Time to honour industry leaders

26
SUNDAY
8 NOVEMBER 2015
Regional MEGAs
The finalists
Public Voted
Race To Atlantis (Atlantis The Palm Dubai)
Golf Hole of the Year (14)
Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup (Dubai Duty Free)
Abu Dhabi City Golf Club - Hole 9
Best F&B Outlet of the Year - 7
Al Hamra Golf Club - Hole 18
The Pavilion (Abu Dhabi City Golf Club)
Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club - Hole 18
The Big Easy Bar & Grill (The Els Club)
The Els Club - Hole 15
Qube Sports Bar (The Meydan Hotel)
Emirates Golf Club (Majlis Course) - Hole 8
Hickory’s Restaurant (Yas Links Golf Club)
Muscat Hills Golf & Country Club - Hole 12
Spikes Restaurant (Al Badia)
The Address Montgomerie - Hole 18 Legends (Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club)
Yas Links Golf Club - hole 17
Café 28 (Abu Dhabi Golf Club)
Saadiyat Beach Golf Club - Hole 5
Best Golf Academy - 14
Jumeirah Golf Estates (Earth Course) - Hole 18
Abu Dhabi Golf Club - Hole 7
Ras Al Hamra Golf Club - Hole 11
Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club - Hole 18
Almouj Golf The Wave Muscat - Hole 2
Best Live Experience of a Professional Event (8)
2014 Dubai Open
2015 Omega Dubai Desert Classic
2015 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship
2014 DP World Tour Championship
Time to honour
industry leaders
It’s back: The MEGAs will see the best golf courses and tournaments, among others, get rewarded for their excellence.
Recognising Middle East’s best in the business of golf
By Joy Chakravarty
Some of the most iconic holes, golf
courses and tournaments in the
Middle East will be under public
and experts’ scrutiny as the process
begins to find out the winners of the
third edition of Middle East Golf
Awards (MEGAs).
The eagerly anticipated awards
night will take place on Thursday, December 17, at the One &
Only Royal Mirage Amphitheatre
and the focus of the night shifts
back to the industry. Last year’s
MEGAs honoured the personalities
involved with the sport.
The 2015 MEGAs will be fought
for in 16 different categories – five
of which will be on the basis of public votes, nine will be judged by an
experts panel, while two are recognitions.
Public voting will commence
from Wednesday and will run until
December 15 on the MEGAs website, www.sport360.com/mega. The
public voted categories are ‘Golf
Hole of the Year’, ‘Golf Course
Above Dh500’, ‘Golf Course Below
Dh500’, ‘Best Live Experience of a
Professional Event’, and ‘Best Overall Club Experience’.
The judging process will be
supervised by a reputed auditing
firm and the experts will decide the
winners of the Amateur Tournament of the Year, Corporate Tournament of the Year, Best F&B Outlet of the Year, Best Golf Academy,
Golf Course Maintenance Team of
the Year, Best Golf Marketing Campaign of the Year, Best New Golfing Product of the Year, Best Golf
Retail Experience of the Year and
the Youth Development Initiative
Pictures: Joseph Capellan/Sport360
2015 Muscat Hills Golf Citizen Championship
2015 Abu Dhabi Invitational
2015 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters
2014 National Bank of Oman Golf Classic
Best Golf Course Above 500AED (10)
Al Badia Golf Club by Intercontinental Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club
The Els Club
Majlis Golf Course - Emirates Golf Club
The Address Montgomerie
Royal Golf Club Bahrain
Yas Links Golf Club
Saadiyat Beach Golf Club
Earth Course - Jumeirah Golf Estates
Abu Dhabi Golf Club - The National
Best Golf Course Under 500AED (9)
Abu Dhabi City Golf Club
Al Hamra Golf Club
Jebel Ali Golf Resort
Muscat Hills Golf & Country Club
The Track Meydan Golf Club
Arabian Ranches Golf Club
Ras Al Hamra Golf Club
Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club
Almouj Golf Club
Best Overall Club Experience (14)
Abu Dhabi City Golf Academy (Abu Dhabi City
Golf Club)
The Butch Harmon School of Golf (Dubai Sports
City)
The European Tour Performance Institute
(Jumeirah Golf Estates)
The Meydan Academy by Troon (The Track
Meydan Golf Club)
Royal Golf Club Bahrain Academy (Royal Golf
Club Bahrain)
Performance Golf LLC (Zayed Sports City)
The School of Golf (Al Badia Golf Club by
Intercontinental)
The Golf Academy at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club
(Saadiyat Beach Golf Club)
The Academy at Emirates Golf Club (Emirates
Golf Club)
Dubai Creek Golf Academy (Dubai Creek Golf &
Yacht Club)
The Abu Dhabi Golf Institute (Abu Dhabi Golf
Club)
The Academy at Arabian Ranches (Arabian
Ranches Golf Club)
Al Hamra Golf Academy (Al Hamra Golf Cub)
The Academy by Troon at The Address
Montgomerie (The Address Montgomerie)
Golf Course Maintenance Team of the Year - 10
Abu Dhabi City Golf Club
The Els Club
Abu Dhabi City Golf Club
Jumeirah Golf Estates
Al Badia Golf Club by Intercontinental
The Track Meydan Golf Club
Al Hamra Golf Club
Ras Al Hamra Golf Club
Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club
Al Badia Golf Club by Intercontinental
Emirates Golf Club
Saadiyat Beach Golf Club
The Address Montgomerie
Emirates Golf Club
The Track Meydan Golf Club
Abu Dhabi Golf Club
Al Hamra Golf Club
Best Golf Marketing Campaign of the Year - 6
Remember when summer was all about the 99’s Almouj Golf The Wave Muscat
Summer Wildcard Campaign - The Track Meydan
Golf Club
Ultimte Summer Staycation - Yas Links Golf Club
Night Golf at Emirates Golf Club - Emirates Golf
Club
National Bank of Oman Classic - National Bank
of Oman
Don’t miss it: Tickets for the MEGAs go on sale from tomorrow.
