 – Peter Stojanovski (MAC), Zane Scotland (ENG), Luke Joy (ENG), MG Keyser (RSA), Scott Henry (SCO), Jake Ayres (ENG), Matthew Baldwin (ENG)|
69 – Tom Shadbolt (ENG), Todd Clements (ENG), Karl Abledinger (AUT), Stefan Still (GER), Alasdair Plumb (SCO), Sam Hobday (ENG), Victor Riu (FRA)
70 – Ryan Evans (ENG), Steve Webster (ENG), Conor O’Neil (SCO), Clemens Prader (AUT), Jake Shepherd (ENG), Jack Floydd (Am-ENG), Adam Sagar (ENG), Jack Doherty (SCO), Mathias Weiderman (SWE), Seve Benson (ENG), Rocco Sanjust (ITA)
71 – Max Smith (ENG), Robert Harrhy (ENG), Richard Bland (ENG), Leo Lilja (ESP), Lucas Norman (SWE), Daniel Owen (ENG), Robin Roussel (FRA), Ben Davies (AM-ENG), Leonhard Asti (AUT), Constantin Schwiertz (GER), Kyson Lloyd (ENG), Lionel Weber (FRA), Curtis Knipes (AM-ENG)
72 – Joshua Greenville-Wood (ENG), Jose Rolz (GUA), Mark James (ENG), Tim Gornik (SLO), Robert Dinwiddie (ENG), James Allan (ENG), Aaron Leitmannstetter (GER), Jack McDonald (SCO), Maarten Bosch (NED), Erik Jonasson (SWE), Gabriel Axell (SWE), Oliver Ross (AM-ENG), Joshua White (ENG), Lindsay Renolds (CAN), Christopher Mivis (BEL), William Nygard (SWE), Daniel Gaunt (AUS).

The post Parisian powers to five-shot Dubai Open lead after flirting with MENA Tour’s first ever 59 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The MENA Tour’s new social media hashtag – #HBFS – translates to Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster. After establishing a five-stroke lead with a round to play, Englishman Matthew Baldwin is certainly making it harder for everyone else in the regional developmental circuit’s season-opener in Jordan.

RELATED: Brilliant Baldwin on the cusp of a maiden MENA Tour victory and a Challenge Tour invite he doesn’t really need

The ‘better’ part also rang true on Sunday when the MENA Tour announced it had secured Challenge Tour invites for the winners of its first five ‘spring swing’ events, another significant carrot for its members who already had European, Challenge and Asian Tour invites in their crosshairs.

Sunday was also a day of proud reflection for MENA Tour officials when a former winner on tour, David Law, secured his European Tour breakthrough at the Vic Open in Geelong near Melbourne.

The MENA Tour previously trumpeted a ‘Making it Possible’ hashtag and Law is proof that great things are indeed attainable from this Middle East launch pad, a 72nd hole eagle at the 13th Beach Golf Club on Sunday helping the Scot bank €156,250 for his one-stroke victory over Australians Brad Kennedy and Wade Ormsby.

Law, 27, captured the MENA Tour’s Sotogrande Masters in 2016, beating 10-time tour champion Zane Scotland by six strokes at La Reserva Golf Club in Spain. The tour basked in the reflected glory on Sunday with this social media message:

Heartiest congratulations to @DavidLawGolf, a champion on our Tour, on winning the @VicOpenGolf for his first @EuropeanTour victory. We are so proud of you David. #HBFS pic.twitter.com/MHduSY5NR9

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) February 10, 2019

There was also a heartfelt message from Law’s Scottish pal Conor O’Neil who is in a four-way share of second place heading into Monday’s final round at the $100,000 Journey to Jordan-1 event:

BITE-SIZED INTERVIEW
(After 2nd round of Journey To Jordan-1)@conorogolf was delighted with his 69 that took him up to tied 2nd place at 8-under, but his joy doubled when he heard his good friend, and a former room partner on MENA Tour, David Law had just won the Vic Open. pic.twitter.com/xsmGjW9JH9

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) February 10, 2019

That tough time O’Neil mentioned was heartbreaking, as Golf Digest’s John Huggan reports in his review of the pioneering Vic Open.

Now the proud parents of a daughter, Penelope, Law and his fiancée, Natasha, endured the agony of a still-born child two years ago.

