JEDDAH: Golfers and officials expect the maiden European Tour event to be staged in the Kingdom next year to help promote and grow the game in Saudi Arabia.
It was announced last month that the professional golf event will take place Jan. 31 to Feb. 3 at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City and will form part of the Tour’s early-season Desert Swing in the beginning of 2019.
Broadcast to 150 countries, the four-day event will raise the profile of Saudi Arabia and establish it on the sporting map, as well as nourishing the game at grassroots level.
“The event will bring Saudi Arabian golf to the world’s attention,” said Khaled Abunayyan, the former president of Saudi Golf Federation. “With our new young leadership, golf will prosper especially with the intention of building more golf courses to make it accessible to the public. The event will encourage, I hope, more Saudis to take up the game, especially due to the TV and media coverage of the European Tour. I am looking forward to attending this event.”
While it hosted the Pan Arab Golf Championship for the first time in 2008, won the team and individual title at the Pan Arab Golf Championship in 2016 in Muscat and also hosted three MENA Tour events, Saudi Arabia’s is not a rich golfing history. The prospect of joining Gulf neighbors UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar in hosting a Tour event had remained a pipe dream.
“It’s something, to be honest, I never thought would happen in my lifetime,” said top Saudi golfer Othman Almulla. “We’re always envious of Dubai for having European Tour events, Bahrain has had one and now Oman. Thankfully officials have been pushing the sport very vigorously in the last few months and we’ve borne the fruit of the tree, I guess.”
Almulla became the first Saudi, and youngest Arab, amateur golfer to qualify and play in the Dubai Desert Classic in 2007. He got to rub shoulders with Tiger Woods.
Almulla and his countrymen will now fight it out to land wildcards to play in the event on home soil next year.
“I’ve been lucky enough to play in three Tour events and to have that experience. I hope to share that experience with the guys for when they qualify to play,” Almulla said. “I’m sure we’ll get some spots to play and make the cut. I believe any one of us can make the cut in any European Tour event. Those are our ambitions. We work hard every single day and we push each every single day to achieve those goals.”
Faisal Salhab, 21, is one of the six very competitive Saudi players. “It’s very positive as it will bring attention to the sport and that exposure will open the way for youngsters to have a new sport to participate in,” he said. “Having a European Tour event here is a big step for golf in Saudi Arabia, and I won’t be surprised if there will be a surge of new golfers in the Kingdom.”
The course at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club is a par 72 and stretches along the Red Sea coastline. “The facilities that have opened in KAEC are outstanding and the golf course is very well designed. It will be great to have the best players in the world test it out,” said Salhab. “I have very high expectations of this tournament. As a Saudi national team player, I am very proud and excited that this is going to take place in the Kingdom.”
Meanwhile, Bouchaib El-Jadiani, a Moroccan former PGA professional, said: “We all know the world’s golf courses, now the world will know Saudi Arabia’s golf courses. I’m really proud of having the European Tour in Saudi Arabia. It’s a dream come true. In terms of golf, the Kingdom is now on the map, a golfing destination. Having the European Tour event will go a long way to getting a lot of Saudi youngsters into the game of golf.”
Eamonn Hanlon, the general manager at Nofa Resorts, said: “I welcome any development that will promote the sport of golf in Saudi Arabia.
“I hope that the publicity surrounding this event, along with the ongoing promotion of healthier lifestyles, will encourage more Saudi men and women to take up golf as a healthy hobby. I also hope that, in the future, the relevant authorities will consider bringing such an event to the Riyadh region where some of the older and more established golf clubs are situated.”
European Tour arrival in Saudi Arabia will help golf grow in Kingdom
European Tour arrival in Saudi Arabia will help golf grow in Kingdom
History-chasing Djokovic and Alcaraz to meet in Australian Open final after epic semifinal wins
- Carlos Alcaraz striving to become the youngest man ever to complete a career Grand Slam
- Novak Djokovic is aiming to be the oldest man in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title
MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic finally beat one of the two men who have been blocking his path to an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam singles title when he edged Jannik Sinner in five sets Friday to reach the Australian Open final.
To get that coveted No. 25, he’ll next have to beat the other: top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz.
They’re both chasing history in Sunday’s championship decider, with the 22-year-old Alcaraz striving to become the youngest man ever to complete a career Grand Slam.
The top-ranked Alcaraz also had to come through a grueling five-setter. He fended off No. 3 Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-7 (4), 7-5 in a match that started in the warmth of the afternoon Friday and, 5 hours and 27 minutes later, became the longest semifinal ever at the Australian Open.
That pushed the start of Djokovic’s match against Sinner back a couple of hours, and the 38-year-old Djokovic finally finished off a 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win just after 1:30 a.m.
“It feels surreal,” Djokovic said of his 4-hour, 9-minute triumph. “Honestly, it feels like winning already tonight. I know I have to come back … and fight the No. 1 of the world. I just hope that I’ll have enough gas to stay toe-to-toe with him.
“That’s my desire. Let the God decide the winner.”
Djokovic was at the peak of his defensive powers, fending off 16 of the 18 breakpoints he faced against the two-time defending Australian Open champion. It ended a run of five losses to Sinner, and a run of four semifinal exits for Djokovic at the majors.
“Had many chances, couldn’t use them, and that’s the outcome,” Sinner said. “Yeah, it hurts, for sure.”
Alcaraz and Sinner have split the last eight major titles between them since Djokovic won his last title at the 2023 US Open.
Nobody knows how to win more at Melbourne Park than Djokovic. He has won all 10 times he’s contested the Australian Open final.
He said he saw Alcaraz after the first of the semifinals was over and he congratulated him on reaching his first final at Melbourne Park.
“He said sorry to delay,” Djokovic later explained. “I told him ‘I’m an old man, I need to go earlier to sleep!”
Djokovic, aiming to be the oldest man in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title, was kept up late.
“I’m looking forward to meeting him on Sunday,” he said.
Final 4
With the top four seeds reaching the Australian Open men’s semifinals for just the fifth time, Day 13 was destined to produce some drama. The season-opening major had been a relatively slow burn, until the back-to-back five-setters lasting a combined 9 hours and 36 minutes.
Alcaraz and Zverev, the 2025 runner-up, surpassed the 2009 classic between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco as the longest ever Australian Open semifinal.
Medical timeout
Alcaraz was as close as two points from victory in the third set but was hampered by pain in his upper right leg and his medical timeout became contentious.
He said initially it didn’t feel like cramping because the pain seemed to be just in one muscle, the right adductor, and he needed an assessment.
He navigated the third and fourth sets and was behind in the fifth after dropping serve in the first game. He kept up the pressure but didn’t break back until Zverev was serving for the match. He then won the last four games.
“I think physically we just pushed each other to the limit today. We pushed our bodies to the limit,” Alcaraz said. “Just really, really happy to get the win, that I came back. I just rank this one in the top position of one of the best matches that I have ever won.”
Believe
Asked how he was able to recover despite being so close to defeat, Alcaraz admitted he was struggling but said kept “believing, believing, all the time.”
“I’ve been in these situations, I’ve been in these kinds of matches before, so I knew what I had to do,” he said. “I had to put my heart into the match. I think I did it. I fought until the last ball.”
Zverev was demonstrably upset about the time out out in the third set, taking it up with a tournament supervisor, when his rival was given the three-minute break for treatment and a massage on the leg.
After the match, he maintained that he didn’t think it was right, but he didn’t think it should overshadow the match.
“I don’t want to talk about this right now, because I think this is one of the best battles there ever was in Australia,” he said “It doesn’t deserve to be the topic now.”
