Ryan, your win in Ras Al Khaimah in 2022 was at the time, your biggest win outside of Australasia. How significant was that win at Al Hamra for you back then?

It was a really big win for me.

I’d had a tough run through Covid in 2020/21 and had a chunk of time off at the end of 2021. After a slow start in Abu Dhabi and Dubai I was a looking forward to heading back to Ras Al Khaimah.

I remembered playing well there on Challenge Tour and I liked the course. We were then there for two weeks during Covid, the first week I tweaked my back and missed the cut, but it was sorted for the second week and played great all week.

It was certainly an uncomfortable Sunday as I started with a huge lead and that all but disappeared early on Sunday, but I was really pleased with how I fought back through the middle of the round and I closed with a more flattering winning margin than it felt like out there.

To win so early in the season was great for the confidence and took the pressure off for a while and It really set me up for what happened the rest of 2022 and 23.

Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

Keeping it in the Middle East, you partnered with the Arena Group last year, how special is it to have been associated with them especially with the relationship they have with golf tournaments here?

It’s been great to be partnered with a company like Arena. They are an amazing bunch of people to be involved with and obviously their business is huge in the world of golf, and in the Middle East.

It all actually started in the Middle East from a Q&A visit to one of their chalets during the Dubai Desert Classic and it’s been a great partnership ever since.

2024 Hero Dubai Desert Classic

From my point of view having an understanding of what Arena Group does especially in the golf space has really opened my eyes to what work goes on behind the scenes at tournaments.

As players we tend to take for granted all the temporary structures (Grandstands, Hospitality Etc.) as they are just part of an event, but I’ve really enjoyed learning a bit about how it all comes together and how much work goes on in a very short space of time to get it all ready for us to play at a venue.

This September you are returning to Wentworth as the defending champ, how special will that be? You became not only the first Kiwi to win the flagship event on the DP World Tour, but it was your first Rolex Series title, and with an added bonus of having your family in tow.

Honestly, it’s still a bit surreal to me what happened last year.

It’s such an iconic event on the DP World Tour and to be able to head back there as DC this year will be an amazing experience. To win my first Rolex Series title was a big one. I’d gone close a couple of times and it was nice to get over the line, especially it being the flagship event for the DP World Tour. It was probably the most unexpected one for me as I had generally never played very well at Wentworth.

To have the family there was pretty special too. Not sure the kids were quite old enough to understand what happened, but we had some pretty cool photos with them and the trophy.

Richard Heathcote

You really brought it home on the back nine with a six-under par 31. What are your overriding memories from that back nine, especially with the calibre of players at the top of the leaderboard?

That back nine is probably the best nine holes I ever played. I honestly thought I’d ruined my tournament after making seven on the third hole and I was just playing for a place after that.

I steadied the ship with a couple of birdies on the front nine and then just got hot on the back. I basically hit every shot exactly where I wanted to hit it, except for the tee shot on the 15th, which still wasn’t bad after a big delay.

I was so calm that whole back nine too and didn’t think about anything else except the golf shots and I really wish I could find that place a bit more.

I didn’t even think about who was on the leaderboard until I saw the leaderboard while waiting for the prize presentation.

I actually surprised myself when I saw the leaderboard and realised I’d beaten a lot of the Ryder Cup team down the stretch.

Would you say that win completely changed your season and the rest of 2023 on the DP World Tour?

Completely. I’d say it changed my career pretty much.

Obviously, it’s such an iconic event with some amazing names on the trophy. But it also locked up my status for a while and locked up a top 10 Race to Dubai Rankings finish and with it a PGA Tour card.

On that, how have you found that transition to the PGA Tour, and the balancing act of managing two tours?

Yeah, it’s been tough. I did a bit of it the year before and I was away a lot leaving the family at home and I missed a lot of things with the kids.

This year we decided to travel round the U.S. with the whole family. We did 20 weeks with the kids and by the end of it my wife and I were almost broken!

We didn’t have a base, and I played a lot which didn’t help but we had some good times too. My wife was a trooper managing to keep everything organised while on tour and the kids handled it pretty well, but we will definitely do it again a little differently next year with a base and hopefully less travel for the family.

David Cannon – Getty Images

You’ve have Jamie Gough as a coach for a few years now. How beneficial has he been over that time? Looking in, there is something that bonds you guys together really well.

Having Goughie on board has been really good the last two and a half years.

