Korean husband-and-wife team wins SR & IQ Farewell Golf Tournament

RIYADH: Behind the scenes for the most part during their tour of duty at the golf club, the Pakistani duo of Shahid Rabbani and Imran Qadir shared the stage at a tournament held in their honor last Saturday at the Dirab Golf & Country Club on the outskirts of Riyadh.

The Korean husband-and-wife team of Dong Soon Kang and Chan Hwi Lee won the event dubbed SR & IQ Farewell Golf Tournament, shooting the low net of 62 from a gross score of 71 and handicap of 9 in the two ball Texas Scramble format competition. It was their second win in two months together as a team having won the July Monthly Medal.

Rabbani and Qadir partnered with each other on a final walk on the fairways of Dirab. They both played well to have a shot at victory but then settled for third place following a countback against another Korean tandem, father-and-son M. S. Kim and K. D. Kim.

The sides tied on 63. The Kims returned the best gross score of 66 and played off a 3 handicap while Rabbani and Qadir, with a 6 handicap, fired a gross total of 69.

Filipino ace Resty Sibug won the skill prize for the longest drive. M. S. Kim’s daughter Jeoun Kim made the 18-hole tournament a family affair when she took home the same prize on the distaff side.

New Zealander Julian Bennett nabbed the closest to the pin plum.

Dirab Golf Committee Chairman Tariq Javed, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, presided the awards ceremony that followed the tournament.

Rabbani, 39, and Qadir, 43, have since both returned to their native Pakistan. The bespectacled Rabbani, who hails from Chakwal near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, worked 16 years with DGCC. He is widely known as the able lieutenant of Golf Manager Bouchaib El Jadiani, working as events manager.

Rabbani told Arab News in an interview on WhatsApp that he plans to start a trading business in his new life journey out of Saudi Arabia.

Imran, from Lahore, has been the club’s accountant for 16 years.