Korean husband-and-wife team champion in July Monthly Medal at Dirab

RIYADH: A good number of golfers braved the hot weather in the off-season and teed it up on Saturday morning for the July Monthly Medal golf tournament at Dirab Golf & Country Club on the outskirts of Riyadh.

The Korean husband-and-wife team of Dong Soon Kang and Chan Hwi Lee emerged champion in the two ball Texas Scramble format competition with ¾ handicap.

The Korean pair played steady golf to shoot the winning score of 60 from a gross of 70 and handicap of 10.

Dong and Chan, starting at No. 8, finished one under on each nine with birdies on second, 14 and 16 against a bogey on the 12th hole.

Six strokes back in second place were Filipino ace Resty Sibug and his partner Jeff Arellano, who won a three-way countback from the pairs of John McCann-Rick Metvetz and Julian Bennett-Arshad Mahmood. All three teams tied on 66.

Sibug and Arellano, who started on the fourth hole, compiled two birdies and three bogeys on the front side and had birdie on the par-5 15 and bogey on 18 coming home in their 37-36 round.

McCann and Metvetz, with a 6 handicap, were level par for the round while Bennett and Mahmood carded a gross 71 with a 5 handicap to take the third and fourth places respectively.

Jack Molony and Michael Brennan rounded out the first five winners on 67 from a gross score of 75 and handicap of 8.

Sibug, the 2016 club champion at Dirab, won the men’s longest drive award with Chan taking the same award for the ladies. Habib Ullah took home the closest to the pin accolade.

The event was the second to be held after the Ramadan Kareem 9-hole golf tournament during the summer break. The new 2017-2018 season starts in September.