Bahrain, Saudi tie for top spot

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia moved into a tie for first place yesterday on the men’s teams’ standings following the second round of the 2019 GCC Golf Championships, being played at Ghala Golf Club in Muscat. After leading by one stroke at the end of day one, the Bahrainis carded a day two score of fourover-par 220, just a single shot behind the 219 of the Saudis.

That brought their two-day totals to 12-over-par 444, earning both teams a share of the lead. Bahrain’s Sultan Mubarak, the solo leader after the first day on the individual players’ rankings, also dropped to a tie at the top of the leaderboard following the second round. He carded a three-over-par 75 yesterday to add to his opening day score of 72, putting him on a 147 total that is shared by the Saudi pair of Ali Al Sakhi and Saud Abdullah Al Sharif.

The championships continue today with the third and penultimate round of play in the men’s events. The final day is tomorrow when this year’s GCC champions will be crowned. In the men’s teams, Bahrain’s Mubarak, along with teammates Al Mohamed Al Kowari and Mohamed Dian Alnoaimi, all contributed to the day’s score. For the Saudis, they relied on their trio of Al Sakhi, Al Sharif and Abdulrahman Almansour.

The top two were followed on the standings by Qatar eight shots behind with a 20-over-par two-day total of 452. The UAE (456, +24) were fourth, Oman (484, +52) fifth and Kuwait (510, +78) sixth. In the men’s individual standings, Al Sakhi was one of two players to post an even-par 72 on day two, helping him move into the share of the lead. The other was Bahrain’s Alnoaimi, who went to fifth place on the individual classification with a two-day total of 149.

Going fourth was Bahrain’s Al Mohamed Al Kowari with a gross score of 148, giving the Bahrainis three players in the top five, while rounding out the top six individual players was Saudi’s Almansour tied with Qatari Jaham Jassim Al Kuwari, both with 150 totals.

Bahrain are competing with four teams in Oman as there are also a ladies’ team composed of Habiba Maher Yusuf, Haya Adel Alqawadhi and Maryam Raed Alansari; an under-18 squad of Eid Aeel Meftah, Faris Isa Alqetami and Manaf Yusuf Ahmed; and an under-15 team comprising Abdulrahman Ebrahim Saad, Yousuf Ebrahim Habib and Abdulla Rashid Saeed.

The ladies ranked fourth from five teams with a 124-over-par gross score and now head into their final round of play. The under-18s were third from three teams but were just five shots behind leaders Qatar after the first 18 holes, while the under-15s were fourth from from five teams, well behind the leaders with just the final round left to play today