“When you go through something like that, you realise how fragile life is,” Law told Huggan.

“I’m just so grateful that we got the support we did. It was unbelievable. I went back to play two weeks after it happened and, honestly, it was probably six weeks too early. We were both still in a pretty bad way. But I had to play, and I knew that the longer I put it off, the harder going back would be. That first week, in particular, was horrendous.”

Law won the 2018 Scottish Challenge in his 100th start on the European Challenge Tour less, a victory that would propel him to a European Tour card.

“I think that it’s only natural you begin to have some doubts,” he says of his earlier struggles. “I knew I was good enough to play and be competitive at a higher level, but when you keep getting knocks you start to wonder if you’ll ever get the chance. It’s not something you really want to think about, but there comes a point when you can’t ignore it any longer.”

The post Law’s European Tour breakthrough proudly reverberates 13,600km away at the MENA Tour’s season opener in Jordan appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 32-year-old created history on Sentosa Golf Club’s new Tanjong course with a one-under-par 69, the first sub-par round by a Saudi in the tournament organised by The Masters and the R&A in association with the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation.

Almulla mixed two birdies against a solitary bogey to eclipse the previous mark, a one-over par 71 by Khaled Attieh in the second round of the 2015 event at Clearwater Bay in Hong Kong.

RELATED: Meet Othman Almulla, Saudi’s leading amateur for more than a decade

Almulla was tied for 16th place at the end of the morning rounds. The top-60 and ties make the cut after Friday’s second round. No player from Saudi has ever made it to the weekend of the AAC and while Almulla isn’t getting ahead of himself, he is in a chipper mood.

“This is just one round, but to be honest it is huge for me,” he said.

“The way I played and the way I handled myself is a big boost me. Irrespective of what happens in the tournament, I am happy and I am going to keep working hard and hope to be more consistent in the future.”

Almulla finished a lowly 153rd equal at last month’s Eisenhower Trophy, negotiating the world amateur teams championship with rounds of 73-72-78-81 for a +14, 304 total at Carton House near Dublin.

“To be fair, it’s been a long season and I have been putting in some very hard work but haven’t really reaped the benefit of it. I kept talking to my coach, Zane Scotland, and he kept telling me that I needed to stay patient and keep trusting the process,” said Almulla, who has been a regular on the MENA Golf Tour.

“I may not have made many birdies, but I am happy that I did not make many mistakes today. I hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. And when I missed a shot, I missed it in the right place.”

Almulla’s hard work with Scotland, a former European Tour player and the most decorated MENA Tour player with 10 titles, is starting to pay off.

“The Saudi Golf Federation is very supportive of the national team. They have given us every opportunity to succeed and improve. Part of that opportunity was to go and spend time in the UK before the World Amateur Team Championship in Dublin with Zane, and that has just continued from there with him helping us on Skype and through videos,” said Almulla.

“There are some very ambitious plans for golf in Saudi Arabia. I think everyone knows of the big European Tour event we have back home next year in January. We want to be good ambassadors of Saudi golf, and part of it is to be able to play well at the international stage.”

So far, so good in Singapore.

RELATED: Emirati pair ready to do UAE proud at Asia-Pacific

The post Saudi amateur Othman Almulla opens Asia-Pacific Championship with historic sub-par round appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The dream of a third Open Championship appearance remains just that for Zane Scotland while the major hopes of two MENA Tour peers have also been dashed in final qualifying.

Scotland had hoped to make a return to Carnoustie for the 147th Open Championship via Tuesday’s final qualifying – 19 years after he becoming the youngest English player to qualify for the oldest major. But rounds of 70-72 at St Annes Old Links, while tidy scoring, left the 35-year-old on the outside looking in on the year’s final big. Scotland finished -2, 10 shots behind winner James Robinson and eight shots behind the two other players who qualified from the Lancashire qualifier, Marcus Armitage and Jack Green.

Elsewhere, Yas Links-attached Luke Joy finished well off the pace at Prince’s in Sandwich, Kent, scores of 79-77 seeing him finish +12 in a shared of 44th position, 16 shots behind winner Tom Lewis, the Englishman who hails from Nick Faldo’s old Welwyn City Garden G.C.

Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen punched his ticket to Carnostie for the July 19-22 Open at Prince’s but two members of Scotland’s coaching academy and MENA Tour players in waiting – Jack Yule (+1, T-10) and Louis Hirst (+11, T41) – suffered similar disappointment to Joy.

Related: Goosen qualifies for Open the hard way

Englishman Stuart Archibald, another MENA Tour regular, retired from the Notts (Hollinwell) qualifier won by countryman Ashton Turner after signing for an opening 81.

Former English amateur international Turner won with a -6 aggregate, three strokes ahead of 2014 Alfred Dunhill Links champion Oliver Wilson who was one of seven Englishmen to advance on a memorable day capped by England exorcising their penalty shootout demons in advancing to the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup.

England win on penalties & I’m off to @theopen ???????? What a day! Massive thanks to this legend on my bag & for everyone coming out to support me @nottsgolfclub loved every minute. The comeback continues.. pic.twitter.com/sKi2wHI9wK

— Oliver Wilson (@Oliver_Wilson) July 3, 2018

What a day, indeed. Even Scotland, a 10-time MENA Tour winner and the circuit’s first life member, paid tribute to Wilson afterwards.

Seeing/hearing this was even better than England winning a penalty shootout! Work is paying off…. no one works harder in golf than this guy. ??? https://t.co/vvqx6eIFWp

— Zane (@ZaneScotland) July 4, 2018

The post Scotland closest of MENA Tour stars in final Open qualifying but no fairytale return to Carnoustie appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Scotland was just 16 when he became the youngest English player to qualify for The Open at Carnoustie in 1999. Fast-forward 19 years and the Middle East and North Africa developmental circuit’s most decorated player is through to final qualifying for the 147th edition of the oldest major which returns to the toughest of The Open rota’s 10 venues on Thursday week.

Now 35 and battling back from another one of the injuries that have plagued his career, Scotland will tee it up at St Annes Old Links with 71 others on Wednesday chasing one of three spots in the field for Carnoustie. There are a total of 12 spots up for grabs across four (36-hole) final qualifiers and further MENA Tour interest in the performance of Yas Links-attached Luke Joy at Prince’s and Stuart Archibald at Notts (Hollinwell). The other qualifier is being staged at The Renaissance Club.

That Scotland (Woodcote Park) has tempered expectations but high hopes is entirely understandable. His career has been blighted by injury  set-backs ever since he was involved in a minor car accident in the early 2000s which led to major and on-going neck problems.

He’s played the Open twice despite the challenges, beginning with the blur that was the 128th Open at Carnoustie, won by Paul Lawrie but remembered for the playoff meltdown of the Frenchman, Jean Van de Velde.

Related: Injury will keep Paul Lawrie from Carnoustie, site of his 1999 Open win

Scotland carded rounds of 82-81 to finish T-135, no disgrace given he was a shot behind eventual 2009 winner Stewart Cink and shot better than 1963 champion Sir Bob Charles.

The Open Championship is nearly here. Was it really 19 years ago ?‍.

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The experience made him doubly determined when he made it back to the Open in 2010, the year Louis Oosthuizen won at St Andrews. Scotland was determined to make the weekend on the Old Course and did so, rounds of 70-74-72-70 seeing him finish T-55 in the 139th edition alongside Steve Stricker.

“The two were real contrasts really,” Scotland said of his Open experiences. “The first time, no real expectations, wasn’t spose to be there, was just a kid, my friends were there, soaked it all up, brilliant.

“Second time around I was into my professional career, had to make it happen. I probably remember more from my second one in terms of the golf because I really wanted to make the cut and play with a big player at the weekend which I did, I got to play with Steve Stricker who was super nice.”

Two players from Scotland’s increasingly successful Zane Scotland Academy – the MENA Tour-bound Louis Hirst (who progressed with a T-1 finish at regional qualifying at Burhill) and Jack Yule – are also through to final qualifying and have understandably pressed the old guy for some tips.

“My guys have asked me for my opinion, how do you approach Open qualifying, what is it like? What I’ve said is enjoy the buzz, there’s three spots from a 100 odd guys, or 80 guys or whatever it is, so it’s not an easy task, and therefore, just relax,” Scotland said.

