The Hero Challenge officially gets the ball rolling for the Ras Al Khaimah Classic week at Al Hamra Golf Club on Tuesday — ahead of the $2 million DP World Tour event.
Danish star Nicolai Hojgaard — last week’s winner of the Ras Al Khaimah Championship — will top the bill alongside twin brother Rasmus playing with his identical twin brother. They are up against Dubai resident Rafa Cabrera Bello and fellow Spaniard Alfredo Garcia-Heredia.
The Challenge will see 26 teams of two professionals in play a Texas scramble format over nine holes, 10-18 at Al Hamra. In the scramble format, the best drive is selected and both players play from that spot.
This continues until the hole is completed. The scoring format sees the gross team score on each hole counting. Low scores are expected with aggressive golf encouraged and the order of the day.
The prize fund is $150,000 with the winners picking up $12,000 each.
Marcus Armitage and Jordan Smith – a former winner in Ras Al Khaimah on the Challenge Tour, who finished runner-up to Hojgaard last week – play in an all-English team while Scots Stephen Gallacher and Robert MacIntyre pair up hoping to claim the lion’s share of the $150,000 prize pot.
An all-Swedish group, meanwhile, will feature Marcus Kinhult pairing up with Alexander Bjork and they will play alongside a team featuring Sebastian Soderberg and Joakim Lagergren.
Nicolai said: “I always looking forward to playing with Rasmus, now we get nine holes with a fun tournament so it will be a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to it. “I have full confidence in Rasmus, when we play together we trust each other 100%. Maybe it sounds a bit like we’re going to take it seriously, but we’re going to have fun for sure and try do our best while we’re having fun. We’ll see what happens.”
Rasmus added: “I’m very excited, it looks like he’s driving the ball pretty good so that should make my job a little easier. I think we’ll just go out and try have fun. It’s going to be a relaxed little competition. We’re here for two weeks so it’s nice to have something a little different to do, to have alittle nine hole competition is great and will just be a lot of fun. We’ve been talking about what we’re going to wear and maybe wearing the same outfit, it will be a little surprise I think.”
The draw
10.46am J. Caldwell (NI) & C. Sharvin (NI) v A. Pavan (It) & R. Paratore (It)
10.58am JB Hansen (Den) & L. Bjerregaard (Den) v S. Hend (Aus) & W. Ormsby (Aus)
11.10am H. Li (China) & L. Nemecz (Aut) v T. Lawrence (RSA) & D. Fichardt (RSA)
11.34am K. Broberg (Swe) & R. Karlberg (Swe) v G. Forrest (Scot) & R. Ramsay (Scot)
11.46am M. Kinhult (Swe) & A. Bjork (Swe) v S. Soderberg (Swe) & J. Lagergren (Swe)
11.58am S. Valimaki (Fin) & H. Long (Ger) v T. Bjorn (Den) & J. Morrison (Eng)
12.10pm D. Gavins (Eng) & C. Shinkwin (Eng) v S. Brown (Eng) & L. Canter (Eng)
12.22pm T. Oleson (Den) & S. Kjeldsen (Den) v J. Winther (Den) & M. Siem (Ger)
12.34pm P. Larrazabal (Spain) & G. Migliozzi (It) v R. Bland (Eng) & O. Wilson (Eng)
12.46pm S. Gallagher (Scot) & R. MacIntyre (Scot) v J. Harding (RSA) & G. Coetzee (RSA)
12.58pm M. Armitage (Eng) & J. Smith (Eng) v B. Stone (RSA) & S. Heisele (Ger)
1.10pm R. Cabrera Bello (Spain) & A. Garcia-Heredia (Spain) v N. Hojgaard (Den) & R. Hojgaard (Den)
