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.
Saudi Arabia golf team ready for a busy year on the fairways
Saudi Arabia golf team ready for a busy year on the fairways
PGA Championship invites 7 LIV players to get top 100 in the world
- The group of LIV players includes Patrick Reed, whose tie for 12th in the Masters moved him inside the top 100
- The field has 21 club professionals — 20 from the PGA Professional Championship last week, and Michael Block, who qualified by finishing among the top 15 last year at Oak Hill
NEW YORK: The PGA Championship officially has Tiger Woods in a field released Tuesday that includes invitations to seven players from Saudi-funded LIV Golf, giving the major the entire top 100 in the world ranking at Valhalla next week.
The PGA of America strives to have the top 100 in the world to maintain its reputation for having the strongest field of the four majors, although it is not part of the criteria.
Instead, the PGA uses a catch-all category of “special invitations.” The group of LIV players includes Patrick Reed, whose tie for 12th in the Masters moved him inside the top 100. He is at No. 92, and the invitation keeps alive his streak of playing every major since the 2014 Masters.
The PGA Championship returns to Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky, for the fourth time on May 16-19. Rory McIlroy won at Valhalla the last time it was there in 2014. The course is best known for Woods winning a playoff over Bob May in 2000 for his third straight major.
Joaquin Niemann, who won the Australian Open in December and has two LIV Golf wins this year, already received an invitation. The surprise was Talor Gooch announcing in an X post on Monday that he had received an invitation.
It was a sign the PGA of America’s selection committee was looking at LIV results on their own, as Gooch doesn’t play much outside the Saudi league. He won three times on LIV in 2023 and won the season points list.
Other invitations went to Dean Burmester, Lucas Herbert, Adrian Meronk, all of them inside the top 100 in the world. The seventh invitation went to David Puig, the 22-year-old from Spain who is No. 106 in the world ranking. Puig has finished in the top 10 in six of his last seven tournaments on the Asian Tour, including two wins.
LIV will be represented by 16 players, down from 18 a year ago.
There might have been one more, except British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen turned down his invitation. Oosthuizen, who is No. 125 in the world, won twice late last year in South Africa in tournaments co-sanctioned by the European tour.
His manager, Carlos Rodriguez, said in a text message that Oosthuizen already had some personal commitments.
The LIV group includes defending champion Brooks Koepka, who goes for a fourth PGA Championship title. He is the only active LIV player to win a major.
Kerry Haigh, the championship director for the PGA of America, has said he would consider deserving players from tours around the world. Invitations were given to Tim Widing of Sweden, who has won consecutive tournaments on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Another invitation went to Kazuma Kobori, a 22-year-old born in Japan who now plays under the New Zealand flag. He has won three times this year in the Webex Players Series on the PGA Tour of Australasia.
The field has 21 club professionals — 20 from the PGA Professional Championship last week, and Michael Block, who qualified by finishing among the top 15 last year at Oak Hill.
The PGA is keeping two spots open in case the winners of the Wells Fargo Championship and the Myrtle Beach Classic are not already eligible. Only four players in the 69-man field at the Wells Fargo Championship have not qualified. The first alternate is Doug Ghim.
Hummels stuns Mbappe and PSG to take Dortmund to Champions League final
- Hummels struck five minutes into the second half at the Parc des Princes and PSG were unable to muster a response
- PSG have still never won the trophy despite all the money invested by their Qatari owners since the 2011 takeover, and there will be no dream send-off for Mbappe
PARIS: Mats Hummels headed in the only goal as Borussia Dortmund stunned Kylian Mbappe and Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League semifinal second leg on Tuesday, winning 1-0 on the night and advancing 2-0 on aggregate to next month’s final at Wembley.
Hummels struck five minutes into the second half at the Parc des Princes and PSG were unable to muster a response, the home side all out of luck as they hit the woodwork four times in total.
Dortmund, who sit fifth in the German Bundesliga, were never expected to go so far and will be underdogs in the June 1 showpiece regardless of whether they face their old rivals Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, who meet on Wednesday.
It will be their first final since 2013 when, remarkably, the match was also played at Wembley and Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund lost to Bayern.
Hummels played in that final and here, 11 years later, he was the hero as Dortmund built on the advantage given to them by Niclas Fuellkrug’s goal in the first leg.
“It’ll take us a bit of time to realize that, but we’re looking forward to it extremely,” Dortmund coach Edin Terzic told broadcaster Amazon Prime of getting to the final.
“We did it somehow, making it to London.”
The story of this semifinal, however, is as much about PSG’s failure in another crunch knockout tie in the competition.
They have still never won the trophy despite all the money invested by their Qatari owners since the 2011 takeover, and there will be no dream send-off for Mbappe.
He will leave when his contract expires after this season and had been hoping to play his last game for the club in the June 1 final.
