LPGA officials have announced that the Blue Bay LPGA has been cancelled again due to “ongoing COVID-19 related matters” in China. The tournament was originally scheduled to be played March 9-12 on Hainan Island and feature a $2.1 million purse. The last time it was played was in the autumn of 2018, where Gaby Lopez won. The last time the LPGA hosted any tournament in China was October 2019.

The LPGA started its 2023 season two weeks ago in Florida with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, won by Brooke Henderson. The next event, however, isn’t until the end of February when the tour was scheduled to begin a three-event swing in Asia. The Blue Bay LPGA was slotted as the final event of the swing, after stops in Thailand and Singapore. The first two stops are still moving forward as planned.

“We thank Hainan Greentown Blue Bay, the China Golf Association, CLPGA and IMG for all their efforts and very much look forward to returning to Hainan in 2024,” the tour said in a press release.

The 2023 LPGA schedule includes also includes another event in China, the Buick LPGA Shanghai, slated for October 13-15.

The post LPGA cancels March event in China citing ‘COVID-19 related matters’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Within minutes of each other, the PGA Tour and LPGA issued statements Wednesday announcing the cancellation of tournaments scheduled to be held in China in October. Both cited guidance from the China Golf Association about ongoing COVID-19 related restrictions.

The WGC-HSBC Champions was slated for Oct. 27-30 at Sheshan International in Shanghai. It was one of two remaining World Golf Championship events on the PGA Tour schedule. This is the third straight year the event has been cancelled due to COVID. The last playing came in 2019 when Rory McIlroy beat Xander Schauffele in a playoff.

“We have worked with all Tours, as well as the China Golf Association, on the viability of hosting the WGC-HSBC Champions this fall, but unfortunately the logistical implications forced the difficult decision to cancel the event,” said Christian Hardy, PGA Tour Senior Vice President, International. “We are thankful for HSBC’s partnership during these trying times as we continue to navigate the changing COVID-19 climate.”

That same week, the PGA Tour was planning to play the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. The tour announced that the Bermuda event at Port Royal Golf Course will now be a full FedEx Cup points event with a purse of $6.5 million.

The Buick LPGA Shanghai was set for Oct. 13-16 at Qizhong Garden G.C. in Shanghai. This event has also not been held since 2019, when Danielle Kang defended her title. It was to be the first of four straight weeks that the LPGA would be playing events in Asia; the tour still has tournaments in South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Japan slated.

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The post WGC, LPGA fall events in China cancelled due to COVID restrictions appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Marina Alex wasn’t sure how much competitive golf she had left in her. The 31-year-old from New Jersey has been on the LPGA Tour since 2013. In 2018, she secured her first win. But on Sunday in Los Angeles, after enjoying a celebration for winning the Palos Verdes Championship by a shot over World No. 1 Jin Young Ko, Alex admitted that a lot has changed since that first win nearly four years ago.

The COVID-19 pandemic made 2020 a difficult season for everyone. While waiting for tournaments to start up again, Alex’s usual schedule of practice and conditioning changed. To fill her time, she added more workouts. When competition began again, her back wasn’t right. She tried to play through it, but after the ANA Inspiration in September 2020, she knew she had to take some time away. Her plan was to get healthy for the U.S. Women’s Open and the CME Group Tour Championship at the end of the year. But physical therapy and cortisone shots into her back weren’t enough. She didn’t return to competition until March 2021.

She’s open about the struggle.

“If you had talked to me last year or the beginning of even this year, I didn’t think it was even a remote possibility that I was going to win ever again,” said Alex, who was three back at the start of the final round Sunday before shooting a closing five-under 66 to win with a 10-under 274 total. “I didn’t know how much longer I really wanted to be golfing ever again.”

Part of the issue was the geographic location of her coach. At the time she was working with Ian Triggs, who lives in Australia. With the travel restrictions put in place, she wasn’t able to see him in person.

“You could only do so much with FaceTime,” Alex said.

Her injury added to the stress. Though her back was feeling good enough to compete, the thought of hurting it again scared her.

“I was so nervous about re-injuring myself, and so I just really was very, very protective of my body last year,” Alex said.

But outside of the mechanics of the swing and the physical realities of recovering from an injury, Alex felt a mental shift, too.

“My priority of being home and kind of just spending more time in one place and feeling a sense of community has been important to me. It’s tough. Like the tour life takes you away from that, so I’ve had a lot of struggle I think internally with what I want, the direction I want to go, what my next steps are in my life,” Alex said. “It’s definitely made me a bit more realistic of my future. I went into this year and I was like, ‘I don’t know how many more years I’m going to play if I’m being perfectly honest.’ ”

Alex says that when she pictures a life after competitive golf, she sees herself advocating for the women’s game. She wants to be involved in events, to try to get more attention on women’s golf. She wants to see tournaments where men and women compete together.

Though she knows there’s a life after competitive golf, she decided that as long as she chose to compete, she’d give it everything she had. She found a new coach stateside, Claude Harmon. Physically, she wasn’t in pain anymore. That combined with working on some new things with her swing gave her energy.

