Based on a collective desire to consolidate their respective platforms, this new alliance will see the Asian Tour’s popular tier-two circuit, the Asian Development Tour (ADT), align with the MENA Tour ‒ with the ultimate goal of merging in 2023.

Next year will be a season of transition with the intention to stage a number of ADT and MENA Tour co-sanctioned tournaments before the end of Q2, which will provide equal playing opportunities to both sets of Members.

And, in 2023 the ADT and MENA Tour will then unify to become a single and formidable platform from which players can graduate to the main Tour. Competitors will be able to access the new development tour through the Asian Tour Qualifying School.

“We want to create an amplified pan-Asian development pathway by 2023 feeding directly into the Asian Tour,” said Cho Minn Thant, Commissioner & CEO, Asian Tour.

“The Asian Development Tour has always been an intrinsic part of our ecosystem and this new partnership with our friends at the MENA Tour is a forward-thinking statement of intent to build a combined property for the betterment of professional golf across the length and breadth of our region.”

Earlier in the year both Tours announced plans to increase dialogue on ways of working together but as tournament golf in the region has slowly started to return, they felt the time was right to accelerate their co-operative plans.

“This is the most significant development for the MENA Tour since its inception in 2011,” said David Spencer, Commissioner, MENA Tour.

“As the only Official World Golf Ranking Tour based in the Middle East our goal has always been to encourage, identify and nurture talent from all corners of the world to experience golf in the region which we are so proud of. We have worked closely with the Asian Tour, Cho Minn Thant and his team to create an alliance that underpins a unique and strong pathway for our members. We are intensely proud of our new alliance with the Asian Tour, and I look forward to seeing it flourish over the coming years.”

The Asian Development Tour is hoping to stage 10-12 events in 2022 ‒ an important number of these with the MENA Tour. Dialogue and strategic planning will now continue at pace with the objective to optimise opportunities for all players and where possible try to minimise the amount of travel between tournaments to make it cost-effective and safer for competitors.

The Asian Tour restarted last month with back-to-back events in Phuket which saw invitations to MENA Tour members at the Blue Canyon Phuket Championship and Laguna Phuket Championship.

Further invitations have been extended to MENA Tour members for next month’s The Singapore International ‒ the penultimate event of the 2020-21 season.

The post Asian Tour and MENA Tour form strategic partnership with aim of full merger in 2023 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The MENA Tour is set to resume in October but the new global norm means it is out with the old and in with condensed thinking

By Kent Gray
Within days of Tour Commissioner David Spencer announcing that the on-again, off-again MENA Tour was officially on-again, the reality of our time was brought into sobering focus once more.

The on-going challenges of global travel forced the European Tour to abruptly postpone the Portugal Masters and radically reshuffle the remainder of its April-early May schedule. To the credit of European Tour chief Keith Pelley and his Wentworth-based team, the Tenerife Open was swiftly moved to fill the sudden Portugal gap and the €1 million Austrian Open reinstated to the schedule, albeit to start four days after the Masters at Augusta National and likely without many name players as a result.

Spencer knows a thing or three about pivoting and pivoting again in the face of on-going challenges created by the pandemic. He’d originally hoped to resume the MENA Tour in March-April this year but has now released a super condensed 15 to 16-event schedule to start in Aqaba, Jordan on October 1.

That will include the five outstanding 54-hole events from 2020 to be played in a breathless four week stretch from Oct. 1 with a mere day off in between events at Ayla Golf Club, the tour’s official destination partner. Thereafter, a 2021 season comprising 10-11 events will be squeezed into the even more rapid-fire period from November 1 to December 20. All going to plan, some of the 2021 season events will be played in Oman (possibly Ghala) and the UAE (likely Al Ain, Al Zorah, Al Hamra and Tower Links with a possibility of other Abu Dhabi clubs). But then again, this is 2021, the golf year suffering a bad hangover from the year that changed everything.

Spencer is delighted to have retained all of the MENA Tour’s pre-COVID sponsors, including naming rights titleholder Arena. But to say that the landscape has changed is hardly breaking news.

“I do think about what we were trying to do on the MENA Tour, going from destination to destination, week after week. We wanted to provide our members the experience of playing on a larger tour,” Spencer said.

“But I think now we will see tours starting to play multiple events in one destination. And that is all tours.”

The MENA Tour is a crucial piece in the development puzzle for players such as Dubai-based Indian amateur Arjun Gupta. Photo by Joy Chakravarty

By resuming the season at Ayla Golf Club, with its on-site hotel, beach club, pools and ocean sports, the MENA Tour is going into a bubble that has become the new norm on the European Tour. It is also an insurance policy against pandemic curve-balls. In theory, all 16 events planned could be played in Aqaba.