Instead PSG will be left to reflect on how they failed to get their hands on the biggest trophy of all during Mbappe’s seven years at his hometown team.
“We were not clinical enough. They scored two goals, one from a corner and one from a long ball. We created lots more chances, many more than them, but we didn’t take them,” PSG captain Marquinhos told Canal Plus.
“We got so close and we wanted to get to the final. But we had to win tonight and be more clinical, and we were not.”
PSG’s last two semifinal appearances both came during the pandemic, meaning this was the first time they had hosted a match at this stage of a European competition with fans in 29 years, since losing to AC Milan in 1995.
Luis Enrique’s team had won 2-0 at home against Dortmund in the group stage and were safe in the knowledge that a repeat of that performance would be enough.
The PSG coach made one major selection decision, dropping Bradley Barcola and bringing in Portuguese striker Goncalo Ramos. That meant moving Mbappe from the middle onto the left wing.
Dortmund would have been bracing themselves for an onslaught from kick-off, but that did not transpire.
Mbappe took only seven minutes to produce his first attempt, yet his volley was easily saved by Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.
The hosts had most of the possession but struggled to get Mbappe into the game, the France captain often looking isolated on the wing.
In fact it was Dortmund who had the best chance of the first half, when Karim Adeyemi led a counterattack before seeing his shot saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
It felt as though the hosts needed to change something or risk going out with a whimper.
They should have been ahead two minutes after the restart, when Ramos touched on a ball driven into the box by Mbappe, but Warren Zaire-Emery contrived to hit the post from close range.
That was to prove crucial as Dortmund struck moments later.
PSG cheaply conceded a corner, and Julian Brandt’s delivery from the Dortmund right was headed in by Hummels.
Ramos swept a shot over on the hour mark before Nuno Mendes became the second PSG player to strike the right-hand post, this time with a powerful shot from distance.
It was starting to look as if it would not be PSG’s night, and Luis Enrique realized he had to act as he sent on Barcola and Marco Asensio for Ramos and Fabian Ruiz, moving Mbappe through the middle.
Dortmund sent on an extra defender in the hulking Niklas Suele and they withstood everything PSG threw at them while also being helped by the frame of the goal.
Kobel turned Mbappe’s shot onto the bar on 86 minutes and Vitinha also rattled the woodwork but Dortmund hung on to book their date in London.
Riyadh Season extends partnership with UFC
- Riyadh Season will also be a sponsor for UFC 306
RIYADH: Riyadh Season has signed a strategic agreement to extend a partnership with the UFC, Saudi Arabia’s entertainment authority chief announced on Tuesday.
The agreement ensures another UFC event in the Kingdom during the 2024-2025 Riyadh Season.
Riyadh will also host, for the first time, the Power Slap event, the world’s top slap fighting competition.
It was also announced that Riyadh Season will be a sponsor for UFC 306 on Sept. 14, 2024, to be held in Las Vegas.
“This agreement is a continuation of Riyadh Season’s aims to host and partner with prominent and international events of mass interest,” said Turki Alalshikh. “UFC is the most prominent Mixed Martial Arts organization in the world and their platform of global fans is unrivalled.”
Kingdom Arena in Riyadh will host the first Saudi UFC event on June 22 as middleweight contenders Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev battle in a highly anticipated matchup.
Riyadh Season will host the heavyweight boxing clash between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk on May 18. Fury withdrew from the bout that was scheduled for February due to a cut during sparring. But the showdown is back on and has the boxing world enthralled.
Riyadh Season is an annual festival held in the Saudi capital, during the cooler months of the year, bringing together globally enticing entertainment, cultural and sporting events.
Delhi down Rajasthan to stay in IPL play-off race
- Delhi posted 221-8 courtesy of Jake Fraser-McGurk’s 20-ball 50 and an attacking 65 by Abishek Porel at their home Feroz Shah Kotla ground
- Rajasthan looked good in their chase after Samson’s fifth half-century of this season but his dismissal turned the match in Delhi’s favor
NEW DELHI: Skipper Sanju Samson’s 86 went in vain as Delhi Capitals beat Rajasthan Royals by 20 runs on Tuesday to stay in the hunt for an IPL play-off berth.
Delhi posted 221-8 courtesy of Jake Fraser-McGurk’s 20-ball 50 and an attacking 65 by Abishek Porel at their home Feroz Shah Kotla ground.
Rajasthan looked good in their chase after Samson’s fifth half-century of this season but his dismissal, a catch in the deep which was ruled clean by the third umpire, turned the match in Delhi’s favor.
Rajasthan, who are yet to confirm their play-off spot, lost three more wickets in the next two overs and Delhi restricted the opposition to 201-8 for their sixth win in 12 matches.
