Sports | Friday 31 March, 2017 5:25 am |

Turkish Airlines, Europe’s Best Airline for six consecutive years according to the recent Skytrax Passenger Survey, presented the 5th edition of Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup, the famous amateur golf tournament around the world. The global amateur golf competition, where thousands of participants compete at qualifying events in 100 destinations worldwide every year, is one of the several international sports organizations backed by Turkish Airlines, the airline that flies to more countries than any other airline in the world.

The 9th of 100 qualifiers for the global event, which in the first year started with 12 events and 700 players, has grown every year since the tournament’s inception. The Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup, which boasted 8,000 players competing globally last year now hosted the fifth year of staging for this tournament. The venue for this event, Emirates Golf Club featured 88 players, all personally-invited guests of Turkish Airlines.

Hasnian Dar won the individual competition with 44 points and will progress to the Grand Final in Antalya, Turkey, this October and November. Manu Mehrotra was the runner-up and Tej Chhabra came in third; Swati Singh and Philip Westphal won the nearest-the-pin prizes.

Emre Ismailoglu, General Manager for Turkish Airlines Dubai said “We would like to congratulate and thank everyone who made the Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup qualifier in Dubai such a special day. It was a fantastic tournament day and kudos to our winner, Hasnian Dar. They still have so much to play for in Antalya but everyone else will be looking forward to coming back again next year.”

All finalists are to enjoy a seven-night stay at the five-star luxury Titanic Deluxe Belek hotel in Antalya, Turkey and will be flown there Business Class from their qualifying destination by Turkish Airlines. The overall winners of the two-round Grand Final at the Titanic Golf Club will progress to play in the 2017 Turkish Airlines Open pro-am. The Financial Times, Enterprise Rent A Car, Allianz and Conte of Florence are offering their substantial support to the hugely-anticipated tournament. Turkish Airlines, voted Europe’s best airline for the sixth straight year by Skytrax in 2016, launched the World Golf Cup in 2013, featuring 12 qualifying events. After that initial success, there was a rapid expansion to include 100 events worldwide last year.