“I felt really just like re-inspired I guess coming out here,” Alex said. “It’s just amazing, like the hard work has paid off. I wasn’t sure if this would ever happen again if I’m being perfectly honest.”

Alex’s five-under 66 on Sunday at Palos Verdes Golf Club secured her second LPGA Tour win. And though it’s been a difficult road getting here, those closest to her knew this is exactly where she wanted to be.

“It was a goal this year if I’m being honest,” Alex said. “It was a goal amongst like my family and people close to me. I was like, I really want to win this year no matter what I decide to do with continuing to play or the rest of my career. I would love to be in contention and win another tournament.”

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Four-event ‘Beautiful Thailand Swing’ takes place in May in Phuket after Covid-enforced hiatus

By GolfDigestME.com
After 25 challenging months and a pair of unavoidable false starts, the MENA Tour is back with a brighter than ever outlook.

The Middle East and North Africa developmental circuit will return to post-pandemic action via a four-event ‘Beautiful Thailand Swing’ next month with each of the 54-hole, US$75,000 tournaments to be co-sanctioned by the Asian Development Tour (ADT).

The Laguna Phuket Challenge (May 3-5), Laguna Phuket Cup (May 8-10), Blue Canyon Classic (May 13-15) and Blue Canyon Open will conclude the MENA Tour’s now rejigged 2020+ ‘Journey to Jordan’ season which will eventually span nine events, six countries and more than two years.

Incentives are available to MENA Tour members who tee it up in Phuket, chief among them an invite to one of the Asian Tour’s 10 new marquee US$1.5 million-plus International Series events in 2022.

That opportunity will be awarded to the overall Journey to Jordan Order-of-Merit champion at the completion of the Blue Canyon Open, the ninth and final event of the season. The top 10 available Oder of Merit players will also earn invites to the next two ADT events, after which the ADT will conduct its own re-ranking — meaning potential promotion to the main Asian Tour. In addition, the top 10 players in the Journey to Jordan rankings will also be exempted to the final stage of Asian Tour Q-School for the 2023 Asian Tour season.

Co-hosted by Laguna Golf Phuket and Blue Canyon Country Club, the Beautiful Thailand Swing is the first tangible outcome of the strategic alliance announced by the Asian and MENA Tours in December. A full merger of the MENA Tour and ADT is mooted from 2023.

Blue Canyon Country Club

MENA Tour Commissioner David Spencer said the Beautiful Thailand Swing incentives, especially when coupled with impending changes to the Official World Golf Rankings, underline the importance of the alliance with the Asian Tour.

“The OWGR changes [which come into effect in August] are particularly important to development tours because there will be no minimum OWGR points awarded to any tour. This will make pathways to the top tier tours more difficult for players in the lower positions on the OWGR,” said Spencer.

“We believe that the new OWGR regulations are fair but we are also very cognisant of how a player progresses. This vital progression very simply boils down to playing opportunities on OWGR tours and once we were made aware of the new OWGR regulations, we felt compelled to further align ourselves with one of the top tier tours.”

A MENA Tour player could conceivably tee it up in Phuket, secure an International Series start and eventually find themselves playing in one of the eight new $25 million prize purse LIV Golf Invitational Series events, the recently announced Saudi-backed league fronted by Greg Norman.

“We will continue to work more closely with the Asian Tour as there is absolutely no doubt that our combined vision will provide players with the clearest and most defined development pathway in the world of professional golf outside of the USA,” said Spencer.

Ryan Lumsden won the last MENA Tour event, the Journey to Jordan 2 Championship held at Ayla Golf Club in Aqaba in early March, 2020. The $13,500 pay day propelled the Scottish professional up to third in the 2020+ Journey to Jordan standings behind a pair of Englishmen, David Langley and David Hague.

Attempts were twice made to restart the circuit in a bio-secure bubble at Ayla Oasis, the MENA Tour’s destination partner. However, on-going travel restrictions made a resumption impossible until now.

To further assist players starved of playing opportunities since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the MENA Tour has dramatically reduced entry fees to $50 for each of the four Beautiful Thailand Swing events. The Phuket swing has also been confined to a compact three-week window to help players contain costs.

2022 and Beyond

Spencer has also outlined plans for the 2022 MENA Tour season with an initial October-December schedule featuring a “strong focus in the MENA region” to be released in due course.

All current MENA Tour members will be automatically eligible to re-join the tour for the 2022 season with the OWGR confirming traditional Q-School requirements have been waived this year due to the impacts of COVID-19.

“Obviously, the world is a different place since the pandemic began and we have had to try and figure out how to best adapt and pivot the MENA Tour,” Spencer said.

“At times we know this has been frustrating but I know all our members will be buoyed by the fact we have always been working to try and improve the tour we created back in 2011.”

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The post MENA Tour returns to action in Thailand alongside Asian Development Tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
When the World Health Organisation (WHO) officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11 last year, experts were swift with cataclysmic predictions for the global economy.  Governments were already scrambling, with varying degrees of success, to ensure their hospital systems were not completely over-run by this new invisible enemy and scientists sped to formulate vaccines.

