Dubai: More focused and professional training, competition exposure and junior development is needed to build upon the UAE golf team's recent run of results, according to head coach Chris Vallendar.
Ahmad Al Musharrakh finished a record best tied for 24 at the Asian Amateur Golf Championships, that ran from Thursday to Sunday at Singapore's Island Country Club, with a level par 288 score of 75-70-72-71.
Meanwhile, Khalid Yousuf may have missed the cut, with two day scores of 79-75 to post a 10 over par 154, but he was also congratulated by Vallendar in what had been his first tournament whereby he's qualified on world-ranking points.
The results come hot on the back of the Pan Arab Golf Championships in Morocco, in September, where Hassan Al Musharrakh won junior gold with rounds of 67-72-75 to post a two under par 214.
The men's side finished third with a combined 948. Ahmad Al Musharrakh also finished fifth in the individual men's stakes with 307. Earlier, the UAE had finished a best-ever 14th at the Asia Pacific Golf Championship for the Nomura Cup in Fiji in August with a score of 945.
But now Vallendar calls for improvements to build on this: "Strong results over the summer have shown the team's maturity and handling has improved. They've adapted well but there's still a lot more to do."
"They've understood they have to be serious from the first shot, not hope to gain ground after a few mistakes. So I'm happy with the way they've handled things in this regard," he said.
"We'll sit down and propose a few things on how to move forward. The players need more high-level competition, more focused training with professionals within the UAE and more attention needs to be paid to junior development in particular," he added.
"This was Hassan's last year as a junior and so far we only have one other junior left: Faisal Al Marzouqi. It will be 3-5 years before we can have a second tier behind the firsts ready to play quality golf."
"From 2,000 registered juniors, only 30 have handicaps and we only get 11-35 taking part in a local tournaments, that's because clubs here are strictly business and non developmental — it's too exclusive. Two thirds of local clubs don't even have junior membership schemes."
"This is not a blame game, clubs must make revenue, but we all need to get together and find a solution. A municipal course with 18 rounds at a cost of Dh200 would solve the problem 100 per cent but people will never agree to something that will distract business away from other existing clubs."
