Saadiyat Beach Golf Club provided a brutal yet beautiful stage for the opening act of Ultimate Golf Challenge Season 3, where corporate golf was on full display at its sharpest and most competitive.

The Gary Player-designed oceanfront course, exposed to the whims of the coastal winds, demanded clarity of thought as much as quality of striking, a test passed convincingly by Season 2 winners Noble Legacy Masters, who set the early benchmark, and by The A Team’s Maura Duggan, whose round defined Day 1.

For the opening round, teams nominated two sub-teams of five players from a wider squad of 16. From each sub-team, the best four Stableford scores counted toward the team total. The combined score of the best eight players determined the Day 1 leaderboard.

Defending Season 2 champions Noble Legacy Masters, co-owned by Saket Kanoi and Achal Ghai, made a strong statement in their title defence, topping the leaderboard with 255 points after a composed and methodical team performance. They were closely followed by Meteora Magicians on 247 points, with The A Team, last season’s runner-up, a further 13 points behind on 234.

Maura Duggan, the leading individual scorer with Aman Chopra (right) and Anand Lakhiani. - Photo The A Team

Achal Ghai, who contributed 34 points himself, credited the team’s disciplined approach for their promising start.

“I think given that our team players followed the script in terms of being conservative and sensible rather than trying to score very high points, it helped the team overall. That gave us a good start for the season,” he said.

Maura Duggan of The A Team produced the round of the day in the individual competition, scoring 40 Stableford points off a 10 handicap to top the leaderboard by one point from Dania McHaourab of Three Comma Masters on 39.

Maura’s fellow A Team player Samvit Chopra added a strong 38 points to sit third overall among the 100-strong field, helping The A Team remain firmly in contention. Contributions from Vivek Chand (34 points) further underlined their depth as they chase a first UGC title at the third attempt, perhaps proving that the third time’s the charm.

Reflecting on her performance, Duggan pointed to accuracy and smart decision-making as the key factors.

“The key takeaway for me was finding the fairways, which was hugely important,” she said. “It made the approach shots much shorter because the ball was rolling out a lot.”

Maura also admitted that adaptability was crucial.

“It’s a very difficult, tricky course,” she acknowledged. “It was windy, but not severely windy. I tried to play safe on one hole with a three-wood and made a mess of it, so I went back to being aggressive.

“I was driving the ball well, stayed committed to that, and I was so happy to get a good score for the team and put us in a strong position going into the next rounds.”

Brandon de Sousa, the UGC Tournament Director, commented: “I was really impressed with how the teams approached Saadiyat in round one. It’s never an easy course to read, especially with the wind and the links-style challenges, but you could see the preparation had been done. They adapted well to the conditions, stayed composed, and produced a very promising round of golf.”

Tristar Gladiations triumphed in the inaugural Season back in 2024 while Noble Legacy Masters took the plaudits in 2025.

Teams Leaderboard – Round 1
(Best 8 of 10 players)

• Noble Legacy Masters – 255




• Meteora Magicians – 247




• The A Team – 234




• Three Comma Masters – 229




• Brain Performance – 228




• Tristar Gladiators – 227




• Mayfair Chippies – 226




• Shershah Eagles – 224




• Alpha Ninjas – 223




• Sultans of Swing – 213

Individual Stableford – Top 10

• Maura Duggan (The A Team) – 40 pts




• Dania McHaourab (Three Comma Masters) – 39 pts




• Samvit Chopra (The A Team) – 38 pts




• Tirth Shergill (Meteora Magicians) – 37 pts




• Janet Kim (Noble Legacy Masters) – 36 pts




• Candice Wang (Noble Legacy Masters) – 36 pts




• Daniel Lobel (Brain Performance) – 36 pts




• P T Jain (Tristar Gladiators) – 35 pts




• Nalin Sayal (Alpha Ninjas) – 35 pts




• Amarjeet Radia (Alpha Ninjas) – 35 pts