Onwards and ever upwards for Ahmed Al Musharrekh

The laid-back Emirati golfer does not let a poor score hamper his enjoyment of the valuable experience at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship.

Ahmed Al Musharrekh may have not had the result he had hoped for at Abu Dhabi Golf Club but he found time to chat with spectators to “give them something back”.

Ahmed Al Musharrekh, the UAE's leading golfer, was just finishing up his round as "Fantastic Friday" headed towards fever pitch early yesterday afternoon.

The galleries around the 18th green were beginning to bloat, and a 21-year-old Emirati playing just his second European Tour event, and who confessed the pressure had got to him in shooting an opening-day 82, might understandably have been cowed.

Instead, he saved his best for last. A bump and run from the front edge. One putt. A birdie. Thanks for coming, it has been a pleasure.

"After these two days, I'm happy with closing it out like that," said Al Musharrekh, whose four at the par-five finishing hole provided a little bit of gloss on an otherwise disappointing aggregate of 18-over par.

"I still have a lot to learn. I'm playing the [Dubai Desert Classic] next month, so this is good experience for me."

When he says this is all good experience, he is not borrowing from a self-help manual, or from the book of Things To Say When You Want To Sound Like a Professional Sportsman. He means it.

The business management student has aspirations of turning professional in the future. He was deep in conversation with his playing partner, Keith Horne, the 40-year-old South African player, while walking up 18, trying to find out the best way to go about it.

"I was asking him how long he has been on tour, how he got there in the first place and whether he went to qualifying school," the national team player said.

"He said he just played a lot of events and worked his way up from there."

If the pressure affected Al Musharrekh's swing - he blamed tension in his muscles for missing too many fairways - it certainly did not dull his on-course demeanour.

The difference between him and his senior playing partners was distinct. Horne, for example, would not allow anything to affect his focus.

At various points during the round he pulled away from addressing his ball because of a squawking mallard, then later by the chimes of a distant ice-cream van. And woe betide any spectator absent-mindedly wandering behind his line on a putt.

Al Musharrekh, by contrast, could not be more laid back. "I had to give them something," he said of his ready dialogue with supporters beyond the ropes during the first round. "I couldn't just let them watch bad golf."

Yesterday, when the sun had burnt off the early morning chill, Saeed Albudoor, the general manager of the Emirates Golf Federation, nipped on to the fairway and stuffed his jacket into Al Musharrekh's bag. He could carry it the rest of the way in.

His gallery was not quite as sizeable as on Thursday, at least not at first. "I think 9am is too early," he said of his diminished entourage for the early stages of the second round.

"They were here but they went for a coffee, and the girls with my brother had high heels on, so they had to stay inside. I'm not sure they have ever walked a golf course before."

Al Musharrekh may not have approved of his two-day tally of 162, but he still managed some highlights.

As the players were leaving the 12th green, a scrawny black cat crossed the path between them and the 13th tee-box. He was due a change of luck, and it followed duly.

The way he played the ensuing hole was an education, going drive-pitch-putt for a birdie, which had the small crowd, which congregated on the small hill nearby, off from their beanbags and applauding.

"I didn't have my 'A' game, and that happened at the wrong time," he said. "I want to make sure I build my best game towards these events. It is just about playing more."

A score of 29-over par might have been a tad high for the liking of Stuart Fee, the Jebel Ali golfer.

However, the UAE's other representative will forever be able to tell his son he played in a European Tour event alongside Tiger Woods in the week he was born; his wife gave birth just before the start of the competition.

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