It is safe to say the past three months have been a bit of a learning curve for us all. My last event was on the MENA Tour in Jordan. At the time I was excited about returning back to Abu Dhabi and the prospect of playing events in the UAE before heading to the UK for a full summer schedule. That all ended abruptly when I received an email on March 4, after the final round in Jordan, stating the MENA Tour had decided to postpone the five remaining events until the pandemic had calmed down. Cue the domino effect. Within a week all other tours had followed suit and it left me and fellow professionals in absolute limbo. I still believe it was the correct decision, 100 percent, but that doesn’t change the fact it has left my future up in the air.

The true impact coronavirus will have on the game, the economy and our day to day lives is still emerging even now. For myself and others working towards the bigger tours, the financial implications are huge. We don’t have an option of being furloughed. We are in a 100 percent commission-based, performance-based business and you still have to cover all expenses for that opportunity to play and earn.

Our way of earning money was cut overnight. When tours don’t pay us the prize money earned, which unfortunately has been the case this time around, it leaves us in a very poor financial situation from which I’m sure some players won’t recover. As we have got further down the road and more information has come to light, the worst news was that of [European Tour] Q- School being cancelled this year. To have the opportunity to progress taken away was probably the biggest hit while in quarantine.

That’s what my team and I have been striving towards for the past six months. Another year on the mini-tours is going to be a tough battle and probably not just financially.

Struggle St.

Lockdown has been a mixed bag of emotions. The first day was actually nice as I got to slow down for once, rest and enjoy a socially acceptable sofa day. Day two was pretty similar. I bought some airflow golf balls, set up a net in the lounge – which consisted of a bathroom towel hung over a stretching pole – and started practising. After 15 minutes, I was already getting sick of being stuck 17 floors up and, as I gazed out the window, realised my practice was pretty pointless. I started longing for some grass to play from. My wife, Lauren, wasn’t overly impressed with the amount of abuse her new rug was getting either so golf inside ended after all of a week.

After a few days of feeling sorry for myself, I was determined to be in a better mood. I started to look for part-time/temp jobs so put a CV together and decided I would finally use that business management and insurance degree I earned in the United States. After looking at the job market for a few days, my mood didn’t improve. It became clear that finding work here in the UAE, or anywhere for that matter, was going to prove very difficult as more people were losing jobs than finding them.

Fortunately, Lauren has been a rock star. After recovering from surgery in December and getting back to full health, she has been able to work from home over Zoom to cover us. If I didn’t have her by my side, like many others in this crisis, I would be faced with the horrible decision to leave this beautiful place we call home.

If this time away from the game has taught me anything, is that I don’t do well doing nothing. I need a routine.

It started to take its toll after only a few days. When the highlight of your day is walking to the supermarket, sweating in a face mask, you realise you’re not in a good place mentally. The cascade of thoughts, of the unknown, was literally crippling me. Each day I would wake up with what felt like little to no purpose. To think it was only a few weeks prior that I was in contention to win a golf tournament in Jordan. It was crazy how quickly life had changed.

During lockdown, I wanted to make sure I didn’t waste the time off. Sitting down and being lazy is just not my personality. I wanted to make the best of a bad situation and I can say I’ve definitely kept myself busy. When Yas Links was shut I took the time to recap some stuff from university and I’m currently halfway through a financial analyst course online. I just completed a month-long mindfulness course (randomly interesting), have been learning to cook (some meals more successfully than others), started making Granola (random) and have come to terms with my mild coffee addiction.

My enthusiasm for indoor practice didn’t last long. Nor would have Lauren’s new rug if I’d carried on.

Lockdown Upside

It’s been a few months of learning, an opportunity to do things I never had time for when I was competing. Best of all, I got to spend three months with my wife. I’m not quite sure Lauren feels the same way but I have never been in one place, let alone home, this long before. It’s had its challenges, of course, but also its rewards. I’m very lucky to be able to share this surreal time with Lauren and hopefully this period will allow us to look at our work-life balance a little more and improve it going forward.

I hadn’t quite realised how much I missed the game and how it affected my mood until the courses in Abu Dhabi finally reopened.

The guys at Yas Links and Troon Abu Dhabi have been fantastic in keeping members and guests safe and even though I have not been competing, it’s been amazing to be around the club, playing with different members and personalities which my busy schedule would normally never allow. I really want to thank the clubs here and especially Yas Links as I couldn’t think of a safer place to be. Being outside in the fresh air is something I doubt we’ll ever take for granted again and with golf you get plenty of that.

Next Move

So what does the future have in store? As the weather heats up and the virus seems to be calming down, I’m looking at the option of flying back to the UK to play a few events and to visit my family. I am still very wary though. As much as I want to compete, I also feel this is something we could be dealing with for quite some time so I’m taking a cautious approach. I also have to weigh up the financial side of things. The smaller events away from the main tours are so expensive and if I’m honest, if you’re not on TV at the moment as a professional golfer, chances are you’re not making a living from the game. The prize funds will be very small in relation to the field size.

I will monitor the situation over the next few weeks and try and make the best decision for me and Lauren. The MENA Tour has proposed a six-week, five-event stint in Jordan and it makes a lot of sense to be in one spot for a period of time. But as awesome as it would be to get back to competitive golf, and as much as I like Ayla Golf Club, six weeks is a long time to spend playing the same course.  They always take good care of the players down in Aqaba but time will tell if it materialises in the current environment.

