Welsh golfing ace Stephen Dodd will represent the MENA Golf Tour at next week’s OMEGA European Masters when he competes in the Euro 2.2m event on the Crans-sur-Sierre course in Crans Montana, Switzerland from September 5 to 8, 2013.

The 47-year-old Welshman has been nominated to carry the tour’s flag following a special invitation from OMEGA, the title sponsor of the European Tour event, offering a spot to the leading professional in a gesture that reflects on the growing popularity and strength of the Mena Golf Tour on the global circuit.

Welsh ace Stephen Dodd and MENA Tour No. 1 to represent Tour in next week’s Omega European Masters. (Photo – MENA Tour.)

Dodd, who won the Tour’s Order of Merit title in 2012, will be joined in Crans Montana by a host of European Tour winners, including Darren Clarke, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Matteo Manassero, defending champion Richie Ramsay and Brett Rumford when they take to the Severiano Ballesteros Championship Course early next month.

Title sponsor OMEGA, which is also the Official Timekeeper of the MENA Golf Tour and the title sponsor of the Dubai Desert Classic and Dubai Ladies Masters, reserved one of its invitations for the MENA Golf Tour, further contributing to the incentives the tour has lined up for its members, in addition to offering attractive prize money.

With the top three professionals and the leading amateur IN their respective Orders of Merit standings already guaranteed places in the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic, along with exemptions on the Asian Tour’s qualifying school, the tour members enjoy plenty of motivation to pursue their golfing dreams in a healthy and competitive environment.

Mohamed Juma Buamaim, chairman of the Mena Golf Tour, thanked OMEGA for extending a sponsor’s invitation to the tour, saying their gesture demonstrates a joint goal to take the game forward..

“It feels great when a global brand of the stature of OMEGA endorses your product. Their continued support for the growth of golf as a global game means a lot to us as we strive to expand the tour schedule by visiting more countries in the region,” he said.

“I hope the OMEGA invitation will encourage other European Tour events, especially in the region, to offer similar playing opportunities to the Mena Tour members. At the end of the day, all we want is to see good players emerge from the tour and compete at the highest level,” said Mr Buamaim, who is also the vice chairman and CEO of golf in DUBAi, the promoters and organizers of the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic and the OMEGA Dubai Ladies Masters.

OMEGA was equally delighted about its growing association with the game in the region. “It is fantastic to expand our role in the MENA market which, we believe, has high potential for growth. The staging of the MENA Golf Tour confirms the game is going global. There are more countries playing now and they are looking to golf to drive their tourism,” said OMEGA Vice President Raynald Aeschlimann.

“The MENA Golf Tour has successfully created new opportunities for its members to showcase their skills on a global stage. Also, it has provided an outstanding platform for us to develop the OMEGA brand in this important market in the Middle East where the number of golfers and courses is increasing rapidly,” he said.

“We are confident that our relationship with golf in the region will continue to flourish with time,” he added.

A superb initiative by the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation, the MENA Golf Tour – now in its third year – is affiliated to the R&A and the Arab Golf Federation. The tour is supported by OMEGA as the Official Timekeeper and Mercedes-Benz as the Official Car Sponsor