We get along really well (and did so before we even worked together) and having someone to keep the swing in check week in week out has been huge for
my consistency.

We have worked consistently on a few things I’ve fought my whole career and that has paid off, and it felt like we never really tried to reinvent the wheel with my swing. It’s unique and I do a few funky things but I also do a lot of good things and I think we have gelled so well right from the start. Meeting Goughie has allowed me to keep my idiosyncrasies, while working subtly on getting things better and more consistent.

You notched your third Olympic Games this summer, would you class yourself as a veteran when it comes to competing in the Olympics? How contrasting have those three different games been?

Not sure I ever thought I would be an Olympian growing up let alone a three-time one. So I guess I am a veteran. I haven’t played overly well at the three I’ve been to, but getting to represent your country is something that I grew up wanting to do, and in golf you don’t get to do it that often. So to do it three times at the Olympics is very special.

They have been three very different games that’s for sure. Rio was a great experience and it was a great honour to make that team from being on the Challenge Tour. Tokyo was a tough week overall, just so many Covid restrictions and we didn’t really get to experience what the Olympics has to offer. Then Paris just now was unbelievable really. The crowds were amazing and the atmosphere on the course I think caught everyone by surprise.

It really felt like golf found its place in the Olympics in Paris and hopefully it only gets bigger.

Is this year’s President’s Cup on your mind, especially after missing out in 2022? Yeah it was a huge goal at the start of this year to get in. I felt like I gave myself a good chance in 2022 but obviously didn’t get a pick.

I don’t feel like I’ve played well enough this year to get a pick unfortunately. I started the qualifying period really well but this year hasn’t been what I would have liked. We will see what happens, but maybe 2026 will be my year.

Finally, a big push for you this season must be to qualify for the final two events on the DP World Tour in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. What does it mean to play in those elevated events at the end of the season?

Yeah, they are two events I’ve always enjoyed playing although my results don’t really show that. I’ve had two goals at the end of the season. First and foremost is to keep my PGA Tour card the second is to qualify for the DP World Tour playoffs at the end of the year.

It’s going to require some tough scheduling decisions and some good play, but I’ve got a bit of a break now so hopefully come back refreshed and in form for the latter part of the season on both tours.

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The post “It’s still a bit surreal” Ryan Fox exclusive appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

With the money and publicity, you don’t expect anyone to pull out of a LIV event unless it is something very serious

By Shergo Al Kurdi, with Matt Smith
Raised in England but representing my father’s country of Jordan, I played my first elite event as a 14-year-old but first really came on the radar earlier this year when I became the first, and youngest at 18, player from the Middle East to make the cut on the DP World Tour at the UAE Swing’s Ras Al Khaimah Classic and finished T33 on 10-under.

I picked up $12,000 that day for my first payday and it has been so busy since. I am now a Golf Saudi Ambassador and since I turned pro, they have more than looked after me. They have helped me and invested in me and now here I am at LIV Golf.

At Bedminster, I was on the bench as an alternate, and all the talk was about Henrik Stenson, as he got stripped of the Ryder Cup captaincy before playing in his first LIV Golf event. The hype got bigger as he went on to win that event. Fast-forward two weeks in Boston — the fourth event — and again I was an alternate. Obviously with the money and the publicity, you don’t expect anyone to pull out unless it is something very serious. 

Every week I just thought of it as a week of practice, focus on the range and in the gym, and do what I need to do to get better. Everything was going fine and I was just training away and doing practice work, and then 40 minutes before the shotgun start, I was told: “Stenson is not feeling well,” and I was in the
field for LIV. 

Obviously it was a bit of a shock and also a panic as I did not have my dad with me and he was my caddie, and I didn’t even have any golf balls in my bag as I did not expect to play. I had no putting practice on the green…

Luckily it all came together as Stenson’s caddie — Gareth Lord — graciously offered to caddie for me, and we all made it time to tee off.  

It was a whirlwind. Off we went and I found out I was playing with Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith — arguably the two biggest names in LIV Golf right now — because Stenson won the last one and was in the marquee group.

We started on the first hole and I would be lying if I wasn’t nervous, but it was such a great experience and I had never experienced anything like that before.

Luckily I had a good week and I didn’t let the team down, we finished third and I was 35th in the individual standings.

It was my birthday on the Monday, the day after the final round so it was a nice way to celebrate with a cheque for $144,000.

