Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club members and professionals showed the importance of local knowledge as they walked away with the top two prizes in the Dubai Creek UAE PGA Pro-Am.
As many as 108 players, from both professionals and amateurs, braved the heat and teed up, and in the end, three teams were tied at the top with a score of 12-under par, two of them led by Dubai Creek professionals.
The friendly scoring format helped, with only one score out of four players counting on each hole.
Deciding the top three teams therefore came down to a countback of the back nine and Dubai Creek’s Cennydd Mills and his team of Owain Mills, Khalifa Al Masaood and Graham Pascal eventually came out as winners.
Another Dubai Creek professional, Jack Woods, and his team consisting of the Dubai Creek Lady Captain, Harina White, and fellow members Mini Philip and Kuson Waimer had to be satisfied with a second place, while ProSports’ Brenden O’Leary and his team of Paul Aboucharca, Hisham Shammas and Michael Sharrah were third.
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After being presented with their prizes, Mills said: “I would like to thank Dubai Creek for their hospitality. The day has been superb from start to finish.
“I would also like to thank the UAE PGA for their continued efforts in growing the game in this part of the world, the calendar of events they are putting on every year is going from strength to strength.” The individual prize for the professionals was also tightly contested.
In the end, the winning players – Simon Payne, of Tower Links, and Gavin Sutherland, of Al Badia Golf Club – could not be separated after superb rounds of even-par 71 each. They were closely followed by Dubai Creeks’ Cennydd Mills (72), Sharjah Golf’s Purna Sharma (73) and Martin Duff (74).
The amateur nearest to the pin prizes were won by Sung Yeol Lee on the eighth hole and Graham Pascal on the 16th, while the longest drives belonged to Dan Russell and Khalifa Al Masaood on the seventh and 18th holes respectively.
Dubai Creek announced they would be holding the tournament on an annual basis from here on.
