Dubai: Saudi Arabian golfer Othman Al Mulla is hoping local knowledge will spur him to victory in his home event, the American Express Dirab Golf Championship — round six of the 11-stage Mena Golf Tour — from Monday to Wednesday.
Al Mulla, 29, became the youngest Arab amateur to qualify and play in the 2007 Omega Dubai Desert Classic at the age of 21 after becoming the youngest to win the Pan Arab Championship and the Saudi Aramco Invitational that year.
Fresh from completing studies and posting a top-seven finish at the recent Hong Kong Amateur Open and a third-place finish in the Mena Division of the Shaikh Maktoum Dubai Open last week, Al Mulla is now eyeing glory on his home course.
“I have this self-belief that I can win at Dirab and, hopefully, become the first amateur to do so on the Mena Golf Tour. That’s the goal,” he said.
“My ball striking was pretty good, but I just couldn’t read the greens,” he added of his performance in Dubai last week. “The event has given me a lot of confidence.”
Al Mulla will be up against 20 other amateurs, including 10 from Saudi Arabia, this week.
Spearheading the challenge in the professional division will be the English duo of Lee Corfield and Luke Joy, who between them have five titles on the Mena Tour, and Pakistan’s Shafiq Masih, the winner of the inaugural Dirab Championship in 2012.
“I am pretty familiar with the course, where I have been a teaching professional for many years,” said Masih. “Accuracy off the tee is a must to find the tree-lined narrow fairways. Also, the greens are quite short, which means you need to be on top of your game to pass the test.”
With the first five events on the tour producing a new winner each time, everything’s still to play for in the championship.
The Mena Tour was created in 2011 and honours the top three professionals, amateurs and Mena players with Asian Tour qualifying school and European Tour invites at the end of the season.
