Sharjah: A European Senior Tour event will be held at Sharjah Golf and Shooting Club in association with Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) from 2017 to 2019, it was announced on Wednesday.
The inaugural 54-hole Sharjah Senior Golf Masters, sanctioned by the Emirates Golf Federation and supported by Sharjah Sports Council and Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority, will take place from March 16-17 next year, with a $450,000 (Dh1.6 million) prize fund.
This is the fifth current European Tour event to be played in the UAE after the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and season-ending DP World Tour Championship, as well as the Ladies European Tour’s Omega Dubai Ladies Masters.
Shaikh Mohammad Bin Abdullah Al Thani, deputy chairman of Sharjah Golf and Shooting Club, said: “We are delighted to be hosting such a high profile event. This initiative has been in the pipeline for a couple of years now and it is thrilling to finally announce, and for us to play such a big part in putting the Emirate of Sharjah on the map.
“Our club justifies its place on such a stage as we get an opportunity to showcase our unique range of facilities which, beyond a world class fully floodlit golf course and state of the art academy, include; indoor shooting ranges, a paintball park, four gymnasiums, archery, tennis, basketball courts, swimming pools and spas.”
Wednesday’s announcement was marked with a curtain-raising Pro-Am event, the Sharjah Senior Invitational Pro-Am presented by Shurooq and supported by Emirates, BMW and the Sheraton Sharjah.
The Pro-Am features three former Ryder Cup stars in Des Smyth, Ronan Rafferty and Paul Broadhurst. The trio are all regular competitors on the European Senior Tour and have each witnessed golf’s growth in the region having competed in the inaugural Dubai Desert Classic in 1989.
Irishman Smyth, an eight-time European Tour winner who represented Europe in both the 1979 and 1981 Ryder Cup, said: “It’s wonderful to see how much the UAE, and the game of golf has developed since I first started coming here. The whole region is thriving and it’s become a real hub for international golf. It is fantastic news that Sharjah is going to join the stable of world-class golf events hosted in the UAE and all the players on the European Senior Tour will really enjoy coming to this wonderful destination.”
