Dubai: Rising English star Haydn McCullen will join Dominic Foos of Germany in spearheading the challenge of the new faces when the 2015 Mena Golf Tour begins with the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam Open in Rabat on April 4.
With as many as 30 first-timers in fray, the 54-hole event at the Robert Trent Jones-designed course has already been oversubscribed in a sign of the growing popularity of the tour across the region and beyond.
Fresh from turning professional earlier this month, young prodigy McCullen insists he’s ready for the rigours of pro golf after enjoying a successful amateur career, highlighted by winning the prestigious McEvoy Trophy and Carris Trophy in 2014, a year after becoming the first player to win both Lancashire’s county and boys’ championships
“I’m really looking forward to getting out there and playing. It’s definitely going to be a step up from what I’m used to but I feel ready for it,” said the 18-year-old Manchester-based youngster, who is featuring in Rabat at the invitation of Darren Clarke, the patron of the Mena Tour.
McCullen will join Foos among other debutants in the field, which will be spearheaded by England’s Joshua White, the winner of the Mena Tour’s Order of Merit title in 2014, and Morocco’s Faycal Serghini, who won the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Award for the best player in the Mena region last year.
Foos, from St Leon-Rot Golf Club near Heidelberg, hit the headlines when he became Germany’s top-ranked amateur golfer and the number one under-15 golfer in the world in 2012, before turning professional on his 17th birthday last year.
“It will be my first time on the Mena Tour, but I have a fair idea of what to expect. I know they have a lot of players who on their day are as good as anyone on any other tour,” said Foos, who in 2012 became the youngest player to win the German Matchplay Championship for Men, before adding the German and French International Boys’ titles to his cache of trophies in 2013.
And with Zane Scotland, the most prolific winner on the tour with nine titles to his credit, in the field along with a slew of familiar faces including the likes of Morocco’s Ahmad Marjane, South Africa’s Tyler Hogarty and the English trio of Luke Joy, Lee Corfield and Jake Shepherd, the Mena Tour opener promises to be a close affair.
“We are absolutely delighted with the early response to the Mena Tour events and look forward to welcoming the players. It’s great to see many new players join the tour,” said Mohammad Juma Bu Amim, chairman of the tour.
“Thanks to an overwhelming response from golfers in and outside the region, the tour has created its own niche in the world of golf in a short space of time, becoming a happy hunting ground for champions-in-waiting. The emergence of a champion from the Arab world has certainly set the ball rolling for the Mena talent.”
Held under the auspices of the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation, the 2015 Mena Tour boasts 10 events spread across Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with a total prize fund of $525,000 in addition to $52,000 reserved for the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation award.
