Muscat: Saudi Arabia credited the Mena Golf Tour for helping them win team honours and an individual one-two in the 36th Arab Golf Championships at Ghala Golf Club in Muscat on Saturday.
Spearheaded by Khalid Attieh and Othman Al Mullah, the Saudi’s tallied a gross score of 887 to beat defending champions Morocco (903) to win their first title, while Qatar finished third on 916.
Attieh also closed with the tournament’s lowest score of three-under 69 after carding three straight 74s to reach three-over 291 for the championship, edging teammate Al Mullah by three shots to win individual honours.
“I think the experience of playing alongside professional golfers from all over the world on the Mena Golf Tour lit the spark for this victory,” said Al Mullah, who was named the region’s best amateur in this season’s Mena Tour after six victories in his division.
“The Tour is just awesome and provides an incredible opportunity to improve our game. With world ranking points on offer, the Mena Tour members from the Arab world can hope to target qualification to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.”
Attieh said his participation in the Ghala Open for the Mena Tour’s penultimate event just last month also helped him get accustomed to the course before the Arab Championships were held at the same venue.
“Finishing in red figures (one under) in that event certainly added to my confidence and helped me a lot in navigating the course,” he said. “I would also like to thank my coach, Brett Saunders, who especially flew in from Australia. It was great to achieve this result with him around.”
Bahrain will host the next edition of the Arab Championships in 2017 and officials were on hand from Bahrain to receive the flag from their Omani counterparts.
