The Emirates NBD “The Race to Malaysia”, powered by Thriwe, is a golf tournament with national championships in over 47 countries worldwide, and will be held for the first time in the UAE in conjunction with Sports 2 Business, Dubai Sports Council and Emirates Golf Federation. This will bring 14 exciting amateur golf events over seven consecutive months held at the world-class golf courses of the UAE.
The annual series will commence at the Montgomerie Golf Club, Dubai, on 10th April 2022. They will consist of 14 qualifying events across the most respected UAE golf courses, culminating in the National Final at Al Hamra Golf Club, Ras Al Khaimah, on 1st October 2022. The winners of this event across five separate handicap categories will then represent the UAE in the World Final on November 12-19th in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, to compete against 46 other countries over six rounds on Malaysia’s finest courses.
“We are delighted to work with Emirates NBD and Thriwe to bring this established global event to the UAE. This is an amazing and unique opportunity to offer UAE amateur golfers a superb ‘Olympic’ style experience to represent the UAE in the world final in November. With flag-raising events, tourist experiences and a bonanza style presentation ceremony, it will quite simply be a money cannot buy experience of a lifetime for the UAE team. More importantly, this is another opportunity to highlight the world-class golfing assets of the UAE as we work with the UAE Tourism teams to potentially bring the World Finals to UAE in 2023 and 2024,” said Russell Yeomans, Founder of Sport2Business events.
Great sponsors
He added, “Opportunities like this cannot exist without great sponsors, so we are proud to team up with Emirates NBD and Thriwe to create more memorable experiences for the amateur golfers of Dubai. We are also delighted to have AARO, AGMC (BMW), Active Living, eGolfmegastore and other recognised sponsors supporting our Gold Sponsor Emirates NBD.”
Marwan Hadi, Executive Vice President and Head of Retail Banking, Emirates NBD said, “As a leading bank in the region, we are happy to be a part of one of the most prestigious golf events in the UAE, reiterating our commitment to encouraging sporting activities in the region. In line with the bank’s commitment to engage the wider Dubai community in the great game of golf, we have sponsored many golfing events in the UAE over the years including the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, an event that we have been supporting for over 30 years. Staying true to our “Passion for Sport” strategy and through our GolfLan (Thriwe) programme, we continue to offer our customers access to attractive golfing privileges and benefits.”
Commenting on the association, Dhruv Verma, Founder and CEO, Thriwe, said, “Thriwe has always supported Golf in the region and will continue to do so. We are thrilled to have entered into strategic partnership with S2B via The Race to Malaysia tournament and geared up to imbibe the newer trends around the game. Via this amazing podium, we are looking forward to build strong colossal synergies that would enhance the golfing ecosystem and make it a new networking platform that would connect business enthusiasts across the globe through golf.”
Amateur series
The sanctioning body, Emirates Golf Federation added through Director General, Akram Skaik said, “We are delighted to support amateur series like this adhering to World Handicap System (WHS) and EGF guidelines so amateurs at all levels can enjoy local and global competition knowing handicaps are monitored and respected. We see this as one of a growing number of EGF sanctioned events adding value to the ever increasing number of EGF members as golf continues to prosper as a sport.”
The Golf Clubs of the UAE have embraced this simple concept and offered to run member events to send their best golfers to represent their club in the National final in October 2022. Globally there will be 1400 qualifying events, and over 50,000 amateur golfers will aspire to reach the World final in Malaysia in November.
