Dubai: The 2014 MENA Golf Tour reaches crunch time as it heads to Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting and Golf Club this week for the Tour Championship, which offers the most exclusive field and an increased prize fund in addition to a bevy of career-enhancing opportunities.
With the field whittling down to the top 40 professionals and 12 leading amateurs from their respective Orders of Merit, the season finale promises to provide an exciting climax to the nine-stop tour which teed off with back-to-back events in Morocco in March earlier this year.
The stakes are higher than ever this time around with invitations to the inaugural Dubai Open, the Asian Tour’s final event of 2014, the 2015 Omega Dubai Desert Classic, the 2015 Hassan II Trophy in Morocco and the final stage of the Asian Tour Qualifying School all up for grabs.
With development of golf at the heart of their mission, the MENA Golf Tour will also hand Dubai Open invitations to the top three Mena professionals and the leading three Mena amateurs through the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation Award.
If that is not exciting enough, the region’s three highest-ranked professionals also stand to gain from a separate prize fund of $13,500 which incudes $8,500 bonus pool money while the leading three amateurs will be awarded gift vouchers worth $2,500.
Riding on back-to-back victories in the last two events, England’s Zane Scotland has thrown open the race for the Order of Merit title. With $24,763 in earnings, he is sitting just behind leader and compatriot Luke Joy ($25,846) as another Englishman, Joshua White ($19,471) is placed third not far behind.
Depending upon how they fare, all of the top three players are in with a realistic chance of winning the coveted MENA Tour champion title thanks to a larger than usual prize fund of $75,000 with the winner walking away with a cheque for $13,500.
