Neale Favorite for Black Tee Challenge at Emirates Golf Club sponsored by Jumeirah

The Black Tee Challenge will be staged for the fourteenth time this weekend over the fabulous Faldo and Majlis courses. The Tournament, a major on the UAE golfing calendar, enters a new era with Jumeirah sponsoring the event for the first time.

Hot favorite going into the 36-hole strokeplay event must be Emirates Golf Club member and defending champion Joel Neale. Joel is looking to make it a hat trick of victories following his level par tally and play off win last year. He carded rounds of 73 and 72 last May and clinched a play off over fellow member Nick Brewaeys. He also clinched the Emirates Amateur Open earlier this year over 54-holes, confirming his liking to major strokeplay events.

Simon Dunn, a previous winner of the event and Professional golfer, finished 4th last year will pair up with Neale in the 13:15 tee time for the opening round. Completing the final three ball of the day is Hamad Mubarak from Riffa Golf Club in Bahrain. Another star three ball tees off at 11:05, Miki Mirza (Dubai Creek), Khaled Attieh (Arabian Ranches) and R.J Thompson (Emirates Golf club); both Miki and Khaled won the amateur qualifying for the Omega Dubai Desert Classic over the past two seasons.

Club Manager Andrew Whitelaw commented ‘the championship promises once more to be a fantastic weekend of golf and will be a stern test for the top golfers in the region from the championship tees’. We are also delighted to have on board a new title sponsor in Jumeirah, who will definitely raise the standard of this prestigious event’.

Christian Pertl the  Vice President for Sales & Marketing of the Jumeirah Group, Dubai, added ‘Jumeirah are proud to be a partner of this Dubai Golf event and we enjoy an excellent relationship with Emirates Golf Club’.

Round one will get under way at 6:35 on Friday 13th May with the final round over the world famous Majlis course on Saturday 14th May.