The rolling fairways of the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates played host to the Dubai Irish Golf Society (DIGS) for the annual Mark Fahy Memorial Golf Tournament sponsored by Dubai Duty Free on Friday, 23rd March. On what was a warm and at times blustery day over sixty DIGS members turned out to support the event which runs in Memory of Mark Fahy, a prominent figure within the Irish community here in Dubai who sadly lost his battle with Cancer.

With the strong field and challenging course conditions, the champion golfer on the day was Liam Loftus who scored a scintillating 43 points winning outright by 3. With the champion golfer crowned it was onto the men’s division: in third place with a score of 37 and needing a countback over the last 9 holes  was Mark Dupree, runner up also with 37 points and also needing a card playoff was Alistair McIlroy, and the men’s division winner with a total of 40 points Mark Brackley.

Sinead El Sibai, Senior Vice President for Marketing of Dubai Duty Free said: “This year marked the 14th year of the annual golf event which honours Mark Fahy, a good friend of Dubai Duty Free and of the Irish community. Thanks to the DIGS Captain Michael Conneely, my team at Dubai Duty Free and to the Jumeirah Golf Estates for making this year’s event so enjoyable and that a great day was had by all.”

The winner of best gross and for the second year in a row was the ever impressive Harry Sheedy with a gross 75, improving on last year’s score by 2 strokes. We will continue to watch his progress in the region as Harry is certainly a name to look out for in the future.

The Ladies Division played between the better half of the field was a tightly fought contest: Ladies division runner up was Maura Duggan with 33 points one back from the defending ladies champion and now crowned the 2018 winner Sile McIlroy with 34 points.

Winner of Nearest to the pin on hole number 6 was Paul Wilson with Paddy Hickey taking the prize on hole 17. Ladies longest drive was won by the ladies winner Sile McIlroy with Robbie Lawlor taking the prize for the men’s competition on hole 9.