“There’s going to be a lot of nerves, everyone is thinking about being in The Open before they’re even there so my advice to those guys is just relax, string two rounds together, do what you do.

“I think a lot of guys go in thinking they’ve got to shoot the lights out but actually, two decent rounds and you’ll be there or thereabouts, you haven’t got to go mad. If you make a couple of bogeys, don’t lose hope because you could make four of five birdies in six or seven holes and you are right in there.

“There’s a lot of panic playing. If you can just try and keep your head, and play pretty steady, it leaves you with a little chance.”

As for Scotland’s own expectations of a third Open start, well, they’re muted.

“I have quite low expectations. I’m still recovering from my injury, still trying to work out how I am going to get through four rounds if I did qualify, so they’re pretty low,” he said.

“I’ve played one event since the MENA Tour last season, a week long Pro-Am at Sawgrass where I actually went really well in, won that. When I have been playing, I have been going quite nicely which is great but at this level you’ve got to be really sharp.

The Sawgrass Classic Pro Am by @theproamtour – brilliant event, brilliant team, Golf courses were top notch, also got the joint win with my room mate Guy Woodman.

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“So I’m looking forward to having a go. I’m just going there to enjoy the buzz, there’s a real buzz at final Open qualifying, the leaderboard is being watched like a hawk by locals, club members and players, caddies, family, you know, who is shooting what which adds a tenseness to it.

“I love that tense atmosphere, the anticipation of three of us being at the Open.”

Scotland is off at 8.10am local time (11.10am UAE time) in his opening round at St Annes. Joy tees it up an hour earlier at Prince’s, 10 minutes before Hirst while Archibald has a 1.05pm (UAE time) start at Notts. Yule is paying at Prince’s from 11.25am UAE time.

The Open Championship Final Qualifying draw @ St Anne’s Old Links GC. Looking forward to the buzz. #whyilovethisgame #theopen

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The post MENA Tour ace eyes return to Carnoustie via the ‘buzz’ of Open Championship final qualifying  appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

On a day highlighted by the visit of HRH Prince Faisal Bin Al Hussein, president of the Jordan Olympic Committee, to the venue of the first MENA Tour event in Jordan, the Swede went bogey-free in his second round, bettering the previous record of a 69 jointly set by the English duo Luke Joy and Todd Clements 24 hours ago.

That flawless 67 saw Sturehed reach six-under for the tournament to join Joy atop the leaderboard.

Overnight joint leader Clements slipped to tied 12th after carding a second-round 79, but his fellow Englishman Zane Scotland held his nerve to occupy third on three-under, one clear of his playing partner Jamie Elson, who returned a second round 70.

A four-time winner on the MENA Tour, Lee Corfield was a further stroke adrift as five shots separated the top five, promising a thrilling finish coming down the stretch on Saturday.

MENA Tour patron Darren Clarke returned back-to-back 76s to move into a three-way tie for the 26th on six-over 152 as England’s Jordan Garnish, tied for 41st overnight, made a significant move up the leaderboard to finish the day, tied for 15th on three-over 149 along with Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, who is playing in his very first event as a professional.

The day, however, belonged to Sturehed, who played pretty solid golf in windy conditions, making three birdies in each half, to keep alive his chances of winning his maiden title on the MENA Tour.

“I played very well and didn’t make any major mistake out there. Going bogey-free always makes you feel good. So, very happy with my day’s efforts,” said the Swede, who started the second round in a four-way tie for fifth on level-par.

“We still have one more round to go and will see how things unfold, but it feels nice to see my name up on the leaderboard.”

Englishman Jamie Elson, five behind at the start, sounded pretty happy with his score, but felt there was still a room for improvement. “I hit some very good shots out there, creating some birdie chances, but could have done better had I capitalized on the scoring opportunities.

“You have to be very precise with your game if you aim to score well here. The wind is a big factor here and you need to play smart. I mean controlling the spin and trajectory of the ball is crucial,” said the 36-year-old who currently leads the MENA Tour Order of Merit standings.

Elsewhere, India’s Arkesh Bhatia signed for level-par 73, studded with an eagle on the last, to move to second place in the amateur division along with Turkey’s Leon Acikalin on three over, one behind Clements as Saudi Arabia’s Othman Almulla finished the day on 10 over.

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