David Russell won the grand final of the inaugural Back On Black Challenge driven by Xerox Color, held at The Montgomerie, Dubai.

Russel topped the gross division with a total of 85 while the run

The tournament series commenced four weeks ago with the first of three qualifying rounds held on a weekly basis. The Challenge required golfers to compete in an individual strokeplay event on a golf course prepared for enhanced difficulty and utilizing the championship tees.

Brent Bowden shot the lowest gross score of the tournament in round one to seize the gross winner position with 75 while the runner up in the gross division was Paul Pitman with 79. In the net division Huzaifa Mohammed won a 4-way count back with net 73 to edge out Richard Smith, Pasha Bakhtiar and Gavin Fraser all on the same score.

Round two was played under testing conditions that determined some higher scores as the field struggled in the windy conditions.

In the third and final qualifying round, Andre Coetzee managed a strong win in the net division with 79 net with runner up Paul Weston hot on his heels with 81 net. In the gross division the day’s winner was Mohammed Al Murad with an 86 gross while Jonathon Mellor shot 87 to take out the runners up position.

The grand final saw the field face an extremely testing course set up, the scores reflecting the challenging conditions. The net division winner was Gavin Fraser with a solid score of 74 net just pipping runner-up Paul Pitman who was one shot further back on 75 net.

In the main event being the men’s gross division David Russell put together a consistent score to card an 82 gross to walk away with the main prize. Again the competition was close with runner up Francisco Gyles only a shot behind Russell on 83 gross.