When we are not playing and stay on the bench, we do not receive any prize money, obviously, but the experience of being in this tournament environment and around the best players in the world is worth more right now as it helps me learn so much. I am loyal to the tour and I will be here every week, because you never know. 

It is never going to hurt to be in this environment and I am travelling the world and playing all these different courses. Portland was my first time in the US for example, and even if I don’t play, it is such a valuable learning curve. 

Next up now that the LIV season is at an end, I have some starts lined up on the new Asian Tour International Series in Morocco and Egypt, and also the new Saudi Open, which is a qualifier to the Asian Development Tour, and I will take it from there. I will certainly be aiming for the top five in Morocco and Egypt as I am pretty sure that will get an invitation to these LIV events next year.

Mr Majed Al-Surour and His Excellency Mr Yasir Al-Rumayyan of Golf Saudi have been brilliant in their support for me ever since day one. When I first turned pro, they were the first to help me financially, and what they have done to help get me in as an alternate has only been good, so I hope I can make them proud in the future. 

Golf Saudi are showing the future of the sport and they have a few good national players. I have known Faisal [Salhab], Saud [AlSharif] and Othman [Almulla] ever since the Pan-Arab days as youngsters, I played the U-18 Pan-Arab with Saud, and it is good to be around players from my region and from Saudi, different Arab golfers, because I really think we have so much potential and I think that can really show in the future. It is great to see them at these LIV events and see them play with some of the guys in the pro-am, and we will see what happens from here.

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By Matt Smith
It was not too long ago that a rarely seen flying Kiwi was grabbing the headlines in Ras Al Khaimah during the UAE Swing, and now Ryan Fox is doing it again on the grandest of stages at the Belfry.

The New Zealander claimed his first title in four years in February at the inaugural Ras Al Khaimah Classic on the final leg of a record-breaking four weeks of DP World Tour golf in the UAE.

Now he is seeking to outdo some of the best golfers in the world in an admittedly much stronger field at the British Masters.

Fox sits at the top of the heap alongside Thorbjorn Olesen thanks to a six-under 66 at The Belfry after the first round of the Danny Willett-hosted mega event just outside Birmingham.

Ryder Cup star Olesen set the clubhouse target after a bogey-free round on the Brabazon Course, but Fox kept him in his sights despite a late start and some soggy conditions to contend with.

The pair sit one stroke ahead of Germany’s Hurly Long, Scotsman Richie Ramsay and Ashun Wu of China, who each carded five-under 67s.

Tournament host Willett carded a one-over 73, but raised £4,000 for charity thanks to four birdies on the card, amid a field peppered with stars such as the LIV Tour-bound Lee Westwood and Richard Bland, and former US Masters champ Willett himself.

Following his late show, Fox said: “I hit it really solid, maybe one tee shot on the second which looked a little dicey but hit a lot of wedge shots close and took advantage on a couple of the hard holes on 12 and 18.

“I did everything pretty well. It was just a nice day. It’s a fun golf course to play. I grew up on this kind of grass as well. So it fits quite nicely in my head. Kind of know what it’s going to do and how it’s going to react and just went out and tried to hit a couple of shots and did that well.”

Olesen added: “I’ve had some good rounds this year and just haven’t finished it off. We’ve had a lot of rain, so it’s soft you and don’t get much roll on the fairways. So the key here is hitting the fairways.”

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The post Flying Kiwi Ryan Fox recalling spirit of Ras Al Khaimah at British Masters appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Al Hamra Golf Club’s promotion from a former Challenge Tour site to fully-fledged main circuit venue was confirmed in October with the announcement of the Feb. 3-6 Ras Al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital. 

Then, as late as Jan. 18, the DP World Tour announced another $2 million event, the Ras Al Khaimah Classic, would be played at Al Hamra from Feb. 10-13. It is an 11th hour replacement for the 25th Commercial Bank Qatar Masters which has reportedly been postponed until “later this spring” as a result of “ongoing restrictions associated with the global Covid-19 pandemic.”

Set to follow the week after the 33rd Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, the RAK Championship critically goes head-to-head with the now Asian Tour-sanctioned and $5 million Saudi International. While no marquee players had been announced at the time of press, the DP World Tour can’t hope to match Golf Saudi’s star pulling power but the RAK events are nonetheless important as the circuit continually pivots to ensure its membership playing opportunities.

