Dubai: Sixteen-year-old golfing prodigy Khalid Attiyah from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is happy to be three over par at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and aims to push on from a successful day one to meet his targets of making the cut.
The Dubai-resident birdied his first hole but bogeyed five, six, eight, 12 and 14 only to birdie the 17th in a promising first day debut at a professional event.
"It went alright I think I hit a couple of mistakes coming in but it's not a bad score, it could have been worse," Attiyah, who's one of only two amateurs in the field, told Gulf News.
"My long game was ok. I was getting off the tee pretty well. I've just got to focus on short game a little bit and getting my chips closer and holing some putts — the swing feels good, hopefully just the putting holds up.
"Hopefully, I can make the cut and play Saturday and Sunday. I know I have to play well tomorrow [today], get off to a good start and pull some putts coming in. The rough out there is pretty tough so you have to play well to score low - it's just a great experience playing on a field with the top three in the world."
Asked if the newly-proposed Mena Tour would help Arab Amateurs, Attiyah said: "Definitely, it will help develop a lot of good players from this region. The more tournaments you can play in, the better you will get. It will help us get used to playing more competitively and will improve amateurs from this region."
Meanwhile, Khalid's father, Walid Attiyah, said: "I'm very proud of him. He's the youngest from this region to be in a European Tour event as an amateur. Whether he does or doesn't make the cut in this tournament doesn't matter. He's working toward more tournaments in the US."
Immediate plans
Walid added: "We badly need the Mena Tour — I'd love to see more tournaments because without tournaments the kids in this region will not improve."
After round two of the Desert Classic, Khalid's immediate plans are to get as much high level of experience as possible with the hope to one day turn professional, a goal which before all talk of the Mena Tour coming along, had looked bleak.