Lockdowns, physical distancing, mandatory mask wearing, hand sanitising and Netflix binges became our norm. Employees were furloughed, already struggling businesses went to the wall and we all fretted for the future in this scary, uncertain time. Unless of course you worked in a non-essential service industry like golf where it seemed likely the inevitable global downturn would only serve to hasten the game’s already well-documented participation rate nose dive. With people dying at alarming rates around the world, golf seemed so insignificant. The outlook for the royal and ancient game was bleak.

Top Outcome
What few saw coming was the almost complete reverse of that doomsday forecast. With the beauty of hindsight, that golf has boomed as we slowly emerge from COVID-19 (or at least learn to live with the deadly virus) is not all that surprising. Even the most pessimistic of epidemiologists agree that a more socially distant and safe outdoor pastime you will struggle to find.

With that, the Emirates Golf Federation (EGF) set about ensuring the game was the first in the UAE to open up post lockdown, initially in ‘bubbles’ complete with partially filled-in holes, flagsticks you dear not touch and rake-free bunkers. Clubs who had seen round numbers plummet from 54,000 in April 2019 to 12,000 the following April (the EGF officially recorded just 2964 rounds) at least had hope after months of empty tee sheets.

Fast-forward 12 months and the latest statistics are astonishing with  80,000 rounds recorded across the UAE’s 18 courses this past April. That “approximate” figure was released at the Emirates Amateur Golf League (EAGL)’s recent ‘Future of Golf’ forum which shone a light on the state of the UAE golf industry. 

So how did we get here and how does the industry ensure the unforeseen spike in participation is not wasted? The answer to the former, in the UAE anyway, is two-fold. It’s clear established golfers who suddenly found themselves out of the office took advantage by hitting the links and playing and playing and playing some more. Former players, with equal amounts of time to fill, dusted off their old sticks and it seems in many cases, rediscovered their love for the game. 

Perhaps the most significant development, which just happened to coincide with the height of the pandemic, was the opening on January 3 of Topgolf Dubai. Since then, the impressive entertainment facility on the old Faldo driving range at Emirates Golf Club has seen an average of 10,000 players a week whack microchipped balls into the floodlit night skies while supping on refreshments and grooving to beats.

It’s golf, just not as the UAE has known it before, according to Chris May, the CEO of Golf Dubai who critically own the Topgolf licence for the Middle East.

“Why did we decide to bring Topgolf to the UAE?” May said in response to a question from moderator Joy Chakravarty. “Two main reasons. Firstly, we felt the business model was a good model and it would work in Dubai. That’s proven to be true and correct. But secondly and probably more importantly was to grow the game of golf and that has been proven to be definitely correct.

We are putting golf clubs into the hands of people that have never had a golf club in their hands before and they are having fun. – Chris May

(L to R) Moderator Joy Chakravarty, Ismail Sharif, Chris May, Simon Corkill, Mark Chapleski, Nick Tarratt and Roger Duthie at the EAGL forum

“The one thing that we’ve seen that has been really pleasing has been that Topgolf in Dubai, 75 percent of the people that play are non-golfers. So we are putting golf clubs into the hands of people that have never had a golf club in their hands before and they are having fun.”

Drilling deeper into the makeup of the 75 percentile encourages May even more. “The diversity of nationalities, the diversity of age-groups, the number of UAE nationals and GCC nationals who are picking up a golf club for the first time and playing and having fun, it’s really something I don’t think we’ve seen in this region before.” 

May doffed his cap to the EGF for getting golf back on its feet before turning the heat up on the region’s clubs to keep the momentum going. All with an exciting, Topgolf carrot.

“I think golf has a great opportunity because of COVID. We’ve been very fortunate thanks to the hard work of the Emirates Golf Federation…[vice-chairman] Adel Zarouni in particular made us very fortunate to be the first sport that was open post the lockdown and I think that gave us a great advantage in seeing a huge uplift in the number of rounds played in the region.

“Now it is all of our responsibility to take that [participation spike] to the next stage and make sure people are playing Topgolf and then converting to green grass golf.”

Topgolf Dubai

The exciting bit? That non-golfers outside Dubai won’t always have to travel to the emirate to discover the joys of the game.

There’s nothing concrete planned yet, May insisted, but “based on the success of Dubai you’ll see other Topgolfs. 

“The first one is likely to be in Abu Dhabi but I think you’ll see it around the GCC, other Topgolfs coming up. Perhaps not as big as the one in Dubai but smaller, making sure it is successful in that city, wherever it goes, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see four, five, six in the region within the next two, three years.”

Fresh Ideas
When Nick Tarratt arrived in Dubai 31 years ago with “short trousers and long hair” to serve as secretary and golf manager at Emirates Golf Club, the game in the emirate was a very exclusive affair.

“The only way you could play Emirates Golf Club was as a member, member’s guest, corporate golf day or an international guest through a hotel. There was no local pay and play so we’ve gone from there to here.”

There’s still a way to go to entice non-golfers to a sport that is still perceived to be stuffy and rule-ridden by uninitiated outsiders. Even Tarratt struggles letting go of tradition but knows the time has come.

