OCTOGENARIANS!

Awali Golf Club waltzed into the New Year in the only way it knows how, with a weekend of friendly, fun and occasionally whacky golf activities as it also celebrated its 80th anniversary, writes Kristian Harrison.

After the club’s historian, Onny Martin, stumbled upon a document held in an online library in Qatar last summer, which showed the club was founded 1937 rather than 1938 like originally thought, as exclusively revealed by GulfWeekly, the club quickly organised its birthday bash.

The club, the oldest in the Middle East and famous for its challenging ‘Awali bounce’, little plastic grass circular mats to place on the fairways and unique ‘browns’ instead of greens, marked the occasion with the Bapco Inter-Departmental Trophy and 80th Anniversary Stableford competition on Friday followed by a social tournament on Saturday.

A field of 90 players braved Friday’s gusty conditions to compete in the Stableford event. The day started out chilly for the morning players but warmed up nicely for those playing in the afternoon session. By the end of play, all were happy to return to the warmth of the clubhouse to escape the winds and enjoy the apres-golf camaraderie. Mohammed Sultan Faraj, continuing his excellent form, claimed 1st place winning on countback from Adel Al Gaoud (2nd) and Hussain Salem (3rd), all on 40 points.

Serwin Rampersad on 39 points secured fifth place after winning on countback from club captain Bill Scarth. Diane Loney did her bit to get the ladies a mention by winning a prize for nearest the pin on Hole 4, while Rashid Al Hajji claimed the prize for Hole 6 and Serwin Rampersad for Hole 14.

Meanwhile, Bapco employees competed for the much coveted InterDepartmental Trophy, a competition dating back to 1957 and open to nonhandicappers as well. For some, it was their first experience of playing in an 18-hole competition but the pride of representing their respective departments left most undaunted.

This year, the teams consisted of three players with the best two scores counting. In 1st place with 80 points was ‘Security’, comprising Adel Al Gaoud (40 points), Hussain Salem (40 points) and Nasser Eid. ‘Management’ took second position with 72 points with a two-man team of Mark Hodgkinson (37 points) and Peter Hughes (35 points).

Afterwards, the clubhouse was packed to the brim with celebratory players and their guests for the prize giving and refreshments, where the club captain looked ahead to starting off another 80 years of the club’s success.

Along with President Steve Brown, Scarth led the tribute to AGC’s anniversary by starting a hearty rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’, cake and all, and toasting all Awali golfers, past, present … and future.

As part of Scarth’s on-going initiative to auction off AGC’s old tee-box signs, two more, Holes 7 and 8, were offered up to keen bidders where BD95 was raised for local children’s charities. To finish off the weekend of celebrations, the social competition on Saturday saw a welcome rise in temperatures and a decrease in wind velocity.

More than 40 players, in teams of three, turned out for The Waltz - a unique format where the dance tempo of 1-2-3, 1-2-3 was reflected in the score. This meant that on Hole 1, only the best score counted, Hole 2 the two best scores and then on Hole 3 all three scores were gathered together.

This was repeated on 4, 5 and 6; 7, 8 and 9 and so on until the end. In 1st place was Mark Hodgkinson, Paul Anderson and Maggie Winwood with a superb score of 88 points. In 2nd place was Yoy Young, Les Young and Eui Mo Koo with 82 points, while two teams on 78 points vied for 3rd position, however, Steve Diaper, Nicky Bailey and Dave Bailey triumphed over Beth Robinson, Tony Robinson and Nathan Prince.

Winners of the ‘nearest the pin’ on Holes 4 and 14 were Beth Robinson and Eui Mo Koo respectively. Here’s to the next 80 years!