Saudi Arabia golf team ready for a busy year on the fairways

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s best golfers have been gearing up for an action-packed 2018 with a training camp at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club and have praised the recently opened course as an ideal venue to launch a successful season.
With 22 international tournaments scheduled for the national team through the year the national team gathered under the watchful eyes of coach Ali Balharith. And they loved the new facility.
“It’s fantastic, with excellent facilities. The golf course is what my team needs for training,” Balharith told Arab News.
“It’s unreal. To have a thing like this in Saudi Arabia, it’s unbelievable,” Saudi golf star Othman Almulla said of the championship course and clubhouse nestled within the prestigious Al Murooj district in King Abdullah Economic City.
“You don’t even ask,” commented Saudi national team standout Abdulrahman Almansour, obviously in admiration of what is arguably the crown jewel of golf courses in Saudi Arabia.
“Jumeirah Golf Estates (Dubai), step aside,” said the one-time Arab Junior champion Saud Al-Sharif, referring to Royal Green’s majestic clubhouse.
Gaining a stamp of approval from the Saudi Arabia national team, Royal Greens Director of Golf Paul Dennis said it was great to have the national team hone their skills on the fairways and greens of the new course, and hoped it would help them on the pathway to golfing glory.
“It’s nice to be recognized by the best players in the country. The golf course is ready but still very young. There are still things that we will see in terms of golf; and the restaurant, its operational.
“We’re providing facilities that are probably second to none in the region. We guarantee the best playing facilities and the best playing surfaces. (These are the) best conditions that they can experience.”
In the past many of Saudi Arabia’s best golfers had to travel to the UAE, considered the golfing hub of the Middle East, to get some decent practice in. But Dennis claimed that was now no longer the case.
“They have to be proud of the fact that they now have facilities in Saudi Arabia. We’re proud to have it. It’s a great thing for the club,” Dennis said.
“Hopefully there’s nothing else that they want in their visit, because it gives them the opportunity that they never had before, to really get the best out of their playing abilities and equipment that’s being used by the best players in the world.
“The weather is better. Better than the UAE, for example. We are 10 degrees cooler, it doesn’t get as cold in the winter. We have an amazing coastline. With the golf club, marina and sports center across the road, we have the key elements of reacreational activities in the city.”
Managed by Troon Golf, Royal Greens has seen golfers from Jeddah, Yanbu, Rabigh and Riyadh coming to play since its soft opening on Nov. 30, Dennis revealed.
Almulla, who won the Saudi Golf Federation Open last month at the Nofa Golf Resort on the outskirts of Riyadh, is competing in the Oman Amateur Open this weekend at Ghala Golf Club in the heart of Muscat along with fellow national players Al-Sharif, Almansour and the US-based Ali Alsakha.
Then in mid February, the quartet will play the Red Sea Little Venice Open on the Alps Tour in Egypt.
From there the focus will be on the Asian Games, which Indonesia will host in August, and the Eisenhower Trophy, a biennial world amateur team golf championship for men to be held in early September in Ireland.