“Let’s not forget I’m a jacket and tie, blazer man who likes the traditional 18 holes, the majors, the monthly medals, I still love that. But to encourage new golfers, the people Chris [May] at Topgolf and all of us here at the forum are trying to encourage, I think it will engage with the youth of today and not just old blazer and tie guys like me.”

The ‘it’ Tarratt was referring to is the Emirates Amateur Golf League (EAGL], amateur golf’s answer to IPL cricket complete with franchise-style teams and live broadcasts of 9-hole matches designed to give average Joes (and Janes) the chance to experience what touring pros encounter every week. The EAGL Mini-Series played before the forum, a dress rehearsal to an annual three-month league scheduled to start in November, was greeted with widespread approval.

 Tarratt, as tournament director, clearly has a vested interest but sees ventures like the EAGL as part of the ongoing solution to grow golf’s appeal.

“Is this the short-form of golf [going forward]? Golf has tried Sixes, it’s tried Shot Clock Masters, maybe it was invested in those rather than engaged,” said Tarratt, best remembered as the former chief of the European Tour’s Dubai office. 

“And Shiv [EAGL ambassador and four-time Asia Tour winner Shiv Kapur] told me, ‘I think 9 holes is the future of corporate golf’. It’s great for the clubs to work in at quieter times rather than a big shotgun at 12.30pm, peak time; it helps the sponsor, it’s a little cheaper, you’re playing with perhaps more different people. What was great today [the EAGL Mini-Series] was that it was a genuine networking opportunity. It wasn’t you playing with three mates and having fun and just winning the same glass trophy and the same buffets so I must applaud [EAGL founder and CEO] Sudesh [Aggrawal] and all the team. Going forward, I think short-form golf is the future, Topgolf is a great example. 

EAGL founder Sudesh Aggrawal

“I think engaging with the youth, short form, having more fun, music on the 1st tee, not on the golf cart…” 

Tarratt’s answer tailed off, perhaps because he realises the old blazer brigade are in a losing battle when it comes to what the next-gen needs to be attracted to golf and what they want to stay invested.

Facilities Rethink
Another veteran of the UAE game is Ismail Sharif, a seven-time national champion who currently serves as Managing Director of Dubai Golf-managed Jumeirah Golf Estates and is passionate about getting the nation’s youth off their screens and out onto the course. 

The problem he sees is facilities to meet the newbie end of the market.

 “We’ve done a great job so far but [the] only mistake that we’ve done, we’re always focusing on the five-star [experience],” said Sharif. 

“If we look at the hotel business, you will see the pyramid is five-star first, then two is four-star, and then come down. Golf needs to be the same if we want to grow the game. But our pyramid is upside down, we are all having five-star golf courses, we don’t have nothing at the bottom to support the [new people] who like to come and play golf. 

“Now, with the help of Topgolf and some programmes like here at JGE – we have started a programme called ‘Get into Golf’, it’s for one month, coaching in group lessons for 495 dirhams…normally you would [only] get one lesson for 495 dirhams. This is the things we need to do, work with all the golf courses if we want to bring this business to sustainable [levels] and have more golfers. We need to start somewhere.”

There are indeed new courses in the wings – the new Tiger Woods layout in Dubai will be a top dirham experience but perhaps Yas Acres in Abu Dhabi and the 9-hole Peter Harradine design on ice at Al Barari in Dubai could serve as more affordable entry points to the game. Time will tell.

Global Profile
Afascinating aspect of the game’s overall health in the Middle East centres around the region’s high-profile European Tour and Ladies European Tour events. Two key players in that space are Simon Corkill and Roger Duthie and both shared interesting, even slightly contentious, thoughts at the forum.

Corkill, Executive Tournament Director for Falcon and Associates which run and promote the men’s OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic and LET’s OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic, said the region had made an “exceptional statement” by safely running pro events at the height of the pandemic.

OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic

“It [COVID-19] continues to cause us all challenges in everyday life but for example, when the Desert Classic was on, the [case] numbers were up to 5000 people a day and it was a really tense time but Dubai came through and demonstrated we could run safe events.

“This is not going away but I see the events at the end of the year, the DP World [Tour Championship] and the events for 2022, we will have events, the players will come, we can run hospitality safely and we can host spectators safely. Dubai and the UAE are right up there as world leaders.”

Corkill also wondered out loud if the tournaments he oversees at Emirates Golf Club might also become trailblazers in terms of media engagement.

“The other big change I’ve seen has been the whole clamber for content is becoming really, really strong and we need to adapt. As tournaments, we need to create content that is snackable, it’s engaging and we’re doing it.”

No one in golf does social media better than the European Tour and Corkill believes events need to adapt likewise. In the case of the OMEGA Classics, they might even go a step further.

“One thing that we’re looking at, and this has come around very recently, [is our] policy on press interviews having seen what has happened to Naomi Osaka in the tennis world. We’ve got to assess that situation. Is a press conference right if people don’t have direct consent? We’re looking at these things, we looking at, okay, if players don’t have direct consent on post round interviews, do we encourage all the players to speak on the social media channels pre, during and post the event? I think we might get a really good result out of it. We’re considering it for a trial at our ladies event in October. We’re not sure yet but it’s certainly something we have to look at. We have to work with the times. 

