Dubai welcomes Golfs global body to Al Badia Golf Club
Al Badia Golf Club by InterContinental in Dubai has had the prestigious honour of hosting the Level 2 R&A Rules School this week from Monday 3 to Wednesday 5 November in the week that the Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final gets underway at the same venue. The school, which was attended by Christopher Hilton, Chairman of The R&A Rules of Golf Committee and R&A Assistant Directors-Rules, Shona McRae and Kevin Barker, saw 50 aspiring referees gather in Dubai from destinations around the world including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, England, Bahrain and the UAE.
At a Welcome Reception Adel Zarouni, Vice-Chairman of the Emirates Golf Federation welcomed all delegates and guests to Dubai for both the R&A Rules School and the European Challenge Tour.
“We have worked closely with the R&A for many years and we appreciate what they do for the game of golf around the world,” said Zarouni. “It’s good to welcome Chris, Shona and Kevin back to Dubai and to Al Badia Golf Club. It’s been a long 12 years since they were last here and we’d like to see them back in Dubai again next year – although I know that’s not possible.”
The €350,000 Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final hosted by Al Badia Golf Club gets underway today (Wednesday). The event marks the grand finale of the 2014 Challenge Tour which has taken in 27 tournaments played across 21 different countries offering a total prize fund of €6,328,000. Only the top 45 players on the Challenge Tour Rankings following last week’s National Bank of Oman Golf Classic are eligible to play in the tournament and the top 15 players on the Rankings following the conclusion of the event will be awarded cards to play on next season’s European Tour.
Prior to the tournament, the UAE’s only national professional golfer Ahmed Al Musharrekh joined 44 other pros and their three man teams in the Al-Futtaim Automobile Group Pro-Am.
“I was delighted to get the chance to play with the top 45 players on the Challenge Tour,” said Sharjah based Al Musharrekh who is no stranger to Pro-Ams in the region having competed in the DP World Tour Championship Rolex Pro-Am in 2012 where he met current World Number One Rory McIlroy. “The standard of these guys is really high and some of them will undoubtedly achieve success on The European Tour in the future so it was great to test myself against them.”
The Challenge Tour has proved a crucial breeding ground for the next generation of European Tour stars and seven of this year’s triumphant European Ryder Cup team– Henrik Stenson, Jamie Donaldson, Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer, Thomas Bjorn, Ian Poulter and Stephen Gallacher – are former Challenge Tour players.
The Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final hosted by Al Badia Golf Club is sanctioned by the Emirates Golf Federation and supported by the Dubai Sports Council and DTCM and is part of the Dubai Calendar.