Surely two months in the same spot, looping the same course – as fun as Greg Norman’s Ayla design is – would be a massive turnoff for even competition and cash-starved mini tour players?

Spencer thinks not, suggesting the tour has been “absolutely inundated with requests” to fill the 132-max player fields given limited playing opportunities around the world.

A mixture of strokeplay and matchplay events will spice things up. “Courses can be set up differently as well. Most club members around the world play the same course over and over and seem to have a very enjoyable experience,” Spencer said.

Indeed, the commissioner is adamant the pandemic has transitioned tour golf’s player-first mentality to commercial realism driven by a health and safety first ethos.

“Whether you are running the PGA Tour or the MENA Tour, you had to try to please everybody all of the time. In the new normal, that’s not possible,” Spencer said.

“Perhaps some people will fall through the cracks. What we’re trying to do with the MENA Tour is to make decisions that are as fair as possible for everybody.”

For “fair”, read cost-effective and logistically feasible. The decision to travel to Jordan is littered with potential pitfalls that are out of Spencer’s control but he’s planning to reduce the costs of travel and accommodation all the same.

With the majority of the developmental circuit’s players U.K. based, they will first require British Government permission to leave the U.K., will then need to quarantine for 14-days in a “green listed” Middle East destination – Dubai being the obvious option – before being permitted entry into Jordan. This all the while hoping the green status of their quarantine base isn’t changed by the Jordanian authorities during the fortnight.

Englishman David Langley holds a
narrow lead in the 2020 Journey to Jordan moneylist race. Photo by Joy Chakravarty

Still, Spencer is optimistic. While players on other mini tours play for little more than entry fees, the “bulk” of events will retain the MENA Tour’s stock-standard $75,000 purses.  Any “slight” reduction in prize funds would be “directly attributable to any increase in player costs in relation to regulatory health costs.”

Certainty is a rare commodity in life nowadays, much less in golf. In that regard, all the MENA Tour can do is plan for an Oct. 1 start and continue playing the lie as the year progresses. In others words, if all 16 events need to be played in Jordan, it’s far better than not playing at all.

Much will depend on COVID travel restrictions at the time with the tour to be guided by the vaccine regulations in each country.  

“There is absolutely no doubt that we are all living in a new world and I do not see 2021 being too much different from 2020,” Spencer said in a memo to players.

“I do think that 2021 will be a year of recalibration and 2022 promises to be relatively normal, positive and calm. I am extremely confident that the plan that is set out is fully achievable.

“That being said, if there are further changes they will be done from pure necessity. We will make sure that the 2021 plan is fully confirmed to you all by June 15th, 2021 at the latest. This gives everyone three plus months notice before we recommence play.”

Three months. A relative aeon in these strange times.

The post A mini tour’s major rethink appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The on-again, off-again MENA Tour is on again, this time in an even more condensed ‘bubble’ that will float between Jordan, Oman and the UAE if coronavirus travel restrictions allow.

MENA Tour by Arena commissioner David Spencer wrote to the regional development tour’s membership on Tuesday, outlining a reworked 2021 schedule that “is fair, beneficial and cost-effective for all of our Members.”

On December 31, Spencer announced plans to play the five outstanding events from the stalled 2020 season at Ayla Golf Club in Aqaba, Jordan in March-April before an 11-event 2021 scheduled from early October.

COVID curveballs put pay to that but Spencer has this time pencilled in an October 1 start date for the five 2020 events, all of which will be hosted in a “golf bubble” at Ayla Resort, the MENA Tour’s official destination partner. A 2021 season of 10-11 events will then be squeezed into the period from November 1 to December 20.

Spencer said the tour hoped to play 2021 season events in Jordan, Muscat and in the UAE, with Al Ain, Al Zorah, Al Hamra and Tower Links likely venues in the Emirates. However, all will be dependent on COVID travel restrictions at the time with the tour to be guided by the vaccine regulations in each country with an almost play the lie mentality. The beauty of remaining in a bubble – now common place on the European and PGA Tours – is that all 15-16 events could feasibly be played at Ayla G.C. if need be, as challenging as that would be for the players.

In his email to players, Spencer said the MENA Tour would confirm the plan by June 15 this year “at the latest” to allow players to plan accordingly. With the majority of the developmental circuit’s players U.K. based, they will first require British Government permission to leave the U.K., will then need to quarantine for 14-days in a “green listed” Middle East destination – Dubai being the obvious option – before being permitted entry into Jordan, all the while hoping the green status of their quarantine base isn’t changed by the Jordanian authorities during the fortnight.