Naomi Osaka

“Dubai has traditionally done this, pushed the boundaries, adapted and that’s why we’ve got a really good place in global golf. The events here are going from strength to strength but we adapt quickly and we will continue to.”

Global golf and boundary-pushing. A timely segue to introduce Duthie to the conversation. The former Emirates Airlines sponsorship guru is now Chief Sponsorship Officer for golf marketing and consultancy agency Performance 54 which enjoys strong links to the global game’s most ambitious new market, Saudi Arabia. Duthie is also an Independent Sports Sponsorship Adviser and while he wasn’t asked to comment on the “exciting project” he’s currently engaged in, the room read it as a challenge to the game’s current status quo.

Time will tell if the mooted Super League (formerly the Premier Golf League) will make it from concept to big money reality, but Duthie is adamant the game needs to kick on now the “Tiger factor” is wearing off. 

“…over the last 10 years the average age of the TV viewing audience in America, say, is 63 years old. Golf is still getting older. We don’t have that Tiger factor anymore so how do you capture a young audience? Topgolf is one way, right, this forum, today’s tournament [the EAGL Mini-Series] is another way but we have to look at other ways at attracting that younger audience because, sadly, we’re all getting older, decision makers are getting older as well, so we need to look for creative, new ways to find and attract new audiences.

“On a similar vein, it’s interesting to note, from a sponsors point of view, you want the top players to play and I was involved in the European Tour, and I love that partnership, and the Asian Tour. But right now there is about 40 percent of the time when the world’s top 48 golfers play in an event, so you’re not guaranteed Tiger, Phil, Rory etc, etc. Those are the people the fans want to see and the sponsors want to see and the broadcasters and that’s what makes this wonderful ecosystem work.

“We’re not having that right now so wouldn’t it be wonderful from a fans point of view, from a sponsor’s point of view if you could guarantee once a month, maybe every five weeks, that you could guarantee the top 48 players in the world or so playing in a tournament? How good would that be for the world of golf? Then you could create narratives throughout the season, you could generate new fans, new interest, you could highlight different players if you did a different type of format, there are so many ways to grow the game now. We’re looking at it through my business right now and hopefully we’ll be successful.”

Watch this space. And welcome all those newbies emerging from Topgolf bays to green grass tees with open arms. The game, in this strange period of history, will endure and prosper if we become more inclusive, less exclusive. Maybe even turn up the stereo.

[divider] [/divider]

Tourism Rebound

Mark Chapleski was asked for his thoughts on sustainability, golf latest’s “buzz word” as he put it, at the EAGL’s Future of Golf Forum. He reported that the region was “ahead of the curve” globally after making “great strides” over the past 30 years with agronomy practices and more recently with the phasing out of single use plastics.

But first, the Dubai-based, Troon International President waxed lyrical on the region’s participation numbers announced by moderator Joy Chakravarty.

“You talked about 80,000 rounds in April and that is an incredible number. I don’t think any of us sitting here would have ever had of thought it was possible with the local market to do those kind of numbers, so it’s phenomenal, it’s been incredible what golf has gone through.

“But what’s even more incredible is that [number] was with less than one percent of tourists which we would…typically in the peak season we would get at least 10 percent and that’s something we are working towards getting more of those.”

Troon’s Abu Dhabi cluster of clubs – Yas Links, Abu Dhabi and Saadiyat Beach – are indeed working towards opening up the emirate to Green List countries including the U.S., Germany, Italy and Spain.

With more than 93% of those eligible now reportedly vaccinated in Abu Dhabi, Troon Abu Dhabi now has the ability to function as a tour operator, creating a “one-stop hub” for all international golf tour operators to package all required services including additional services such as hotel rooms and restaurant bookings with preferred rates.

A sharp increase in demand for autumn and winter golf breaks is expected as a result.

Said HE Ali Hassan Al Shaiba, Executive Director of Tourism and Marketing at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi): “Golf is an important part of the sporting ecosystem in Abu Dhabi. The three championship golf courses managed by Troon complement Abu Dhabi’s golf offering and attracts professional and amateur players from all over the world. It is exciting to welcome back international golfers to challenge themselves on these beautiful courses in a safe and worry-free environment. The stringent safety measures Abu Dhabi has put in place to protect residents and non-residents alike will reassure our future golfing visitors.”

The post State of the Nation: What now for UAE golf? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Mike Stachura
The National (U.S.) Golf Foundation hinted throughout the summer and fall that 2020 was showing a remarkable surge in both participation and rounds played despite the shutdowns and uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its final report for the year might actually be more positive than even predicted, what the golf industry group called “a year of resurgence.”

How good was 2020 historically? Tiger Woods good.

Specifically, the growth numbers in many cases set all-time records in many categories, and the number of golfers coming to the game in 2020 were only benchmarked against some of the greatest moments in Woods’ career, including his debut major title in 1997 and his epic U.S. Open win on a broken leg in 2008.

