The European Tour has confirmed that Saudi Arabia will host its first professional golf tournament in 2019, at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club on the Red Sea coast.

Final plans for the event, which will take place from January 31 to February 3, 2019, were confirmed during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s recent visit to London.

Royal Greens, a two-hour drive north of Jeddah, will welcome some of the world’s best golfers next January as Saudi Arabia joins the early-season ‘Desert Swing’ which includes the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

“We are very excited to be talking the first steps toward bringing professional golf to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the first time and I must thank His Royal Majesty, Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for his vision in making this happen,” said European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley.

Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, president of the Saudi Arabian Golf Federation, said: “I hope that this event will inspire more Saudis to take up the game and show that, as a nation, we can host sporting events of this calibre.

It is the latest new sporting competition to land in the Kingdom, which is preparing to host the World Boxing Super Series Cruiserweight Final in May and also recently confirmed a 10-year deal with WWE.