Dubai: With three weeks to go, entries are picking up pace for the Mena Golf Tour Qualifying School to be held at El Jadida Royal Golf Club in Morocco from March 7 to 9.
Open to all professionals and amateurs — with a handicap of one or better (four or better for Mena nationals) — the 54-hole Q-School will be held in two stages. The first stage, on March 7-8, will see players compete over 36 holes of stroke play when the halfway cut will be made, narrowing down the field to 70 players for the final stage 18-hole competition to be played the following day.
A minimum of 50 players from the final qualifying round will be eligible for Category-7 membership for the 2017 Mena Tour season which will have close to 16 events, covering destinations in Morocco, Kuwait, Thailand, South Africa, Oman and the UAE.
The Q-School, which will be held in El Jadida for the first time, will offer Mena Tour members the opportunity to earn full playing privileges on the tour in addition to becoming eligible for Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points.
The top five players from the Q-School will share a prize fund of $6,000 (Dh22,000) with the winner walking away with a cheque for $2,250.
“We are quite pleased with the early response to the Q-School which clearly reflects on the popularity of the tour as a whole while maintaining a close relationship we have had with Morocco, stretching all the way back to 2011,” said Mena Tour chairman Mohammad Juma Bu Amim.
“We believe the Q-School will enhance the level of competition in addition to bringing more transparency in determining the fields for our events. With many overseas professionals and amateurs in the field, the tour exposes them to a highly competitive environment they need to hone their skills,” he added.
“We look forward to welcoming players from different nationalities in the field and hope to see what I believe will be an absorbing contest for securing tour cards.”
The Q-School will also mark the start of the Project 300, which aims to get a Mena Tour player in the Olympics by 2020. Players hoping to qualify for Tokyo must get within 300 in the world rankings.
Interested golfers may visit menagolftour.com for more information on the Q-School. Entries close on Sunday, March 5, 2017. The Mena Tour started in 2011 and as well as offering world ranking points the top three professionals and leading amateur also get European Tour invites, playing privileges on the Sunshine Tour and exemptions into the final stage of Asian Tour Q-School.
