Reid holds off big field for easy win in Summer Series opener

Dubai: Stephen Reid from the Emirates Golf Federation won the first fixture of the Dubai Golf Summer Series which teed off for its third season with a new title sponsor Interem.

The event attracted 77 competitors of which three carded scores of 37 points over the Emirates Golf Club's Faldo course.

Reid scored 20 points on the inward nine while his superb back nine included birdies on the 10th and 13th and a solitary bogey on the hardest hole on the course, the fourteenth.

His closest contenders were Paul Barbone and John Coupland who scored 37 points. But Barbone's 18 on the back nine was two better than Coupland helping him secure the runners-up position.

Reid also had the best gross of the day, a one over par 73 closely followed by Michael Robson with a 75. Robson, however, clinched the longest drive award on the 16th hole while Inaan Budhiraja and Clive Rogerson won the nearest the pin contests on the 8th and 12th respectively. Rogerson was two inches away from a rare hole in one. Over the series the best three of potentially four stableford scores will be tabulated and the individual with the highest total will win the grand prize.