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THE Hempel Pairs Weekend was held at Awali Golf Club on Friday and Saturday. Sponsored by Hempel Paints and initiated at Awali in the 1988/89 season, the event tests stamina as well as golfing competency and harmony between partners.
Day 1’s format was greensomes medal where both players drive off and then one ball is chosen and played alternately, while Day 2’s format was 4-ball better-ball medal where the better of each partner’s score becomes the pair’s score.
An array of prizes were presented by Hempel Paints sales manager Benny Matthew, assisted by tournament director Bill Scarth, with the main prizes going to the winners for each of the days, plus another prize for the aggregate score for both days.
On Day 1, Sharif Abdulla and Adnan Al Sowaidi took the top prize with net 62, two ahead of Sultan Ahmed and Eid Adel Naseeb. Adel Al Gaoud and Ahmed Al Noaimi were next past the post with 65, fourth place went to Hussain Salem and Khalid Salem on 66, with Kwang Bok Kim and Sang Oak Nam losing on countback.
With its different format, Day 2 saw different winners: the pairing of Mario Carangan IV and Jeff Paa showed the way with net 58, four shots clear of runners-up Abdulla Al Ghatam and Zayed Salem, who edged out Dave Hurlock and Hendrik Wessels on countback, while John Loughnane and Peter Rogers clinched fourth place with 63.
Abdulla and Al Sowaidi were in the limelight a second time as their winning play on Day 1 was followed by yet more steady play on Day 2 with a score of net 66 and as a result they were rewarded with the prize for best aggregate score for both days, net 128.
At the prize presentation, master of ceremonies and Club Captain Abdul Elah Fakhroo advised that Hempel Paints had specified that prizes would only be awarded where both playing partners were present in the clubhouse. This meant that prizes were announced in leader-first order, those in attendance becoming more attentive when they realised one or both of a pair were not present.
With four prizes allocated to each day, for Day 1 both the fourth- and fifth-placed pairs were absent and thus Ali Musbah and Hamad Fares Al Qutami in sixth (net-67) collected the prize for fourth place. For Day 2, one of the third-placed pairing was absent and so fifth-placed Nasser Al Kaabi and Kerry Diaper (net 63) came away with a nice surprise.
To brighten the tournament director’s demeanour, the Day 1 performance of Chris Gregory and Vidhu Mittal was noteworthy. As they prepared to tee off on their last hole, they announced to another group of players that they had achieved a pretty good score for their first 17 holes, and were confident that they would be in the prizes.
However, their announcement included the words ‘41 points’, whereupon they were reminded that the competition was not Stableford. In another of Awali Golf Club’s ‘how sad’ moments, they confirmed they had picked-up before holing-out on one of the holes, meaning that they also picked up a disqualification!
