By Kent Gray
Researching Khalid Yousuf’s Eisenhower Trophy record takes plenty of perseverance and a dash of detective work.

It transpires the UAE national team captain is known regionally as Khalid Yousuf (including in every Emirates Golf Federation media release we’ve ever received) and was listed as such for his first four appearances at the World Amateur Teams Championship.

But it turns out the +1.3 handicapper’s actual surname is Al Jasmi, the moniker by which he goes on social media and has been listed as in his past two appearances at the biennial Eisenhower championship.

Confused? So were we (apologies Khalid!). But we got there in the end and can confirm that when the 29-year-old tees it up at Carton House in Ireland tomorrow in the 31st Eisenhower Trophy, it will mark his seventh appearance at the world’s premier teams’ championship.

Smooth as silk … I wish #golf #dubai #uae

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I should have come here years ago #heavenonearth

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And that, once you finally nut it out, is mightily impressive as the UAE have only contested the Eisenhower Trophy nine times in total.

Yousuf/Al Jasmi has played 21 rounds in his six appearances (three times the event was reduced to 54 holes due to inclement weather, thus the usual number of rounds) since his debut as a 14-year-old in Puerto Rico in 2004. His best score was a 71 in his last round – in Japan in 2014 – while he boasts an average of 79.71.

He’ll hope to bring his personal average down further in Ireland where the UAE are out to better their previous Eisenhower best of 50th place at the 2008 tournament in Adelaide.

“This event not only allows me but the rest of the UAE National golf program the opportunity to compete at the highest level against some the games future stars,” Yousuf/Al Jasmi said.

“This gives our team the chance to meet other golfers from around the world while making connections with other federations that we can use to help develop our program in the UAE.”

Yousuf/Al Jasmi didn’t play two years ago but lefty Ahmed Skaik and Saif Thabet are back from Mexico where the UAE finished 65th.

Thabet, now 30 and playing off scratch, was the UAE’s best in Mexico, firing rounds of 86-78-80-78 to finish 36 over par in 174th place individually, two strokes better than now 21-year-old +2.2 handicapper Skaik.

Yousuf/Al Jasmi leads the UAE off on Wednesday on Carton House’s O’Meara layout (the 72-hole strokeplay event will also be played on the Montgomerie course) at 1.21pm local time (4.21pm UAE time). Skaik follows 11 minutes later at 4.32pm UAE time ahead of Thabet at 4.43pm UAE time.

For the record (why waste all that research) the UAE first played the Eisenhower Trophy in 2000 with Edward Hesson Jnr, Vikramjeet Singh Judge, Sung Joo Cho and Walid Al-Attar finishing 51st.

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