Al Hamra previously hosted the European Challenge Tour over three consecutive years from 2016–2018. It was initially the venue for the RAK Golf Challenge in 2016 and 2017, before hosting the RAK Challenge Tour Grand Final as the final stop on the Road to Ras Al Khaimah in 2018.

The post Seeing Double: The Desert Swing has a new venue. Twice over. appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The Kiwi star had domianted the DP World Tour’s Ras Al Khaimah Classic from the outset with an opening 63 and middle rounds of 69 and 65. Yet he felt anything but comfortable.

“Sleeping on a six-shot lead, I didn’t sleep very well last night,” Fox said. “Obviously a couple of the guys came at me early. I was a bit nervous. I had that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach all day.”

It showed. In the final round overnight, Fox missed a tiddler for par at the fourth hole and saw his six-shot edge clipped to two when Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal led a posse of players chasing hard. Fox settled, however, continuing a trend of birdieing the next hole after a bogey that had been a feature of his week in the United Arab Emirates.

The turning point came early on the back nine. Fox faced a 44-foot birdie putt at the difficult 12th hole – the hole where he’d driven wildly right and into a lake the day before – while ahead Larrazabal was trying to extricate his ball from desert scrub at the driveable par-4 13th hole.

44ft of perfection ?#RakGolfClassic pic.twitter.com/QJmys7X6nt

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) February 13, 2022

Fox authored the tournament’s most resounding moment by holing the lengthy putt, while the Spaniard could manage no better than a par at the 13th.

Moments later, Fox birdied the same 13th hole to settle any lingering nerves and restore a lead that at last provided comfort for the final five holes. Fox birdied the 72nd hole to close a five-stroke victory over England’s Ross Fisher, the Kiwi’s closing 69 at Al Hamra Golf Club no indication of how taxing a round it felt.

It’s Fox’s second DP World Tour title, although his first in the conventional 72-hole strokeplay format after his 2019 ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth victory that was a combination of stroke and matchplay.

“I’m very happy with how I played,” he said. “A couple of great shots coming down the stretch and it was certainly nice walking down the last with putter in hand with so many putts to win.”

Fox’s daughter Isabel was born in December 2020 and the proud dad could not wait to get home and see her – after spending 10 days in hotel quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I was definitely thinking about the family coming down the last couple of holes, it’s pretty big for them,” said Fox, who moves to eighth in the DP World Tour ranking and is projected to climb almost 100 spots to 117th in the Official World Golf Ranking.

“They’ve got to come over to Europe every year and it’s a little bit harder with a little one now and this win makes it a little bit easier for them to do that.

“I’m a bit disappointed that I missed her walking and I’ve got 10 days in a hotel when I get home to think about that as well.

“I’m very much looking forward to seeing them when I get out late February.”

Family is everything #RakGolfClassic pic.twitter.com/o5nzSHiEIT

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) February 13, 2022

The post Ryan Fox stumbles then surges to seal wire-to-wire Ras Al Khaimah Classic win appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The New Zealander struggled with a back injury in last week’s Ras Al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital, but a combination of physio work and a putting tip from a fellow player helped him to turn things around this week.

Ten birdies and a bogey saw him soar to the summit with a 63 – a score he has once before carded at the 2018 Scottish Open, but on a par 70 course – and earned the 35-year-old the first round lead for just the third time in his DP World Tour career.

“I really enjoyed it, it’s the first time I’ve shot nine-under out here on this Tour,” said Fox. “I’ve shot some pretty low scores at home but struggled to bring that out here at times. It was nice to get in the zone, I just felt like I had control of the golf ball.

“I probably need to throw a couple of thanks out too, I struggled last week here with my back and I have my physio out here, and the Tour physio has helped me out over the weekend and I feel 100% this week which was nice.

“Shaun Norris was nice enough to give me a putting tip on Tuesday when we played a practice round together and that seemed to work pretty well too so big shout-out to those guys. It wasn’t too complicated, he just said I need to get a bit closer to the ball, he said I was hitting it out of the toe a little bit and trying to push it out there so he said get a bit closer and it worked in the practice round, and obviously worked pretty well today as well.”

Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia, who graduated through the Challenge Tour for a second time last year, sits in outright second place after a seven-under 65, while nine players share third place on six under, including Scot Robert MacIntyre and in-form Englishman Richard Bland.

“I am very happy, it was a great round, I played solid,” said Gouveia. “I put the ball in play which was what didn’t happen last week, so if you do that you can create a lot of chances and I holed a lot of putts which helped.

