MOROCCO, Sept 22: The Kuwait National Golf Team has struck gold for the first time ever at the 31st Pan Arab Golf Championship which was held in Rabat, the capital city of the Kingdom of Morocco. The tournament, which took place from Sept 11 to Sept 18, was held at the world acclaimed Dar Es-Salam golf courses, two long and arduous par 73 golf pitches, the Red and the Blue. The Red course is host to many world class events among them the European Tour. The National Golf Team which participated in all three divisions, Adults, Youth and Ladies, returned early on Monday after a 21 hour trip which started at 9 am Rabat local time on Sunday and ended in the arrival at Kuwait International airport at 9 am Kuwait local time on Monday.

The National Golf delegation comprised 10 individuals and they are: Delegation head, Abdulaziz Almulla, and team Captain Bader Albannay. The 8 golfers who have qualified for the team are: in the Adult division, Bader Haider, Majd Alansari, Abdulrahman Bahman and Mazen Alansari. In the Youth division, the team included 16 year old Abdulaziz Alsaraawi, 15 year old Yousef Bahman and 12 year old Ali Alansari and finally, in the Ladies division, the National team was represented by 12 year old Julia Alhmoud.
The Gold medal, the first ever for Kuwait in the sport of golf was achieved in the” Net Score” in the Ladies division by 12 year old Julia Alhmoud. The Silver medal in the Ladies net division went to Tunis and the Bronze to Morocco. Furthermore, in the “Gross Score”, Julia was first amongst the GCC States and 5th overall, an amazing achievement considering Julia was the youngest competitor and competing against ladies at least twice her age.

Julia started with a gross score of 90 in round one, followed by an 86 in round two and an 83 in the final round for an aggregate score of 259. Julia had qualified for the National team as Kuwait’s National Ladies champion this year. In the ladies “Gross Score”, the Gold and Silver medals went to Morocco, with Houria Alabadi claiming gold and Nadia Altabaa with the silver. Tunis took the Bronze with Firial Shaheed. Kuwait team captain, Bader Albannay praised the outstanding performance delivered by Julia which he said was the result of Julia’s commitment and hard work through daily practice sessions as well as participation in Youth tournaments inside and outside Kuwait. Delegation Head, Almulla praised Julia’s performance and stated that the results are in part the fruit of the Kuwait Golf Committee’s one year old Youth Program and the companies that sponsor the program, such as Agility, Viva, Audi, Gulf Spic, and Sahara.

In the Adult and Youth men divisions, Morocco, with home court advantage swept almost all the Gold medals but one. Starting with the Adults, Mohammad Belaroussia of Morocco claimed Gold with a 4 round aggregate score of 301 strokes followed by the Silver medal recipient and Moroccan teammate Elmehdy Elsayessy with 303 strokes. The Bronze medal went to Hamad Mubarak of Bahrain with 304 strokes. In team results, Morocco claimed the Gold and the Cup with 896 strokes, followed by Bahrain with 930 strokes, enough to claim the Silver medal. The Bronze went to the UAE with 948 strokes. Finally, in the Youth Category, Hassan Almusharrekh of UAE claimed the Gold medal with an outstanding performance of 214 strokes from three rounds on the Blue par 73 Course with rounds of 67, 72 and 75. Ayoub Elguirati of Morocco claimed the Silver medal with an aggregate score of 219. Finally, the Bronze went to Amin Elmalke also from Morocco with a score of 220. The next Pan Arab Championships will be held in the Lebanese capital Beirut.