Mohamed Juma Buamaim’s contribution to the development of the game in the region has been recognised at the 11th Asia Pacific Golf Summit. The MENA Tour founder and honourary Golf In Dubai president was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the event in Danang, Vietnam.

“I am deeply honoured and humbled to accept this award and to join past recipients who I have long admired and respected. It’s a privilege to be included in a list of such distinguished honorees,” said Buamaim, chairman of the MENA Tour and Golf Citizen, an online tee time booking engine.

“Getting recognised and noticed for our work is something we all relish. I feel honoured to have been with involved with golf over the last two decades and look forward to working on initiatives that bring a fresh perspective to the game of golf,” Buamaim, the former vice chairman and CEO of Golf in Dubai.

The award citation lauded Buamaim for his contribution in streamlining the affairs of the game in the region. “He single-handedly spearheaded an ambitious campaign to promote and develop the game of golf in the MENA region with the aim of producing a future generation of champions,” it said.

“In 2005, he, along with Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar, created ‘Golf in Dubai’ to promote the emirate as a leading global golf destination and manage and promote highly-successful Omega Dubai Desert and the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters events.

“An irrepressible man not known for resting on his laurels, he took up the biggest challenge of his career when he launched the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Golf Tour in 2011, the year he also started tee-time portal Golf Citizen with the aim of realising huge golf tourism potential by collectively promoting richly-diverse golf courses on its network,” the citation continued.

Buamaim’s contribution in promoting golf in the region was recognized at the highest level in the UAE when he was presented with the Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Award in 2014 for his role in the “enrichment of the sports movement in the UAE.”

He was also honoured for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to Golf’ at the inaugural Middle East Golf Awards (MEGAs) in 2013.