United Arab Emirates - Perfect Golfing Weather

To visit the United Arab Emirates in January was a delight. The weather each day was around 25°Celsius with very little humidiity. Perfect golfing weather.

27 Australian Seniors ventured on the AVGA organised tour of the United Arab Emirates and Oman which included a 7 day cruise on Royal Carribean's - Splendour of the Seas.

The golf courses included Jumeriah Earth, Dubai Creek, The Wave (in Oman), Saadiyat Beach, The Els Club, Yas Links and Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately Saadiyat Beach did not honour our booked tee time - citing fog - Unlike when fog prevents play and the morning times are cancelled - At Saadiyat Beach - they moved our tee time back to 1.30pm - in this case 2½ hours preventing us from playing because we needed to be aboard our ship by 5.30pm to cruise back to Dubai. Irrespective, we arranged to play on our day off meaning that 14 of those who wanted to play - actually played 4 rounds of golf in a row !

Only 1 shot separated 3 players going into the final round of the Mens Division, with George Thomson (Concord G.C. - Hcp 22) having won three individual days leading the field from Louis Chan (Virginia G.C. - Hcp 17). With the Abu Dhabi golf course set up for the recent HSBC Race to Dubai tournament, the rough proved very difficult and the players found it a tough challenge.  George Thomson hit a wrong ball on the very first hole which probably proved the difference on the day. Louis Chan returned a respectable score of 30 stableford points in the conditions whilst George Thomson with his unfortunate start returned a score of 27 points. It was enough to allow Louis to get up and secure a popular win on his first ever AVGA Tour.

The Ladies Competition was a very close tussle - in the end only 5 shots separated 1st and 5th place. All the Ladies found the Championship Abu Dhabi Golf Club a real challenge - but it was Robyn Edson (The Lakes - Hcp 21) who held on to win by 2 shots from Jan Mussett (Kooindah Waters - Hcp 31).

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the variety of courses and the magnificent golfing weather with little humidity.

ALL THE RESULTS HERE