“We had it in our hands, it was 10-11 runs per over which was achievable but these things happen in the IPL,” Samson said after the loss.
Inaugural champions Rajasthan, placed second behind toppers Kolkata Knight Riders, have eight wins in 11 matches and still favorites to make the top two in the play-offs.
Top four teams will make the play-offs but number one and two will have the advantage of getting an extra match to enter the final on May 26 in Chennai.
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav returned impressive figures of 2-25. Fast bowlers Khaleel Ahmed and Mukesh Kumar also took two wickets.
But the batters set up victory after Fraser-McGurk, who raised his 50 in 19 balls, and Porel attacked in an opening stand of 60.
Rajasthan lost wickets after the openers departed but Tristan Stubbs hammered 41 off 20 balls in a late charge to take the total to 221-8.
Stubbs was helped by Gulbadin Naib, who hit 19, and Rasikh Salam, who hit two sixes in his nine runs, as Delhi got 53 runs from the last three overs.
The in-form Samson, a wicketkeeper-batsman who has amassed 459 runs, attempted to set up the chase only to depart in the 16th over when Shai Hope caught the batsman off Kumar.
Hope’s foot was parallel to the boundary rope but the third umpire ruled it out and a disappointed Samson walked back after a chat with the on-field officials.
Veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin led the Rajasthan bowling with figures of 3-24.
Yuzvendra Chahal took his 350th T20 wicket — first Indian to achieve the feat — when he got skipper Rishabh Pant, a left-hand batsman, caught out at fine leg for 15.
Strong Day 4 showing from World’s Top 10 as Saudi Smash livestream viewership surpasses 2 million globally
- Trio of Top 10 players progress to women's singles last 32; four of men’s Top 10 also progress
- Over 260,000 hours of Saudi Smash action watched on WTT Livestream & Livestream Replay; impressions reach 10 million
JEDDAH: The world’s best players were back in full flow at Saudi Smash 2024 with several top seeds securing statement wins on Tuesday. After some sensational upsets 24 hours prior, the table tennis elite showed their quality and skill on Day 4 of Saudi Arabia’s latest international sporting event – moving within touching distance of the latter stages with some exceptional play and performances.
With the highest-ranked Saudi and Chinese players in action across 29 matches in Jeddah, a wonderful blend of local and international fans watched on as the Men’s Singles round of 32 took centre stage at King Abdullah Sports City. World number 2 Fan Zhendong, French fifth seed Felix Lebrun, Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto (#9), and Germany’s Dang Qiu (#10) all progressed to the last 16 with impressive victories.
A trio of top 10 players also moved within one match of the Women’s Singles quarter-finals. China’s world number 1 and Saudi Smash favorite Sun Yingsha secured passage to the next round alongside her countrywoman Chen Xingtong (#6). Mima Ito (#10) also progressed, setting up a highly anticipated all-Japanese showdown with Miyuu Kihara on Wednesday.
Day 4 came to a close on Table 1 inside the Infinity Arena as hometown heroes Ali Alkhadrawi and Abdulaziz Bu Shulyabi faced off against the Men’s Doubles top seed pairing of Wang Chuqin and Ma Long – the world’s number 1 and 3 ranked players. The Chinese duo progressed to the quarter-finals following a high-quality clash.
Despite falling short against the Men’s Doubles favourites, Ali Alkdahrawi – the Kingdom’s highest-ranked player – was full of optimism ahead of Saudi Smash 2025 and beyond. He said: “Playing against the world’s best pairing is invaluable experience for both of us and the occasion was all the more special because of our home supporters. We’re blessed and fortunate to have received the best support possible in this event. We really enjoyed today’s match and went into it with high confidence. It stands us in good stead as we look to continue our development and we can’t wait to return for next year’s second edition.”
Organised by the Saudi Table Tennis Federation (STTF) and World Table Tennis (WTT) in collaboration with the Ministry of Sport, Saudi Smash is the newest WTT Grand Smash event and one of three major tournaments in the WTT Series Calendar.
Since Saudi Arabia’s first officially sanctioned table tennis event started, its influence and impact have been felt around the globe with accumulated livestream views on WTT channels surpassing two million. Over 260,000 hours of Saudi Smash action have also been watched across livestream and livestream replays – where impressions have also exceeded 10 million.
Running until May 11, Saudi Smash combines the precision and skill of the world’s best table tennis players with the dynamic and entertaining experience of a WTT Grand Smash with 240 of the world’s best men, women, and doubles athletes from 55 countries competing.
The Saudi Smash joins an incredible year-round schedule of international sports in Saudi Arabia and is a part of the Kingdom’s investment in sport, which aims to inspire its people to enjoy active and healthy lives as part of the country’s Vision 2030 cultural transformation.
Tickets to Saudi Smash are on sale here.
For the complete player list, visit here.
