The Els Club Dubai will officially become a welcome addition to the MENA Golf Tour when the inaugural Golf Citizen Classic starts at the Ernie Els-designed golf course on Monday.
With three of the last four events on the Tour going to playoffs, there is plenty to suggest that another cracking competition is about to unfold at the pristine Dubai Sports City-based golf course.
Paul Doherty of Scotland leads the Order of Merit by a narrow margin, but snapping at the heels of the frontrunner are English duo Gary King and Jake Shepherd and Sweden’s Per Barth.
– Family affair: Haas junior wins Presidents Cup for captain dad
– British Masters: Thai at the top going into final day
Just $1,930 (Dh7,080) separate the top four, who have all won an event each this year, and all four players will be seen in action in Dubai this week.
Boasting three top-10s, including a solo third at last week’s American Express Dirab Golf Championship, South Africa’s rising star Thriston Arthur Lawrence will be aiming to continue his good run of form.
Craig Hinton, who settled for second to Spain’s Gabriel Canizares in Dirab, along with fellow Englishman Luke Joy, who finished fourth, are a couple of other in-form stars to look out for.
The victory of Morocco’s Ayoub Lguirati in the amateur division last week has added a new dimension to the competition which was thus far dominated by England’s James Allan and India’s Rayhan Thomas.
Currently fifth on the Order of Merit, the young Moroccan will be targeting another strong finish to break into the top three along with his compatriot Karim El Hali, who has maintained his fourth position.
Playing in his first season as a professional, Morocco’s Mehdi Sassi is giving regular contenders a terrific run for their money in the MENA Division.
The 24-year-old prodigy racked up a creditable tied-sixth overall — and first place in his division — last week to close the gap on leaders Faycal Serghini, Ahmed Marjan and Amine Joudar.
With the leaders in the division returning to the competition after playing in the European Tour qualifier in Italy last week, the MENA Division promises to be ultra-competitive on an Els Club course which hosted the DUBAi Open, the Asian Tour’s final event of 2014, last December.
Chris Brown, general manager at the Els Club, said: “There is a feeling of tremendous excitement as we welcome our first MENA Tour event."
