Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club played host to the 11th Men’s Golf Club Championships Supported by Orient Travel & Orient Tours on the weekend of the 12th & 13th April. Over forty SGSC members entered to stake their claim to be the 2019 club champion, with a mixture of young guns bidding to put their mark on the event & the seasoned master craftsmen of the game.
It was Xu Zi Ang who played superb golf over the weekend and claimed his first SGSC Club Championship. Ang who has a terrific season added the Club Championships to his very impressive collection including the 11th SGSC Mens Open which he won earlier in the season. Xu Zi started the event with a bogey on the first hole but followed that up with a great round of golf including six birdies and unfortunately for him he dropped a shot on the 18th but was still enough to take the first round lead on a score of 68 – four under par. Other noticeable round one scores were Adam Smith and Chris Alderman both posting 71 to sit three shots back. Four time Club Champion Nathan Fisher scored 73 to still have a chance moving into day two. Day two was more of the same from Xu Zi a very solid round of level par 72, Ang was two under par with three holes to go in the second round then during a heavy downpour he dropped shots on 16 and 17 and a par on the last saw him lift the title on a total score of 140 winning by four shots. Second place was SGSC Mid-Amateur Champion Chris Alderman who remained the closest to Xu Zi throughout the event. Chris posted a score of one over in round two to finish level par for the tournament and claim runner up spot. Third place was Nathan Fisher with scores of 73 & 74 Nathan was unable to add to his four previous wins in this event. Best gross on day one was Adam Smith with a score of 71 and day twos best gross was the very steady Namir Al Naimi posting 74.
In the ladies section it was another youngster who took home the title, the ladies played stableford and it was Jamie Camero who finished top of the leaderboard. Jamie had an excellent gross stableford total of 54 points for both the rounds with scores of 28 and 26 for her combined total. This is Jamies second Club Championship win and I have a feeling there will be many more to come.
The final prizes of the weekend would be in the net division and it was previous winner of this section Hanief Sallie who topped the pile. Hanief has been playing well of late and with net scores of 75 and 71 for a 146 total this proved enough for the title only by virtue of countback. Unfortunately for them losing the countback was Adhip Shankar after and excellent first round of 69 Adhip struggled to keep this form in the second round scoring 77 but was still enough for second place . Third place was Arnel Valencia on a total of 149 including his second round of net 68 which was best net score of the tournament. SGSC captain Sanjoy Das was best net score for day one posting 73 while Mohan GC was best net score on day two with 72.
The event was played in a great spirit on a course in brilliant condition and was highly competitive all the way to the last putt.