“There hasn’t been this much optimism and new activity in the golf business since the turn of the century,” said Joe Beditz, NGF president and CEO, in a recent email to the golf industry group, noting “spring shutdowns gave way to an unprecedented summer and fall in terms of play, golfer introductions and reintroductions, and robust, late-season spending.”

The NGF count showed 24.8 million golfers in the U.S. in 2020, an increase of 500,000 and 2 percent over 2019. It is the largest net increase in 17 years. New players (both beginners playing their first round and lapsed golfers coming back to the game for the first time in years) numbered 6.2 million, the highest that number has ever been. Last year also saw the largest percentage increase in beginning golfers and the biggest gain in youth golfers coming to the game since Tiger’s 1997 Masters win.

Women golfers also were part of the 2020 surge, jumping 450,000 or 8 percent year over year and making up nearly a quarter of all golfers with a count of some six million. That is the highest number over the last five years.

The NGF also counts total golf participants by factoring in off-course experiences as well, and that number swelled the overall count to 36.9 million, up 8 percent year-over-year and a near 20 percent gain in the last five years.

Of course, the pandemic’s challenges still took a toll with a larger-than-usual volume of players who opted out of the game for concerns over the pandemic or economic challenges. Still, 2020 marked the third straight year more golfers came to the game than left it, and the NGF’s study of those who opted out of golf in 2020 suggests they’re more eager than ever to opt back in. The number of what the NGF survey calls “very interested non-golfers” reached 17 million, a 1.5 million increase compared to 2019 and 4.2 million more than in 2016.

The net gain in golfers also contributed to a healthy boost in rounds played, despite many states restricting or even banning play for weeks or months. The NGF estimated a loss of 20 million rounds in the spring with course closures and restrictions, but by year’s end, 502 million rounds were recorded. That was 61 million more than in 2019, nearly a 14 percent increase and the largest one-year gain other than in 1997 when Tiger’s booming popularity saw a 63-million-round increase.

The NGF research indicates that the biggest driver of the rounds played surge wasn’t exclusively new golfers. Rather, it was the “core golfers” (more than eight rounds a year) who really upped their games. The report cites “a passionate cohort of existing players (roughly 20 percent of the core-golfer population)” who fueled the boost in the average rounds played per golfer to 20.2. It marked an all-time high since the statistic started being tracked in 1998. Despite being the age groups most at risk during the pandemic, older players still played the most golf. Those aged 60-69 logged an average of 29 rounds in 2020, while those golfers 70 and overplayed an average of 40 times last year. However, millennials (those aged 18-34) increased their rounds played by 13 percent compared to 2019, and 44 percent of all those who played golf at least once on a golf course in 2020 were under the age of 40—with as many under the age of 30 as over the age of 60.

Private clubs clearly were a beneficiary, despite having restrictions on revenue-generating external events like outings and weddings. According to the NGF, two thirds of private clubs said they were in good financial health in late 2020, and rounds at private clubs saw almost a 20 percent increase, greater than what was seen at public facilities, which were up 12 percent. Those gains came despite the reduced rounds at resorts after 2020 saw much less travel. In a way, the private club may have benefited as the stay-cation alternative.

“Private clubs were incredibly resilient in 2020,” said Henry Wallmeyer, president and CEO of the National Club Association, who noted that clubs that couldn’t rely on revenue from corporate events like the past, so they focused on engaging more members. “For an industry that has historically implemented change at an extremely measured pace, private clubs transformed incredibly quickly to serve their members in ways previously unimaginable. What we have learned is that by spending time and effort focusing on their members, clubs don’t necessarily need the non-member outings and events. The pandemic has steered clubs to getting back to why they were initially founded—as a place dedicated to serving members through unmatched service and experiences.”

There was undeniable but measured enthusiasm across the golf equipment industry, too. Equipment sales mirrored the energy in rounds played, recovering from a negative trendline in March and April that saw dollars dip by 31 percent. By year’s end, fueled by the biggest July in history and the second-highest quarter ever (behind only the quarter after Tiger’s riveting 2008 U.S. Open win), total sales of clubs and balls were at $2.9 billion in 2020, matching 2019’s numbers. David Maher, president and CEO of Acushnet, the parent company of the Titleist and FootJoy brands, noted in his recent summary of the company’s full-year earnings that the extraordinary gains might be an unrealistic standard for 2021, but the general direction is telling.

“We are still in a massive transition,” he said. “2020 was a massive transition year, 2021 will be a massive transition year. When the dust settles, hopefully sooner versus later, [the way] I tend to look at it is, ‘Okay, what’s the world going to look like, 2022 versus 2019?’ And I think the golf landscape is going to have more energy, more momentum, more golfers.”

The post The numbers are official: Golf’s surge in popularity in the U.S. in 2020 was even better than predicted appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Daniel Rapaport
European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington has withdrawn from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after testing positive for COVID-19, the PGA Tour announced Tuesday.

He will be replaced in the field by first alternate Sangmoon Bae.

