UAE golf team set for amateur dramatics

The Musharrekh brothers lead a five-man UAE in the Arab Championship in Morocco over the next three days.

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The UAE team will tee off today in Rabat, Morocco, hoping to build on the country's best ever performance at a top amateur competition last month.

The five-man side of Khalid Yousuf, Faris Al Mazrui and the three Al Musharrekh brothers, Ahmed, Abdulla and Hassan, are in buoyant mood after inspiring the country to 14th position at the Nomura Cup, where they rubbed shoulders with the best amateurs from Asia and Australia.

Abdulla Al Musharrekh believes the UAE are ready to turn in another series of impressive cards at the 54-hole event at the Royal Golf Dar Es Salan resort over the next three days.

"It is really good that we came to prepare for this championship so early because the track is very different to anything we are used to back home," he said.

"This is a classic tree-lined course and is also quite long. Conditions are sure to be tough this week and I would think the winner will be the team who minimises their mistakes."

The UAE finished seventh last year in the event which sees the best four scores count towards the team total. Tunisia are the holders.

Yousuf feels arriving in Morocco 24 hours earlier than they normally would have has given the team valuable extra preparation time.

"We came out early to the course to get a feel for the layout and the conditions," he said.

"This has made us comfortable with both our game and the course which is definitely a good thing. We are playing well as a team and we are all looking forward to the tournament."

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