Entries have started pouring in thick and fast for the inaugural MENA Golf Tour Qualifying School to be held at Almenara Golf Club in the Spanish resort of Sotogrande in February next year.
Open to all professionals and amateurs – with a handicap limit of one or better – the 54-hole Q-School will be held in two stages and over 54 holes.
The first stage, on February 14 and 15, will see players compete over 36 holes of strokeplay when the half-way cut will be made, narrowing down the field to 80 players for the final stage 18-hole competition to be played the following day.
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The top 60 players from the final qualifying round will be eligible for Category-7 membership of the MENA Golf Tour for the 2016 season which will have close to 20 events, covering new destinations in Kuwait, Egypt, Spain, Thailand and South Africa.
The Q-School, which will see the MENA Golf Tour travel to Europe for the first time, will offer MENA Golf Tour members the opportunity to earn full playing privileges on the tour.
The top 12 players from the Q-School will share a prize fund of $13,000 with the winner walking away with a cheque for $3,000 while the top 15 will also receive complimentary Mena Golf Tour membership for 2016.
Added incentives for MENA Golf Tour members include starts in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and other European Tour events, including one spot in the Hassan II Trophy, and exemptions into the Final Stage of the Asian Tour Q-School for the leading three professionals in addition to attractive prize funds.
“We are quite pleased with the early response to the Q-School. Since the entries are going to pick up pace once the dust is settled on New Year’s celebrations, we appeal to all interested golfers to sign up fast to avoid the last-minute rush,” said Mohamed Juma Buamaim, chairman of the MENA Golf Tour.
“We believe the Q-School will enhance the level of competition in addition to bringing more transparency in determining the fields for our events. With many overseas professionals and amateurs in the field, the tour exposes them to a highly competitive environment they need to hone their skills.
“We look forward to welcoming players from different nationalities in the field and hope to see what I believe will be an absorbing contest for earning the tour cards.”
Interested golfers may visit www.menagolftour.com for more information on the Q-School. Entries close on February 1, 2016.
The MENA Golf Tour was first established in 2011 as a four-event Tour, with all four events played in the UAE. That expanded to six in the following year and 11 in 2015 with events in Morocco, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Nearly all events played in the UAE the last two years have attracted full fields, one of the reasons the Tour opted for the Q-School.