These have been and will continue to be testing times for us all. Massive thanks goes out to all those frontline workers, and the golf clubs, who are keeping us safe. We owe you.

My goal, as always, is to use this opportunity to get better, fitter and stronger. So far, I feel I have used my time wisely. I have a great team behind me in Mike Bolt and Ali Parlane up in Dubai at the Claude Harmon 3 Performance Golf Institute and Karl Morris back in the UK. With help and guidance from them all, I’m sure I will come out of this situation better than I went into it and ready for whatever regular life will be when the time is right.

Until then, stay positive, stay safe and hopefully we’ll see you out on the golf course soon.

The post How the COVID-19 pandemic has left mini-tour grinders like Luke Joy in complete limbo appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Luke Joy

“Hello everyone, it has been a few weeks since I last posted a blog, but before I get into the golf I wanted to say how excited I am to be able to share my experiences through Golf Digest Middle East.

I will be documenting my movements on the Asian and MENA Tours throughout the 2016 season, but also covering other golf events from across the world and looking at who is making headlines for the right and (probably more entertainingly), the wrong reasons. I will still be posting after each round but on the final day of play I will give a little more of a summary of the event I have been playing in and then touch on some stories from across the world of golf.

Luke Joy is a two-time MENA Tour winner

So, back to my golf. After my exploits playing in Bangladesh on the Asian Tour back in February, I’ve had some time off from tournament golf, but that’s not to say it hasn’t been productive. Forget days at the beach, I have basically been working my a** off in the gym and on the range, building a structured routine with my coach, Mat Parker.

I have been using my gym-time to focus on the areas in my swing where I was physically weak, and am just now starting to see the benefits. This past weekend I had the pleasure of winning the Abu Dhabi Men’s Open at Al Ghazal Golf Club. It was a completely new experience for me as the entire course is sand (with browns instead of greens) and it made for a very fun weekend. You have to play so many different shots during the round and it takes you out of your comfort zone. If you have not played the course I would very much recommend it, not only is it completely different to anything else you would play in the Middle East but it’s a challenging test of golf as well.

The last month has all been focused towards my preparation for three weeks on the road with the MENA Golf Tour. I was confident about getting an invite into the first Challenge Tour event in Kenya last week but unfortunately it didn’t come off so I arrived in Morocco early on Monday morning for two events, then it’s off to Spain for the third week in Sotogrande.

As I arrived nice and early I was able to play nine holes at the Royal Golf Mohammedia Golf Club today ahead of the official practice round tomorrow. The course itself is fairly short in places but being by the coast, there is always a very gusty wind to contend with and today was no exception. I think the course suits someone who can get it out there off the tee and take advantage of some wedges into the very small greens, as I feel if you’re hitting mid-irons into these greens with all the cross wind shots you will face, birdies will be pretty tough to come by.

The MENA Tour this year has an international feel to it and this week is no exception. What was a tour predominately filled with the up-and-coming young talent is now an eclectic mix of new and seasoned campaigners. This week has a strong field with several past European Tour players, which goes to show just how far the tour has come since its launch in 2011.

I’m very much looking forward to getting back out there and getting the competitive juices flowing again. It has been a good mini-break but it is one thing working hard in the gym and on the practice ground, and quite another when you take that work to a competitive environment. The competition is what I miss most when I’m not on the road and this is what gets me up in the morning – I can’t wait to get started.”

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THE TALK AT THE TOP

“This week in the world of golf we saw a possible sign of things to come, especially stateside, as the Florida Swing came to a close with the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He may have stepped away from ceremonial first shot duties at the Masters, but The King was holding court at Bay Hill as usual, making sure the players were never short of his signature drink: iced tea and lemonade.

Jason Day followed some advice from Tiger Woods and ran out the first wire-to-wire winner at Bay Hill and finished the event on 17-under, one shot ahead of Kevin Chappell. This was Day’s first win of the season and I can’t help but think that he will again be pushing for more silverware at the majors this year after that breakthrough success last August at the PGA Championship.

Arnold Palmer with Jason Day and family after the Aussie won Sunday at Bay Hill

Over the last few months we have been reminded that there is far more to the upper echelons of golf than Jordan and Rory, who have both struggled for consistency. With the likes of Adam Scott finding great form recently and winning twice already, not to mention past Masters winner Charl Schwartzel winning last week, it gives people plenty more storylines to focus on as we approach the Masters.

Over on the European and Asian Tours, all the players were walking in single file around the dangerously tight Delhi Golf Club for the Hero Indian Open. It was no surprise to me to see some familiar names up on the top of the leaderboard, with Anirban Lahiri coming close to defending his title. However, it was the man who had finished runner-up four times in the event S.S.P Chawrasia, who took home the title, winning by two shots at 15-under.

SSP Chawrasia on his way to winning the Hero Indian Open at Delhi Golf Club

That is enough from me this week and I will keep you all updated on lukejoygolf.com on how my time in Morocco pans out. I hope you all enjoy following along this year and if you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to message me via the contact page on my website.

Have a good week and happy golfing.”

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Follow Luke here:
Twitter: @joyboy59
Instagram: @lukejoygolf
Online: www.lukejoygolf.com

The post Luke Joy blog: Back in Action appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.