Golfing icon and nine-time major winner Gary Player hailed the Invitational as a great success as the foundation sets to raise in excess of $100 million (Dh 367 million) for charities worldwide over the next few years.

“The event has been a great success. This will help raise money to build a new sports centre here in Abu Dhabi. The Zayed facility is outstanding. We are so impressed at manufacturing things,” said the 80-year-old South African.

“With the support of trusted partners such as Abu Dhabi Sports Council we are able to deliver world-class golf experiences and in doing so create powerful fundraising platforms. This event will be the first of a long and successful journey here.”

“Of course, this event also helps tourism but above all we want to try and fight diabetes in this area. It’s quite prevalent. The players came out, men, women, celebrities, professionals. It’s been an absolutely wonderful day to come back to a course I designed.”

Team Park Hyatt, led by Austrian golfer Bernd Wiesberger, won the inaugural event in the capital, while Emma Cabrera-Bello’s ADSC 3 and Gregory Havret’s ADSC 4 finished level on 17 under-par.