Harrington, 49, has continued to play a full-time schedule as he evaluates candidates for his team that will take on the Americans at Whistling Straits on Sept. 24-26.

Harrington is the latest scratch from a field at Pebble Beach that is missing some of its usual star power. With Dustin Johnson’s withdrawal on Monday evening after his victory last week at the Saudi International, there is not a single top-10 player in the field and just three among the top 20 of the World Ranking. This year’s event is also being played without the usual amateur/celebrity component and with no fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A three-time major winner, Harrington will have three captain’s picks to fill out his roster, while his American counterpart Steve Stricker will have six. The nine automatic qualifiers for the European side will be comprised of the leading four players on the European Points list, which is determined by a player’s finishes on the European Tour, and the leading five members not otherwise qualified on the World Points list, which corresponds to the amount of world ranking points a player has earned. Both captains will make their captain’s picks a few weeks before the event.

Harrington finished T-6 in last month’s Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour but does not have a top-10 on the PGA Tour since January 2016.

Thanks very much for everyone’s well wishes. At the moment I’ve just the symptoms of a cold. If it doesn’t get any worse I’ll take that as a piece of good luck. https://t.co/Ka5fMCpDxn

— Padraig Harrington (@padraig_h) February 9, 2021

The post Padraig Harrington tests positive for COVID-19, out of AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Jhonattan Vegas has withdrawn from the Sony Open after testing positive for COVID-19.

Vegas, 36, announced the news on Twitter Tuesday evening.

“Not exactly how I had planned to start this season in the PGA Tour,” Vegas wrote. “Unfortunately I just tested positive for COVID-19 and will be missing the next two tournaments. I hope I can come back stronger from this.”

Vegas is a three-time tour winner and member of the 2017 Presidents Cup team but missed the FedEx Cup Playoffs last year and is coming off a rough fall, failing to make the weekend in three of seven starts with just one top-25 finish. Because of the positive test, Vegas must now go into self-quarantine, adhering to CDC guidelines.

It is the second positive COVID-19 test for the PGA Tour in 2021, with Jim Herman dropping out of the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Webb Simpson and Xander Schauffele tested positive during the 2020 holiday season but were able to produce negative results in order to play in Maui last week.

Seamus Power will replace Vegas in the Sony Open field.

The post Jhonattan Vegas withdraws from Sony Open after positive COVID-19 test appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Norman, 65, shared the news Friday with a series of images, stating “This sums it all up. My Christmas Day.”

“On behalf of millions, **** Covid,” Norman wrote. “Let’s get this [stuff] behind us never to experience it again.”

 

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A post shared by Greg Norman (@shark_gregnorman)

Norman had posted a message on Christmas Eve that he was in self-quarantine after exhibiting “mild symptoms,” although he noted his doctor had told him a test earlier in the week was negative.

Also on Christmas Day, Norman’s son, Greg Norman Jr., announced on Instagram that he and his fiancée had tested positive for COVID-19. “Michelle got it hard. 4 days of fever, body aches, migraine headaches. I maybe had a slight headache. Really nothing.”

 

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A post shared by Greg Norman Jr (@gregnormanjr)

Two weeks ago Norman hosted two dozen professional players at his QBE Shootout, a team event that is an unofficial tournament on the PGA Tour. The Shootout supports CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, raising more than $14 million for the charity and other foundations since it began in 1989. Norman then played in last week’s PNC Championship with Greg Jr.

Norman owns 88 worldwide wins, including two Open Championship victories. He spent 331 weeks as the World No. 1, a feat surpassed only by Tiger Woods, and was elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001.

The post Greg Norman shares photos from hospital on Christmas announcing he has COVID-19 symptoms appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
In the wake of a four-month COVID-19 lockdown and the subsequent resumption of the 2020 season, the reshaped European Tour—diminished financially and thinner on top in terms of field strength—actually came to represent lands of opportunity for some. Many top-ranked players from Europe chose instead to ride things out in the United States and play on the PGA Tour, providing less familiar names with multiple chances to flourish on the Old World circuit.

“The last few months have been a time for a lot of guys to break through, or re-establish themselves,” says former Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn. “The outside pressures have largely been removed. With no crowds present, everyone is just playing golf. And no one has been paying much attention to those who have played poorly. So things have become a lot freer. It’s been easier to play without some of the mental obstacles that normally lead to discomfort, especially during final rounds. But that sort of environment has been non-existent on tour this year.”

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And many have taken advantage. Following a return to action at the Austrian Open in July, 10 players have recorded maiden victories: Joel Stalter, Sam Horsfield, Romain Langasque, Rasmus Hojgaard, John Catlin, Garrick Higgo, Callum Shinkwin, Robert MacIntyre, JB Hansen and Antoine Rozner. Meanwhile, three actually went on to repeat that feat.

Redemption, although not quite so prevalent, also found its place. Three men—Andy Sullivan, Marc Warren and Ross McGowan—have all returned to the winner’s circle after long absences.

So, who most notably emerged to seize the moment? Here’s a brief look at the most promising golfers among the lot.

