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The pair of Rashid Faris Al Quatame and Steve Bland clinched first place in Bahrain's fifth annual National Day Golf Tournament with a score of 92 points.
Riyad Al Saie and Arun Varma came second with 88 points and Abdulla Autaiji and Nick Biron came third with 87 points.
The tournament, which took place at His Majesty King Hamad's golf course in Safriya, was the brain-child of Shaikh Ebrahim bin Khalid Al Khalifa and was designed to promote friendship and goodwill between Bahraini and expatriate golfers by teaming them up in the betterball format.
"The tournament was a great success yet again this year," said Riffa Views golf club general manager Michael Braidwood.
"Over 80 players took part in the two-day event and we saw an excellent standard of golf being played. I would like to thank His Majesty for very kindly allowing us to play the tournament on his fantastic course."
The two-day tournament is held annually around the National Day holiday under the sponsorship of Shaikh Ebrahim, a member of Riffa Golf Club and a keen golfer.
The players took part in the first round under the Betterball Stableford Format, with each team comprising two players - an expatriate and a Bahraini.
The 7am shotgun start was delayed for a few moments whilst the morning fog lifted, however, once it had cleared all the players experienced perfect playing conditions for the remainder of the first day.
Leading after the morning round was the pairing of Bland and Al Quatame with 44 points closely followed by Al Saie and Varma, Daij Ahmed and Chris Milner along with Dr Sachdeva and Mohamed Rashid all tied on 43 points.
Shaikh Ebrahim and Riffa Golf Club Captain Peter Loubser closely followed on 42 points.
By the afternoon, the players made the most of the excellent conditions. The afternoon scores dominated the top of the leaderboard. The Bahraini duo of Abdulla Khalifa and Ahmed Daij had 52 points while the closest expatriate and Bahraini pairing was Ebrahim Esbai and Ed Daly with 46 points with Nabeel Sabt and Nabil Khan in third place on 45 points.
Playing conditions for day two were also superb with many of the teams taking advantage of the 7am start to better their previous day score.
Notable final scores were posted by John Sutcliffe and Mohamed Al Sayed who finished on a team total of 82 points (38 & 44), Khalifa Nasser and Daniel Owen also recorded a 44 points score on day two to give them a total of 80. Diab Sager Al Nioami and Des Prunty had 43 points.
In the afternoon, the pairing of Daly and Esbai - who led the field on day one - continued with a good run of form to complete their tournament on 86 points. However, this was not enough to remain in the main prizes due to the excellent second day's scoring.
Al Quatame and Bland had a superb score of 48 points to move into first place and win the tournament by four points from the pair of Al Saie and Varma.
A prize-giving reception took place at the golf course on Monday evening and Shaikh Ebrahim presented the prizes to the winning pair.
Overall results
1 Rashid Faris Al Quatame and Steve Bland (92 points); 2 Riyad Al Saie and Arun Varma (88); 3 Abdulla Autaiji and Nick Biron (87 - on countback); 4 Ali Al Hageri and Kevin Krueger (87 - on countback); 5 Nabeel Sabt and Najib Khan (86 - on countback).
Best All Bahraini Team: Abdulla Khalifa and Ahmed Daij (92).
Day Two Side Contest Winners
Nearest The Pin 2nd Hole: Abdulla Sultan
Nearest The Pin 7th Hole: Abdulla Sultan
Day One Side Contest Winners
Longest Drive 5th Hole (sponsored by Etihad): Rob Lane 307 yards
Nearest The Pin 2nd Hole: Yousif Yacoob
Nearest The Pin 7th Hole: Nick Biron
