Dubai: Alison Muirhead and Inaan Budhiraja both signed for a gross 78 over the Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club to become the girls’ and boys’ club champions respectively.
Muirhead got off to a nervous start, dropping four shots in her opening three holes, but bounced back superbly with a birdie two on the difficult par 3 fourth hole. She completed holes four through to seventeen in level par, with further birdies on the 16th and 17th holes. Despite an unfortunate double bogey on the final hole, she carded her best score on the Dubai Desert Classic track, a six-over-par 78. Her net 68 also gave her the best net score of the day, a 68.
Budhiraja carded a confident front-nine score of one-over-par 36, picking up a birdie on the difficult ninth, but dropping shots on the 4th and 5th holes. A run of dropped shots from the 12th resulted in a five-over par back nine and a gross 78, good enough to triumph by two shots from Rory Blincow. Karan Bhasin took third after a gross 81.
In the boys’ net division, Matthew Laven came out on top with a level-par 72. For the first time this year a new category was created, the “Academy Graduates”. Four juniors graduating from the Emirates Academy participated in a gross competition from the forward tees and it was Niklas Korjonen who clinched top prize with a gross 92. Alex Turlik, Karam Wallia and Aayush Bakshi competed in this category in their first major junior event.
The nearest the pins contests were won by Karam Sehmi on hole 4 and Inaan Budhiraja on hole 11.
