Players tee up for a shot at the tiger

The week that counts has just arrived for the top regional PGA professionals and amateurs – their chance to qualify for a European Tour event. This coming Sunday and Monday will see 24 local PGA professionals and 14 top local amateurs compete for a spot in the Dubai Desert Classic and the chance to play in the same field as Tiger Woods.

The organisers and promoters of the Dubai Desert Classic, "golf in DUBAI", very generously give the local talent places to play for each year (one for professionals and one for amateurs) and it is an opportunity that very rarely exists in the golfing world.

It is every golfer’s dream to have the opportunity to peg it up alongside the best in the world and to soak up the atmosphere of an event on a major tour. In other established golfing regions such as the US, Europe or Asia, the qualifying criteria for local professionals to gain entry is not so straightforward, even if it exists at all.

Generally it will be the winner of the national or regional PGA’s season-long order of merit that would have the opportunity to compete in a locally-based tour event or it would come by way of a sponsor’s invite. This week the UAE professionals will have a clutch opportunity to put together two good rounds and seize the prize.

The banter at Emirates Golf Club has been heating up this week as names are thrown around as to who will come out on top? In the Professional division, Simon Payne the UAE PGA Order of Merit leader from The Palm Resort, Al Ain, is a clear favourite. However, consistently good recent performances from Stephen Hubner and David Gray of Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club and Graeme Bell from Four Seasons Golf Club will no doubt give Simon a run for his money.

Andrew Whitelaw, director of golf at Emirates Golf Club is the dark horse in the field and one to look out for. He has been working hard on his game over the past couple of weeks and has critical home advantage.

Leading the charge for the amateur place is Othman Almulla from Saudi Arabia who qualified last year beating an extremely strong field. Other contenders will be the sand experts from Bahrain, all of whom have qualified previously for the Desert Classic – Hamed Mubarak, Nasser Yacoob and Abdullah Sultan along with the formidably long-hitting young talent of Joel Neale and Sebastian Heisele.

Nerves and adrenalin will be tough to control for all the players this week, but one thing is for sure, stepping on the first tee of the Majlis on Thursday, January 31, will be a whole different ball game.