Security secure contest

Interdepartmental rivalry was the flavour of the day at Awali Golf Club on Saturday, courtesy of the 59th annual outing of the Bapco Interdepartmental competition.
 
In a format having two simultaneous 18-hole competitions, those who are employees of Bapco formed teams of four players, with the best three Stableford scores contributing to the team’s overall score.

Others in the field took part in a separate Bapco Stableford competition for individual players and to emphasise the social side of the club, this was open to both handicappers and non-handicappers. The event, sponsored by Bapco, saw its deputy chief executive Ebrahim Talib in attendance to present the prizes.
 
In the main event, Security came home demonstrating a winning combination of Adel Al Gaoud, Hussain Salem, Nasser Eid and Daij Khalifa with a team score of 104 points. Close on their heels were Refining with Abdul Elah Fakhroo, Dave Hurlock and Mark Farell managing to bag 100 points despite having only three members in the team.

A couple of impressive scores were returned for those not eligible for the Interdepartmental contest. Eid Adel Naseeb continued to demonstrate that his improving ability remains one step ahead of the handicaps committee’s assessment of him, returning as the winner with 43 points.

Eid’s progress this season has been remarkable; starting with a handicap of 26, his win in the October Pan Gulf competition saw a reduction to 23, his win in the November Bill Brien competition reduced this to 20, his December win in the Crown Worldwide competition saw this reduced to 15, and this Bapco Stableford win has resulted in a further reduction to 12.
 
This means he has progressed from a handicap of 26 to being eligible to enter this March’s Bahrain Open Championship in just over three months.

Also sharing the limelight was Nicky Park, impressing with a 42-point score to be runner-up and gaining a handicap cut for her troubles, whilst Essa Al Qutami demonstrated short-iron play better than all others, claiming both of the nearest-the-pin prizes.

Acknowledging that no-one is born a scratch golfer and we all have to start at the beginning, an encouragement prize was awarded to the leading non-handicapper: Jac Parker being the winner with 32 points, the first individual prize of her golfing career at Awali as she swishes and whacks ever close to achieving a handicap.