Spencer doesn’t expect any issues filling the maximum 132-player fields despite all the unknowns.

“We have been absolutely inundated with requests,” said Spencer who confirmed many of those requests had come from players from other competition starved tours.

He told Golf Digest Middle East that the “bulk” of events would retain $75,000 purses and any “slight” reduction in prize funds would be “directly attributable to any increase in player costs in relation to regulatory health costs.”

Spencer said the reworked schedule was drawn up to limit the financial outlay required by cash-strapped mini-tour players.

“I can’t imagine anyone of us will come out of this pandemic better off so we have tried to limit travel and accommodation costs,” Spencer said.

The flipside of that is playing events back to back to back at the same venue.

“We’ll start with a practice day, play 54-hole events, have a day off, play another 54-hole event, have a day off, and so on and so on. The bulk of events will be strokeplay but we’re also looking at the possibility of mixing it up with different formats like matchplay for example.

“Fortunately Ayla is such a unique destination with a great hotel now. We’ll have access to the beach club, swimming pools, night par 3 golf and ocean sports. The players will be able to do things in a bubble they can’t do elsewhere with such ease.”

Despite the ongoing challenges presented by the coronavirus, Spencer is confident the MENA Tour have found a solution that will give pro and elite amateurs some certainty in an uncertain time. He said the tour had retained all its sponsors and would be “announcing new partners shortly”. Golf Digest Middle East understands plans are also well advanced for an exciting 2022 season.

“There is absolutely no doubt that we are all living in a new world and I do not see 2021 being too much different from 2020. I do think that 2021 will be a year of recalibration and 2022 promises to be relatively normal, positive and calm. I am extremely confident that the plan that is set out above is fully achievable.

“That being said, if there are further changes they will be done from pure necessity. We will make sure that THE 2021 PLAN is fully confirmed to you all by June 15th, 2021 at the latest. This gives everyone 3+ months notice before we recommence play.

“We look forward to seeing you all again later this year. In the meantime please #StaySafe!!!”

The post MENA Tour back on with October 1 start date in Jordan; UAE, Oman to host events  appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
After nearly eight months of radio silence, the MENA Tour is finally transmitting again and the first communiqué is one of cautious optimism.

Tour Commissioner David Spencer has shared with Golf Digest Middle East a letter sent to the regional developmental circuit’s membership on Wednesday outlining a 2021 schedule featuring no fewer than 16 events.

The dispatch also promised the payment of outstanding prize money from earlier this year as well as the refunding of entry fees to events subsequently postponed by COVID-19, all in no small part courtesy of a “revised” and “fully executed” naming rights sponsorship agreement with Arena.

RELATED: Jordanian amateur Shergo Al Kurdi earns OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic start courtesy of MENA Tour ranking

The 16 events next year will include the five outstanding 2020 tournaments postponed by the coronavirus outbreak being staged in a “golf bubble” at Ayla Golf Club in Aqaba, Jordan from March 8 to April 5. An 11-event “2021 season” is then pencilled in for an October commencement, notwithstanding further pandemic curveballs.

The letter was light on specifics – event dates, purses etc.  – but will be greeted with guarded enthusiasm by the circuit’s fledging pro and amateur membership, many of whom have been left competition starved thanks to the coronavirus. The on-going support of Arena, which supplies structures to the severely impacted events industry, and Ayla, which has extended its destination partnership agreement into 2021, speaks volumes of the tour’s intent, especially in this challenging fiscal environment.

Spencer confirmed the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic would honour its committment of starts in the $3.25 million European Tour event to the top amateur and three leading professionals, a nice New Year’s boost for Jordanian amateur Shergo Al Kurdi and pros David Langley and David Hague (England) and Ryan Lumsden (Scotland).

Further European Tour, Asian Tour and Challenge Tour invites will also be offered to top performers following the five March-April events where fields will be limited to 120 players in a bio-secure bubble.

“These incentives are yet to be finally determined with other promoters but as usual we will work with the individual players once the 2020 Journey to Jordan is completed to create the best possible playing opportunities within their own playing schedules,” Spencer wrote.

There will be no Q-School for the 2021 season with all current members eligible to rejoin for the 2021 season in a category that will be determined after the completion of the 2020 Journey To Jordan. “Furthermore, we are working with several other OWGR Tours to provide MENA Tour Members with limited exemptions to play in tournaments that they are likely to be scheduled for the May to September 2021 period.”

Ayla Golf Club in Aqaba, Jordan, returns as the MENA Tour by Arena’s destination partner in 2021.

