By Matt Smith
The Dubai Golf Trophy has never been an easy crown to win, despite the Amateur team winning the past seven iterations. The battle often come down to the odd point here, missed putt there in the UAE’s famous annual Ryder Cup-style.

In 2022, once again it is living up to expectations.

Now in its 23rd year, the Dubai Golf Trophy pits the UAE’s top 16 professional players against the top 16 amateurs in the region. Each team consists of 12 automatic qualifiers from the season-long UAE PGA tournaments and qualifying Emirates Golf Federation events across the UAE. Both team captains have an additional four ‘wildcard’ picks, and two ladies are selected to compete in the Dubai Golf Trophy Ladies Challenge Match to complete both sides.

The event is one of the highlights of the UAE golf calendar and closely follows the Ryder Cup format, where Europe’s finest take on the formidable talent of the United States. Just like the famous transatlantic clash, the Dubai Golf Trophy once again sees two teams of 16 battle it out in the team matches and then 16 matchplay singles.

The action began on Sunday at Dubai Creek with the morning foursomes and the pros held a slender lead by lunch, with opening pair Sujjan Singh and Michael Bolt getting the better of Toby Bishop and Jay Mullane to lead the charge on the way to a 4.5-3.5 advantage.

But it was all square when Hugo Garcia and Sam Mullane got the first point of the afternoon fourballs for the amateurs — defeating Olivia Jackson and Luke Plumb 3&2 — once again heaping the pressure back on the pros.

It was getting worse by the minute for the pro team as Liang Wei Lui and Jamie Rosalyn Camero were cantering to a 5&4 victory over Lea Poulliard and Ginger Delacretaz in the Ladies Challenge Match to get the amateurs’ noses in front.

Yash Majmudar and Raghav Gulati claimed a 1-up win over Thomas Ogilvie and Tom Buchanan, and amateur captain Khalid Yousuf alongside Max Burrow defeated Oscar Yeomans and Louis Gaughan 1-up to hand the amateurs a healthy advantage.

However, the rest of the scoreboard was blue to give the pros hope, with Jack Woods and Ryan Smith thumped Dan Byrne and Barry Pavic 4&2, Jackson Bell and Nathan Kernaghan dismissed Craig Vance and David Guinee 4&3, while Steven Munro and Graham Forbes overcame Jonathan Selvaraj and Ahmed Waheed 2&1.

So after a pendulum-swinging Day 1, the pros hold a 8.5-7.5 advantage. So, we now head over to Emirates Golf Club for Day 2 on Monday for the individual head-to-head clashes on the Majlis course with the tournament very much in the balance.

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