The post Fox leads the hunt at Ras Al Khaimah Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

That impressive win at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital only strengthened the 20-year-old’s reputation as one of golf’s brightest young stars – alongside his twin brother Rasmus.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” said Nicolai. “It was a grind out there and I had to dig deep so it felt really good and I’m really looking forward to teeing up again on Thursday.

“The phone has been buzzing the last few days so I haven’t talked or texted anyone yet, I’m trying to get into tournament mode now and focus on the week ahead, and hopefully play some good golf again.

Nicolai needs one more win to equal his sibling’s tally of three DP World Tour titles and, following a performance which – barring a stumble midway through the final round – was nigh on perfect, he feels he is in with a great chance of claiming wins in successive weeks.

Jordan Smith, meanwhile, has enjoyed a strong start to his 2022 campaign, with a top ten at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, a tie for 12th at the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic and then coming close to a second career victory last week – only to finish runner-up.

The Englishman is riding a wave of confidence, having won in Ras Al Khaimah on the Challenge Tour in 2016, and is hoping he can emerge victorious once again at Al Hamra.

“I feel like now I’ve got off to a good start, I’m really motivated to push on from where I am now,” said Smith. “I’ve tended to have a pretty good start most seasons so I’ve got to keep it going and hopefully the schedule stays as it is for me as it’s looking exciting.

“Coming back I had good memories from 2016, obviously from winning here. So I came here with good memories and thoughts and I feel really comfortable around this course, don’t know what it is about it. It’s just nice and relaxed and a bit quieter than Dubai, I love the place.”

Former Ryder Cup player Rafa Cabrera Bello makes his debut in Ras Al Khaimah this week, having claimed a share of second three weeks ago in Abu Dhabi, while Li Haotong’s tied third-place finish last week continues his return to the kind of form which earned him two titles and saw him become the first Chinese player to enter the world’s top 50 in 2018.

Fans can access the Ras Al Khaimah Classic event free of charge. No ticket or registration is needed.

The post Dynamic Dane Nicolai confident of Ras Al Khaimah double at Al Hamra appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The 2022 Desert Swing remains a very fluid work in progress – on the eve of the first event in Abu Dhabi.

The DP World Tour announced the postponement of the 25th Commercial Bank Qatar Masters overnight, citing “ongoing restrictions associated with the global Covid-19 pandemic.”

Originally scheduled for February 10-13, the $2 million event at Doha Golf Club will now be played “later this spring”, according to a media statement from the tour.

A second, hastily arranged $2 million tournament in RAK has been announced to fill the gap with the Ras Al Khaimah Classic set to follow the Ras Al Khaimah Championship Presented by Phoenix Capital (February 3-6).

The back-to-back RAK events, both at Al Hamra Golf Club, will follow back-to-back $8 million Rolex Series events to start the calendar year: this week’s Abu Dhabi HBSC Championship (January 20-23) and the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic (January 27-30).

When the DP World Tour originally announced its 2022 schedule, the Desert Swing had a fifth “Middle East” event pencilled in. But these are unprecedented times where the only certainty created by the pandemic is uncertainty.

The post RAK to host back-to-back DP World Tour events as Qatar Masters postponed due to pandemic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Had it not been for American 15-year-old Victoria Tip-Aucha’s historic appearance in Hau Hin, Thomas’ return to the MENA Tour would have undoubtedly generated the main interest ahead of the $50,000 MahaSamutr Masters at Banyan GC.

Regardless of how Tip-Aucha fares as the developmental tour’s female pioneer, Thomas’ performance will garner much attention after his growing reputation enabled the Dubai-based Indian amateur No.1 to bypass the first three events of the season for better things – the very purpose of the MENA Tour.

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Thomas created headlines when he made the cut at February’s Dubai Desert Classic and played alongside 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett in the final round. It followed a practice round tee time with Rickie Fowler in Abu Dhabi and earned the teen a late invite to the Hero Indian Open, his fourth European Tour start (after playing the Qatar Masters in 2016).

Since then Thomas has focused on the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley GC near Augusta National where a closing 68 saw him finish a credible T13 in what is widely regarded as the world’s leading junior tournament.

The invaluable U.S. experience, coupled with his emergence in Thailand last season when he finished second at the Mountain Creek Open and third at the MahaSamutr Masters, has Thomas raring for this week’s 54-holer.

