Kuwait Nat’l Champ’ship holds ’14-’15 season closing ceremony – Al-Ansari wins under-18 group as Al-Dosari claims ladies division first prize

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KUWAIT CITY, Jan 30: The Kuwait National Golf Championship under the auspices of the Kuwait Golf Committee held their closing ceremony for the 2014/2015 Season Friday at the Sahara Golf Club in Subhan.

It may have come a bit late but the closing ceremony of the 2014-2015 season was a big success with the awarding of all players that have excelled and worked hard to achieve the accomplishments.

The under- 18 age group was the first to receive their awards. Ali Al Ansari received the first prize, Ali Marafie, second prize and Ahmad Al Bader in third place.

In the fourteen year age group, the first prize went to Fawaz Al Duraiban, Faisal Al Welaity in second place and Ibrahim Al Athari, third.

In the ladies division, Noor Al Dosari received the prize with the second prize going to Fadia Emadi. The Birdie Count Leader prize went to Mazen Al Ansari with 14 birdies while Ali Al Ansari with 11 birdies got the youth prize.  The first prize for the Net went to Abdulrahman Bahman with the captain’s pick prize going to the most improved player of the year, Abdulwahab Al Rashoud.

“The awarding ceremony is an important event because it motivates the players. We are in the process of working to change the infrastructure for Golf in Kuwait, and the way to do that is to try to bring in new players from the schools. These are the things we would be doing in the coming months”, said Mazen Al Ansari, an organizing member of the Kuwait Golf Committee.

Kuwait Golf participated in the Asian Games in South Korea, an experience that opened up the players to international events, not just the Arab sub region. Last year was a good season, with a chain of events the team participated in such as the GCC, Pan-Arab, Asian Games as well as the Arab Games, with the last one being the held in Doha-Qatar. “Unfortunately, this season has been somewhat negative, because of the problem that our sports bodies are facing right now, and it is the youth that are paying the price, they are being punished meanwhile they have nothing to do with it.

I think our government should find a way to have them participate, to have them compete and not be punished this way, they are victims of a problem they have nothing to do with. We had to apologize for not showing up to participate in the GCC under-16 Youth Tournament in Bahrain kicking off today, because our authorization letter was refused by the Public Authority for Sports. We tried and tried but evidently the problem is too serious and complicated that no solution would be found, so we submitted a letter of apology to the organizers of the Bahrain Tournament”, said Al Ansari.

There is another GCC tournament coming up, under -18 in March this year, hopefully we would be able to attend, added Al Ansari.

Here is a summary of the awards:

Birdie Count Leader — Mazen Al Ansari (14); Birdie Count Leader (Youth) — Ali Al Ansari (11)

Stableford — Boys Category II

Fawaz Al Duraiban — 1st; Faisal Al Welaity — 2nd; Ibrahim Al Athari — 3rd

Gross

Abdulrahman Bahman -1st; Manzen Al-Ansari — 2nd;Ahmad Al Bader — 3rd

Ladies Gross

Noor Al Dosari — 1st; Fadia Emadi — 2nd

 Boys Net

Abdulwahab Al Rashoud -1st; Abdulwahab Al Boushehri — 2nd

Captain’s Pick — MVP

Abdulwahab Al Rashoud

Boys Gross

Ali Al-Ansari — 1st; Ali Marafie — 2nd; Bader Haider — 3rd

Net

Abdulrahman Bahman — 1st

In the early years of the oil industry in Kuwait the Kuwait Oil Company Headquarters and the housing facilities were located at Magwa. The very first Golf course in Kuwait was located there and comprised of nine holes.

In the late 1940’s it was decided to relocate the Company town 12 km south to an elevated area we all know now as Ahmadi.

In 1949 Colt, Alison and Morison, a company of Golf course architects from Great Britain was engaged to design a Golf course for Ahmadi. Morison travelled to Kuwait and designed an eighteen- hole course but only nine were built at the time. Those original holes are now holes1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 17 and 18 while the adjacent to the fourth green was the club house.

By Iddris Seidu

Arab Times Staff

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