The 2015 MEGAs
will be fought for
in 16 different
categories
of the Year. The recognition awards
are ‘Golf CSR Initiative of the Year’
and’ Best Golf Sponsorship Campaign of the Year’.
Delighted by the success of the
first two editions, both of which
were sold out events, Troon Golf,
Hydroturf, and Dubai Sports City
have all signed up again to support
the 2016 edition.
Hydroturf have been supporting
the awards from the very first year
and Colin Baxter, managing director, said: “Golf courses in the UAE
not only provide top-quality experience for golfers, they also provide
a superb standard of living for the
residents.
“It is therefore appropriate to
annually recognise the best of these
golf courses and the people who
make golf possible. I congratulate
the MEGAs for providing us with
an annual opportunity to gather
and celebrate our industry.”
The awards night will commence with a cocktail reception
at 19:00, followed by dinner and
awards starting at 20:15. Tickets
go on sale from tomorrow, with a
VIP table of eight costing Dh6,000,
a Zone 1 table of eight costing
Dh5,250 and individual tickets for
Dh675.
The MEGAs are owned and
organised by Sport360°, the only
English language daily sport newspaper in the world, in association
with the region’s golf bodies and
sports councils, including Dubai
Sports Council, Emirates Golf Federation, the European Tour, golf in
DUBAi, MENA Golf Tour, Women’s
Golf in Middle East, the UAE PGA
and Oman Golf Committee.
Worldwide Golf and UAE Golf
Online are the media partners for
the event.
To purchase tickets, or for more
information on MEGAs, please
contact Lawrence Harradine on
+971 4 395 8833, +971 55 821 7373,
or e mail: lawrenceharradine@
sport360.com or mega@sport360.
com.
The Race to Sharjah - Sharjah Golf & Shooting
Club
Yas Links Golf Club
The Els Club
Best New Golfing Product of the Year - 7
Saadiyat Beach Golf Club
Callaway Big Bertha Alpha 815 (Pro Golf
International)
Jumeirah Golf Estates
GOGOLF APP (GOGOLF)
Ras Al Hamra Golf Club
Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club
Almouj The Wave Muscat
Judge Voted
Amateur Tournament of the Year - 8
The Chivas Men’s and Ladies Open (Abu Dhabi
City Golf Club)
The Nomura Cup (Yas Links Golf Club)
Golferskin Sunscreen (David Gray Golf)
Laser Putt (Laser Focus Golf LLC)
FootGolf (Royal Golf Club Bahrain)
The Academy Indoor Studio (Arabian Ranches
Golf Club)
GPS Visage System (Hydroturf)
Best Golf Retail Expereince of the Year - 5
The Els Club Golf Shop (The Els Club)
Els for Autism Golf Challenge (Woestyn Boere
Hackers)
Pro Golf International LLC
Breast Cancer Awareness Golf Day & Ladies
Luncheon (Woestyn Boere Hackers)
Monty’s Golf & Lifestyle (Royal Golf Club Bahrain)
The Muscat Open (Ras Al Hamra Golf Club)
The Omega Emirates Amateur Open (Emirates
Golf Club)
The Conares Golf Society League (Sharjah Golf
and Shooting Club)
OMEGA Dubai Creek Men’s Amateur Open (Dubai
Creek Golf and Yacht Club)
Corporate Tournament of the Year - 7
IP Global Platinum Club Pro AM Invitational (IP
Global)
Audi Quattro Cup (Jumeirah Golf Estates)
Mixed Doubles Series (Muscat Hills Golf &
Country Club)
The Gourmet Golf Experience (Saadiyat Beach
Golf Club)
The IADC Golf Tournament (Emirates Golf Club)
The Retail Shop (Jumeirah Golf Estates)
Abu Dhabi Golf Club Pro Shop (Abu Dhabi Golf
Club)
Youth Development Initiative of the Year - 7
Free Junior Golf Week (Abu Dhabi City Golf Club)
Golf DXB (The Track Meydan Golf Club)
The Royal Golf Academy Junior Schools Program
(Royal Golf Club Bahrain)
Yas Lynxes Juniors Section Team Membership
(Yas Links Golf Club)
The Junior Elite Program (Emirates Golf Club)
Troon Junior Development Events (Abu Dhabi
Golf Club)
The Junior Development Program (Sharjah Golf
and Shooting Club)
There are also two recognition categories –
‘Golf CSR Initiative of the Year’ and ’Best Golf
Sponsorship Campaign of the Year’.