“It feels good to return to golf courses where you have enjoyed some good finishes,” said Thomas who kicked on from Thailand to become the MENA Tour’s first amateur winner at his home Dubai Creek Open last September.

“I have been working very hard with my coach Justin Parsons and the good thing is that I am feeling confident about my game.”

Thomas won’t have it all his own way in Thailand, of course. Englishman Zane Scotland, a 10-time winner, is back after a back injury saw him skip last week’s Ras Al Khaimah Classic. Bahrain-based Daniel Owen will look to rebound from a disastrous final round 82 at Tower Links after leading through 36-holes with a pair of 66s.

Other notable contenders include Lee Corfield, Craig Hinton and Andrew Marshall, all multiple winners on the tour, and cricketer-turned-golfer Craig Kieswetter, who graduated from the tour’s qualifying school earlier this year.

They’ll all be mindful of Wolmer Murillo, the 36-year-old Venezuelan star who won the Mountain Creek Open by Golf Citizen by three shots and followed it up with a second-place finish in the MahaSamutr Masters a week later when the tour travelled to Thailand for the first time in 2016.

Murillo, who is attached to Banyan Golf Club, will be keen to pick up where he left off last year, but will have to contend with a 139-player field including 13 MENA Tour winners. The tournament will have a distinct Thai flavour with a strong home contingent of 25 golfers.

UAE’s Ahmed Al Musharrekh will spearhead the challenge in the MENA Division, confident of racking up some good results.

“I am working on certain aspects of my game and hope to get things dialed in sooner than later. It’s always a work in progress,”Al Musharrekh said.

The post Rayhan Thomas ready for 2017 MENA Tour bow appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 22-year-old Sydneysider rattled off six back nine birdies in a final round 66 to finish -13, three shots clear of Englishmen Andrew Marshall and Jamie Elson who shared second.

Owen had started the final round with a five shot lead after back-to-back 66s but stumbled to a 10-over 82 to finish -2 in a disappointing share of 23rd.

The Englishman’s spectacular reverse – six bogeys and doubles on the par 5 13th and 18th holes – brought back memories of a similarly spectacular collapse by his fellow Englishman Jake Shepherd, who also blew a five-shot lead, incidentally in the same tournament in 2011.

Stojanovski turned professional at the 2014 Dubai Creek Open and became the first Australian to win a MENA Tour title at an event he clearly enjoys; his previous best finish was a top 6 at Tower Links in 2014.

“I am really delighted to win for the first time on the MENA Tour. I played some solid golf and really pleased to get the job done,” Stojanovski said after receiving the winner’s cheque for $7200 from Tower Links GM Simon Payne and the MENA Tour’s Trevor Varri.

“I just played my own game and didn’t think about what others were doing around me. I focused on every golf shot that I hit and that helped,”

“I started off okay, but finished strongly. My short game was quite good and I holed some nice putts when I needed to. Overall, just kind of everything fell together.

Owen’s stunning meltdown notwithstanding, idyllic conditions at Tower Links brought a raft of red-figure rounds with Marshall leading the way, his sparkling 65 moving the Englishman up from overnight tied 17th to second overall.

England’s Josh Walsh and Germany’s Georg Schultes matched Marshall’s best score of the tournament to climb up the leaderboard as Welshman Stephen Dodd, who started the day in a tie for second, settled for tied 13th on five under after a final round 74.

Walsh joined fellow Englishmen Max Williams and Stuart Archibald for a share of fourth on -9 while Schultes finished in a three-way tie for seventh a further shot adrift.

England’s Todd Clements comfortably kept up his dominance in the amateur division, carding a tidy 68 to finish on -7 to beat his nearest challenger Tiago Lobo of Brazil by five shots as Sam Hobday, who also returned a final round 68, settled for third a further shot back.

Next up on the MENA Tour is a three-event Thailand swing that gets under way with the MahaSamutr Masters, sponsored by MahaSamutr Country Club, Hua Hin, at Banyan Golf Club on May 2.

A guaranteed spot in the PGA Tour’s 2018 DEAN & DELUCA Invitational (for the MENA Tour champion), multiple European Tour starts, including the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, the Hassan II Trophy, Maybank Championship Malaysia, and the KLM Open, await the MENA Tour’s leading performers, in addition to playing privileges on the Sunshine Tour, and exemptions into the Final Stage of the Sunshine Tour and Asian Tour Q-Schools.

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