Golf: Oman’s clubs to compete for Alfa Romeo Cup

Sports Tuesday 09/January/2018 16:07 PM
By: Times News Service
Golf: Oman’s clubs to compete for Alfa Romeo Cup

Muscat: Following the success of last year’s tournament, Dhofar Automotive, in collaboration with the Oman Golf Committee (OGC), are organising the seventh edition of Oman’s premier inter-club championship, which has been rebranded as Alfa Romeo Cup.
The championship, formerly known as Chrysler Cup, is scheduled culminate with exciting golfing action on January 12 and 13.
The organisers revealed the details of the championship during an official ceremony at Almouj Golf on Monday with Rhett Maxwell, General Manager of Dhofar Automotive, and OGC chairman Mundhir Al Barwani speaking about the competition.
As in the previous tournaments, the 2018 event will see amateur golfers in Oman competing for top honours, with the finals guaranteed to generate huge interest and support from within the golfing community when it takes place this month.
According to the organisers, Dhofar Automotive will also be awarding a brand new Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce to the first golfder to score a hole-in-one over the course of the two-day tournament ‘in order to commemorate the new branding’.
Speaking at the launch ceremony Rhett Maxwell said: “Alfa Romeo is a brand widely associated with sophistication, sportiness and luxury, qualities that make it a perfect match for a game as technical and prestigious as golf. Furthermore, this tournament has, over these past six years, earned a reputation as the premier golfing platform to engage the entire competitive golfing community in the Sultanate.”
The participation in the Alfa Romeo Cup comprises of the best golfers from the four grass course clubs in the Sultanate, each team comprising of the clubs 12 best golfers. All in all, 48 of the best golfers in the country compete to win the coveted trophy.
The clubs that participate in the Alfa Romeo Cup are Ghala Golf Club, Almouj Golf Club, Muscat Hills Golf & Country Club and Ras Al Hamra Golf Club. The players are chosen based on Oman Golf Committee’s Order of Merit. The first five players being those with the highest net scores as per the OGC Order of Merit, the next five players will be those with the highest gross scores, and the final two will be wild card entries.
“Oman has, in recent years, seen a dramatic upsurge the infrastructural growth for the sport of golf. Growing hand-in-hand with this infrastructure has been a rapid increase in golfing talent as well as the country as a whole earning a reputation for itself as one of the preferred golfing destinations in the Middle East,” added Mundhir Al Barwani.
“The Alfa Romeo Cup in particular is a carefully designed tournament that pits the best golfers from each of the golfing clubs in the country against each other; thereby providing the perfect avenue for improved competition and interaction between the clubs and players.”
The format of the tournament closely follows that of the Ryder Cup where each team has a non-playing captain. The semifinals and finals will involve three rounds of golf. The first day will involve teams competing first in greensomes followed by fourballs. The second day of the tournament will involve singles matchplay where the victors will be the team who win the most points.
Dhofar Automotive will be awarding a brand new Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce worth OMR 23,800 to the first person to score a hole-in-one over the course of the two-day tournament.