The UAE’s best amateur golfers are preparing for the Nomura Cup ahead of the tournament’s first visit to the Middle East in its 52-year history.
World teams
The tournament, which runs from October 22-25 at Yas Links in Abu Dhabi, sees the UAE compete against 26 amateur teams from around the world.
Preparations
As part of their preparations, UAE coach, Greg Holmes, took the players to Terre Blanch in France to visit the European Tour Performance Institute (ETPI).
Team members Khalid Yousuf, Rashid Hamood, Abdulla Al Qubaisi and youngster Ahmed Skaik benefited from Jean-Jacques Rivet’s biomechanics guidance and advice, according to Holmes. “The players were measured physically and any errors that they needed to work on they could do so. They’ve benefited a lot from the trip,” he said.
Rookie Skaik
Skaik, 18, is new to the tournament after successfully making the step up from the UAE Junior team. He hopes to make an impact for the senior side in an event where they have not experienced much success. “I hope we show up in this tournament and perform well, we’ve put a lot of preparation in and we’re really looking forward to it,” he said.
Big stage
The youngster was part of the UAE Junior side that won the GCC Championship for the second successive year in Oman in 2014. He is now looking forward to the chance to compete against countries from all over the Asia Pacific region in the Nomura Cup. “We’re used to playing against the Arab nations,” said Skaik, “but it’s good to play against players from Australia, Japan, China and Korea. They have top players and it’s good to compete and learn from them.”
Roll call
The 27 teams competing in the 2015 Nomura Cup: Australia, Bahrain, China, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Chinese Tapei, UAE, Indonesia and Iran.
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