Andrew Redington

Rasmus Hojgaard
World Ranking March 15: 184
World Ranking Dec. 7: 82

Bjorn is not surprisingly a big believer in his fellow Dane. “Rasmus has all the tools,” Bjorn says. “There is no weakness in his game, and he has a great attitude. He works hard and believes in himself. He asks the right questions. Things still have to break your way and things have to happen the right way for anyone to get right to the top. But nothing is holding him back. He has a remarkable talent, as him winning two of his first 19 events clearly shows.”

The first of Hojgaard’s wins came in December last year, at the relatively low-key Mauritius Open. But his second win at The Belfry in the U.K. Championship was more impressive, coming as it did at the at the end of a four-week run in which the 19-year-old finished second at the British Masters, T-6 at the Hero Open, and third at the English Championship.

REWIND: Golf Digest Middle East’s 2014 conversation with the ‘voice of golf’

• • •

Warren Little

Robert MacIntyre
World Ranking March 15: 67
World Ranking Dec. 7: 59

“Rookie of the year” on the European Tour in 2019 after a string of fine performances that included a T-6 finish in his Open Championship debut at Portrush, Macintyre’s breakthrough at the Cyprus Showdown is perhaps the least surprising in this group of emerging talents.

“I’ve watched Bob a lot over the past couple of years,” says fellow Scot and 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie. “His rise has been quick and steady. He seems like a lovely lad. I can see him winning more. He clearly has a good attitude, temperament and way about him. And he has the game. How high he goes remains to be seen. But judging by the World Rankings (MacIntyre is the highest-ranked Caledonian at 61st), he looks like Scotland’s best chance to have a Ryder Cup player next year.”

• • •

RK

Antoine Rozner
World Ranking March 15: 202
World Ranking Dec. 7: 123

The climax to what had been an unobtrusively impressive season came late, with a victory in the first Golf in Dubai Championship. Twice a winner and eighth on the 2019 Challenge Tour money list, Rozner had accumulated as many as five top-10 finishes—including a playoff loss at the Mauritius Open—in 19 starts before his breakthrough victory. Only twice had he missed the cut. And the final-round 64 with which he clinched that win was the 27-year old Frenchman’s 19th round in succession at par or better.

Those numbers are impressive enough. But there’s more. In his rookie season on the European Tour, Rozner ranks inside the top 15 in both driving distance and greens in regulation. And only two men—Ryder Cup players Andy Sullivan and Tommy Fleetwood—have a stroke average lower than his 69.72. Given his present rate of progress, Rozner could become only the fourth Frenchman to take his place in the biennial contest with the United States.

• • •

Richard Heathcote

Sam Horsfield
World Ranking March 15: 222
World Ranking Dec. 7: 99

The 24-year old Florida-based Englishman (his family moved stateside when Horsfield was just a child) might not be the most consistent player on the European Tour, but when he gets a sniff of victory he tends to take it. Twice in two weeks back in August he did just that, first at the Hero Open, then at the Celtic Classic. None of which will have come as a surprise to Ian Poulter or Terry Mundy. The six-time Ryder Cup player is a long-time mentor of his younger compatriot and Mundy—Poulter’s caddie—is Horsfield’s co-manager.

“He’s the best young player I’ve ever played with,” said Poulter when a 14-year old Horsfield first beat him over nine holes. A decade or so later, it’s safe to say that assessment is proving more than prescient.

• • •

Warren Little

John Catlin
World Ranking March 15: 211
World Ranking Dec. 7: 96

Most weeks, there aren’t many Americans on the European Tour. But Catlin has long proved that a lack of familiar accents is no barrier to success around the globe. Four times the 29-year-old former University of New Mexico student won on the Asian Tour. And now he has half as many wins in Europe to add to his burgeoning resume.

“My goal at the start of 2019 was to win on the European Tour, so to have accomplished that is hard to put into words,” was Caitlin’s verdict after seeing off two-time major champion Martin Kaymer to win the Andalucian Masters at what is surely the most difficult course on the circuit, Valderrama.

And only three weeks later, Catlin was back, this time at the Irish Open, where he came from behind to pip soon-to-be Scottish Open champion Aaron Rai to lift one of golf’s most historic titles.

• • •

Ross Kinnaird

Callum Shinkwin
World Ranking March 15: 351
World Ranking Dec. 7: 149

In truth, Shinkwin should not be part of this list. Needing only a par 5 on the 18th hole at the Dundonald Links to win the 2017 Scottish Open, Shinkwin missed the green left with his second shot, found an unfortunate lie, then took four more shots to hole out for a bogey 6. Perhaps inevitably, he lost the playoff to Rafa Cabrera-Bello at the first extra hole.

So victory more than three years on at the Cyprus Open in November was a triumph over adversity as much as anything else. Especially as, mired in a slump, the former English Amateur champion had lost his European Tour card at the end of the 2018 season.

“That was the final kick up the backside I needed,” he said in the wake of his playoff victory over Finland’s Kalle Samooja. “And you can say I got what I deserved back in 2017. But it makes this all the sweeter.”

The post These are the rising stars you should be watching on the European Tour in 2021 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.