Dubai: The Mena Golf Tour could potentially get world rankings points within weeks after announcing a three-year tie-up with the Sunshine Tour on Sunday.
As part of the agreement, three co-sanctioned events - to be played in Johannesburg in June - will be added to the Mena Tour calendar, which has expanded to 20 tournaments and a qualifying school this year.
The top five players in the Mena Tour Order of Merit at the end of a season will also get full membership to the Sunshine Tour and the top six to 20 players on the Mena Tour will get into the final stage of Sunshine Tour qualifying school.
Grant Wilson, Chief Operating Officer of the Sunshine Tour, who is also a member of the Official World Golf Rankings technical committee, said: “In order to be awarded world rankings points, there is a set criteria. One of those is an official qualifying school and the second is a formalised relationship with a member federation tour.
“Now that the Mena Tour has fulfilled the criteria of the Official World Golf Rankings, I think it’s imminent.
“With the announcement today of us formalising this relationship, a letter will go to the World Rankings. Then it will go through a due process with the technical committee and they will make a recommendation to the main board.
“That could take a couple of weeks or it could take a month. I would say this will all be sorted out within the next month or two.”
Mohammad Juma Bu Amim, chairman of the Mena Tour, said: “It would mean a hell of a lot”, if the series was granted world rankings points.
“Because for any Arab country to send any of their kids to the Olympics they need world rankings because it’s not amateur, it’s professional. The Mena Tour is the only Tour they can do it on, simply because they won’t be able to get onto these other tours.
“With it we could be at the Olympics and with it, Olympic Committees in Arab countries will support golf more than they are doing now.
“Support from golf federation in the Arab world, I’m sorry to say but it’s zero. It doesn’t exist, because I don’t think they understand what it means. I have been careful over the years not to say anything, but it’s reached the stage whereby they are actually a hindrance, rather than somebody who wants to help make this happen.”
The 20-stage Mena Tour starts with qualifying school in Spain from February 13-16 before the season tees off in Morocco on March 22. The Tour will then have stop overs in Spain, the UAE, Thailand, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman, before wrapping up in Egypt on November 29.
