Despite their low handicaps, former Emirates Golf Federation (EGF) Order of Merit champion Miki Mirza and Matt Boucher combined perfectly to win the team event of the Abu Dhabi Invitational am-am tournament on Monday.
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On the second day of the event, hosted by Abdullah Al Naboodah and Mohammed Farooq, along with Abu Dhabi Sports Council, Mirza, who plays to a +2 handicap, and Boucher (4), completed the day with the best better ball stableford net score of seven-under par 43.
That was one shot better than the six-under par 42 score of Thomas Jermoluk and Emanuel Ostojic.
Jermoluk, a technology investor and communications expert, however had the pleasure of winning the 36-hole amateur champion ship.
He was close to winning Sunday’s pro-am as well, before settling for second place at 10-under par 62 while playing alongside the impressive young Belgian Thomas Pieters.
That score of 62 gave him 46 points from the opening day, and Jermoluk added another 36 on Monday to post a winning tally of 82 points, which was one better than Australian cricket legend Shane Warne (45+36) and two ahead of former Argentine football star Gabriel Batistuta (47+33) and UAE banker Maqsood Ahmed (43+37).
Mirza, who won the EGF Order of Merit in 2010 and 2011, and also qualified to play in the 2010 Omega Dubai Desert Classic, was delighted with his partnership with Boucher.
“We really clicked well together. He too is a low handicapper and in events like this, you’d rather have a pairing of one low and one high handicapper. But Matt played really well and made some crucial birdies,” said Mirza, who is planning to play a select few EGF events this year.
“We started pretty well with five birdies in the first eight holes, before we both made bogeys on the ninth. But we then were on fire from the 10th to 13th making four back-to-back birdies.
“When we reached the 18th, we knew we were one shot ahead. All we needed was a par, but Matt was already out of the hole. I just told myself not to do anything stupid, laid up with my second, and made two great putts for a solid par.”
Like Jermoluk, Mirza also came close to winning the pro-am on Sunday, before finishing tied second along with India’s Shiv Kapur.
“I loved the tournament and Monday was really special playing with Shiv. We lost by one in the end, but Shiv burned the last three holes with birdie putts that refused to drop in. It was a great experience,” added Mirza, who owns a real estate business.
