126 in fray for golf title

The Mena Golf Tour approaches its business end with the Shaikh Maktoum Dubai Open, the fifth and the penultimate event on the tour, offering one last chance to competitors to consolidate their positions on the Order of Merit.

By (KT Report)

Published: Mon 22 Oct 2012, 11:54 PM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 2:10 PM

The top 40 professionals and the leading 15 amateurs from their respective Orders of Merit will make the ‘cut’ for the season-ending Tour Championship, which boasts a prize fund of $75,000 (Dh275,467), at Al Ain Shooting, Golf and Equestrian Club.

Al Badia Golf Club will play host to the Mena Golf Tour event

With so much at stake, the level of intensity could well go up a level when a strong field of 126 players, including 29 amateurs, battles it out for honours at the award-winning Al Badia Course, starting today. England’s Zane Scotland currently leads the Order of Merit for professionals, but with the likes of Pakistan’s Mohammed Munir and Shafiq Masih and Wales’ Stephen Dodd snapping on his heels, the $50,000 Shaikh Maktoum Dubai Open could provide an interesting finish.

Going forward, potential winners could include defending champion Peter Richardson, America’s Sean McNamara, who finished third on last year’s Order of Merit for professionals, and Canada’s Lindsay Renolds, who set up a new course record with a final-round 64 at this very venue before finishing tied-second.

McNamara and Renolds are making their first appearance in a MENA Tour event this season, but Richardson will be playing his third, hoping to replicate the form he produced in topping the Asian Development Tour’s Order of Merit this season. “It feels nice to come to a venue where you have enjoyed a bit of success. My game is in good shape and I am really looking forward to the week ahead,” said Richardson, who is currently placed 48th on the Mena Tour’s Order of Merit. In the amateur division, England’s Tyler Hogarty and Switzerland’s Michael Harradine are locked in a neck-and-neck battle for supremacy. With just two points separating the top two, prognosis points to another close finish.

Meanwhile, James Shippey, golf club manager at Al Badia Golf Club, said: The course is looking fantastic, thanks to months of preparations. Credit goes to Mark Hooker, the course superintendent, and his team for the marvelous job they have done.

“We are all very excited to once against welcome Mena Tour to Al Badia Golf Club and look forward to a great week of golf.”

The first three-ball group tees off at 6.38am while the final threesome will be out at 12.14pm at the 18-hole, par-72 Al Badia Course which was voted the Middle East’s leading golf course in the recent World Travel Awards 2012.

ORDER OF MERIT

 > For Professionals

1. Zane Scotland (England) $ 16,803

2. Muhamad Munir (Pakistan) $ 14,074

3. Ross McGowan (England) $ 12,028

4. Shafiq Masih (Pakistan) $ 11,044

5. Stephen Dodd (Wales) $ 9,636

6. Craig Smith (Wales) $ 8,096

7. Ian Keenan (England) $ 7,517

8. Roland Steiner (Austria) $ 6,564

9. Fredrik Quicker (Sweden) $ 6,162

10 . William Harrold (England) $ 5,939