Casablanca: Zane Scotland will lead an impressive assortment of talented stars, packed with 13 Mena Tour winners, when the season-opening Palmeraie Country Club Casablanca Open gets under way on Tuesday.
The Englishman, who is a record 10-time winner on tour, will be looking to extend his tally, but will have his work cut out with plenty of seasoned players lining up as potential roadblocks along the way.
There is a definite buzz surrounding the field which will see a record 137 golfers, including 19 amateurs, from 25 countries tee it up in a sign of the growing popularity of the tour in Morocco.
Notables included in the field are Englishmen Craig Hinton, Lee Corfield, veteran Andrew Marshall, Luke Joy, and Jake Shepherd, all multiple winners on the Mena Tour, who will be joined by 2014 Order of Merit winner Joshua White and Carlos Balmaseda of Spain.
Adding a bit of spice to the competition, among others, will be former England cricketer Craig Kieswetter, who graduated from last week’s Mena Tour Qualifying School along with Scotland’s Grant Forrest and India’s Feroz Singh Garewal.
The Casablanca Open holds a special significance for Englishmen Benjamin David and Edward Holland and Scotland’s Daniel Hendry who will be making their professional debut after stringing together impressive streaks on the Mena Tour.
“It has always been my dream to turn pro, so I decided to go for it and be confident. It wasn’t a really tough decision since I felt like I’m ready to take the next step in my career,” said Hendry, a former UAE and Scottish junior champion.
“I feel like I am a better player now and have a better grasp on the game. It is hard work and will require time. Therefore, I don’t put too much stress on the results. The idea is to have fun and when you have fun on the course, things usually go well,” he added.
The trio joins a long list of players who have taken the Mena Golf Tour route to launch their careers in the paid ranks.
Included in the list are the likes of 2015 Mena Golf Tour champion Thriston Lawrence, Tyler Hogarty of South Africa, Ahmad Marjan of Morocco, Ahmad Al Musharrakh of the UAE and the English duo of James Allan and James Yeomans. t
Marjan, the only Arab winner on the tour, will be on hand to spearhead the home challenge when he joins a strong contingent of 28 Moroccan players, including nine amateurs, in the field.
He, along with fellow countrymen Faycal Serghini and Younes El Hassani, will be nailed on favourites to win the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation Award reserved the region’s best player.
Saudi Arabia’s Othman Almulla, a six-time winner in the region’s amateur division last season, will be hoping to tap into good vibes and continue his impressive run of success in the division which has attracted entries from Jordan, Morocco and Oman.
“I am striking the ball well and have this self-belief that I can win and, hopefully, become the second player after Ahmed (Marjan) from the region do so on the Mena Tour. That’s the goal,” he said.
Casablanca kicks off a 16-stage season this year. The Mena Tour was founded in 2011 to develop golf in the region. Leading players earn invites to play in select European Tour events, get full privileges on the Sunshine Tour and exemptions into the final stage of Asian Tour Q-School.
