Education City Golf Club and Commercial Bank host Junior Open

This event was created to support the development of junior golf in Qatar. The tournament is seen as a key component in developing and encouraging juniors to play golf on the course. The first two events were conducted in the ProAm format, with the support of local PGA professionals. The third event provided the junior golfers with the opportunity to play for themselves. The Commercial Bank Junior Open consisted of two divisions - the first for juniors competing in regular golf tournaments and the second for future stars of the Commercial Bank Play to Par Programme. The top-three players in the 18-hole Championship Stableford were Danill Sokolov (first), Zamaan Zubair (second) and Francesco Mauro (third).The top-three players on the 9-hole Par 3 Course were Mohamed Abbas Qureshi (first ), Cat Dunn (second) and Adam Aboushabana (third).In 2020, the golf club introduced a new junior programme called the Play to Par, which was designed to focus on providing children with a ‘playing’ mindset by setting targets and goals for progression. As the child improves and develops their golf skills, the targets get stretched to progressive attainable levels by introducing course playing skills.In a statement, Michael Braidwood, general manager of Education City Golf Club, said: “The Commercial Bank Play to Par Programme has been progressing beyond our expectations. We now have a vibrant junior golf membership and programme with children as young as five years of age actively playing on the golf course.”Commenting on the matter, Hussein al-Abdulla, EGM and chief marketing officer at Commercial Bank, said: “We are always keen on supporting sports initiatives, and the third Commercial Bank junior tournament not only fulfils our pledge in this regard but has also proven its major success. With our support, children were able to take their game from the practice range to the golf course."