UAE national golfer Ahmed Skaik teeing off in the recently held Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at the Yas Links. File

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The recently announced R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings, has revealed that 24 year old UAE National golfer Ahmad Skaik has moved up to number 51 in the Men’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.

The World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) were introduced in 2007 to quantify the comparative performances of Elite Amateur golfers; men, women, boys and girls, playing around the world in different events, in a rolling cycle over the previous 104 weeks.

The men’s ranking is currently led by Japan’s Keita Nakajima who won the recent Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship organised by the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation alongside the Masters Tournament and the R&A and locally sanctioned by the Emirates Golf Federation (EGF), held in November, 2021 at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club.

Skaik made the cut and finished a creditable 42^nd on four over par in this 72 hole event.

Alex Fitzpatrick (Eng), younger brother of DP World Tour player Matt is in fourth place, with Sam Bennett (USA), the top player on the PGA Tour University Velocity Global Ranking, who recently participated in the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic in sixth spot.

General Abdullah Al Hashmi, Vice-Chairman of the Emirates Golf Federation, the local sanctioning body for all four DP World Tour events on the DP World Tour’s early season ‘UAE Swing,’ said: “It is tremendous to see the global recognition for the performances of Ahmad over the last few months, starting at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship and moving on to the AVIV Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates on the DP World Tour as well as the Arab Golf Championship in Egypt and more recently on the ‘UAE Swing’ on the DP World Tour.

“It was always part of the EGF’s Vision about 18 months ago, when we were awarded the hosting of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship and the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship, to plan for UAE Nationals to get into the world’s Top 50 amateurs. We have nearly achieved that short term target ahead of our timing expectations.

“These are exciting times for golf in the UAE and we hope this local, regional and global recognition provides momentum for our next generation of UAE youngsters playing golf here in the UAE, to show them what is possible with some hard work, talent and some guided mentoring and professional coaching,” he added.