Italian Aron Zemmer has claimed his maiden MENA Tour title after beating his fellow countryman Andrea Saracino, at Dirab Country Club in Saudi Arabia.
The MENA Tour has wrapped up two successful tournaments in Riyadh over the past fortnight. Last week England’s Bailey Gill was triumphant at Riyadh Golf Club as the MENA Tour moved over to Dirab Golf & Country Club to host ‘Tournament 4’ on it’s 2022/23 schedule.
More than 90 players, made up of 26 nationalities, were in the field at Dirab Golf & Country Club which offered a very different challenge for the players with its strategic hole locations, narrow fairways & challenging greens.
England’s Matt Killen and Italy’s Aron Zemmer opened up round one with joint 6 under par 66’s with the top 10 players only separated by 3 shots.
The conditions on the second day were more of a test with changeable weather making tougher scoring opportunities. Englishman Jack Floydd and Czech Republic’s Gordon Brixi however, triumphed in these conditions returning scores of 66 & 67 respectively on the day to leave then only one shot off the lead. Matt Killen only managed a level par round of 72 to stay within two shots of the leader. While Italy’s Andrea Saracino also managed to stay in touch of the leader with a second round score of 68, two behind Aron Zemmer after a two under par 70.
The final round provided real drama as Andrea Saracino shot an impressive 4 under par round to set the clubhouse score at 10 under par.
In the final group, Zemmer had to make birdie on the 72nd hole to match Saracino and force a playoff, which the Italian duly did.
The pair were faced with the 608 yard, par 5, 18th hole to find a winner. Halving the first three playoff holes, Saracino then found trouble in the trees on the right side of the fairway.
Meaning a regulation par for Zemmer was enough for his maiden MENA Tour victory. Delighted with his victory, Zemmer thanked all involved for the tournament, and is looking forward to playing in future MENA Tour events over the coming months as he picked up his winners cheque of $13,500.
Major champion Brooks Koepka still leads the order of merit, as the MENA Tour will be shortly announcing the next series of tournaments which will be played from January 2023 onwards.
After being founded in 2011 by the Dubai-based Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation, the MENA Tour is growing the game of golf in the region by offering world class tournaments at many of the MENA regions finest golf facilities to both professional & amateur players.