Spencer signed off the letter thanking players for their patience and understanding after an extraordinary year. The MENA Tour was the first OWGR-sanctioned circuit to suspend play – following the Journey to Jordan #2 Championship won by Lumsden, in early March. Plans to play the outstanding five events in late 2020 were tentatively announced in April but the ongoing travel challenges presented by the pandemic ensured that was a false dawn.

David Spencer

“Firstly, I want to apologise (again) for the lengthy delays in the prize fund payments,” Spencer wrote. “We appreciate that this has placed pressure on you and that was not our intention. We are very pleased to have been able to sort this issue out and look to the future in a positive and proactive manner.

“We are extremely lucky to be working with companies like ARENA and AYLA who are dedicated to the MENA Tour and have worked with us to create a future pathway.

“I am not going to go over the destructive nature of COVID especially in the world of sport, suffice to say we have navigated this situation with the players’ best interests always being paramount in all discussions.

“Like all of you, I am very much looking forward to seeing 2020 in the ‘rear-view mirror’ and applying our efforts and energies to growing our Tour and providing more exciting playing opportunities for our Members.

“#StaySafe and wishing you and your families all the best for 2021 and beyond.”

The post MENA Tour announce plans for 16 events in 2021 after emerging from ‘destructive’ pandemic bunker appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

In a last-gasp boost, the Jordanian teen learned on New Year’s eve that he will tee it up in the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic from Jan. 28 courtesy of leading the MENA Tour’s stalled 2020 amateur Order of Merit (OOM).

RELATED: MENA Tour announce plans for 16-event 2021

It is understood the 16-year-old is the first Middle Eastern player to earn a spot – others have been handed invites – into the $3.25 million European Tour event at Emirates Golf Club.

It comes after MENA Tour commissioner David Spencer sent a letter to the regional developmental circuit’s information-hungry membership outlining plans for a full 11-event schedule in 2021 – after the five events postponed by COVID-19 earlier this year are played in a month-long “golf bubble” at Ayla Golf Club in Aqaba – Al Kurdi’s home club – from March 8.

Al Kurdi will be joined at the “Major of the Middle East” by Englishmen David Langley and David Hague and Scot Ryan Lumsden, the top three players on the professional OOM before the MENA Tour was put in ice following the Journey to Jordan #2 Championship, won by Lumsden, in early March.

It’s been a year of firsts for Al Kurdi who became the first Arab male to earn Official World Golf Ranking points when he finished runner-up to Englishman David Langley at the Journey to Jordan 1 in February.  He’ll end 2020 as the world No. 1506; he is ranked No.1053 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

Shergo Al Kurdi first Middle East player to earn OWGR and Olympic Golf Ranking points

The ODDC will be Al Kurdi’s fifth European Tour start; he also teed it up in the Jordan Mixed Ope, an event co-sanctioned the Challenge Tour, Staysure (Now Legends Tour) and Ladies European Tour, in April 2019.

As you’d expect, it’s a been an invaluable learning curve for the teen who first teed it up in the Qatar Masters in 2018, played the inaugural Saudi International and Trophee Hassan II in Morocco last year before returning to Doha for the Qatar Masters in March, the final event before COVID-19 shutdown the European Tour. He’s missed the cut in all five European/Challenge Tour starts but showed his progression at Education City Golf Club in March with rounds of 73-74.

Al Kurdi is no stranger to the Majlis course at Emirates G.C. He started playing MENA Tour events at the age of just 13 and was invited by then ODDC Tournament Director Spencer to play the Pro-Am at Emirates G.C. in 2014, as captured in the picture above.

Qualifying for the event proper is a continuation of the MENA Tour’s remit to see an Arab player qualify for the Olympic Games.

“We are so proud of Shergo and what he has managed to achieve at such a young age,” Spencer said in February after Al Kurdi joined the OWGR in February.

“The MENA Tour by Arena was established with this specific objective in mind and we feel validated of all the work that has been put behind the Tour. Having a player from the region qualify for the Olympics is our cherished objective, and Shergo is now well on his way.”

The post Jordanian amateur Shergo Al Kurdi creates further history after securing Desert Classic start appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Plans to bring the MENA Tour’s cosmopolitan membership together to finish the postponed 2020 season at a single venue in a luxury, compound-style bubble are well advanced, Golf Digest Middle East has learned.

MENA Tour by Arena commissioner David Spencer has confirmed the regional developmental circuit is looking to play the five remaining events in a six-week stretch between mid-October and late November at Ayla Golf Club in Aqaba, the tour’s destination partner.

The proposal is subject to the approval of “all the necessary regulatory authorities” and any travel restrictions in place at the time but Spencer believes it will be well supported by an international cast of players desperate for playing opportunities amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Those players would be extremely well looked if the bold plan succeeds with the wider Ayla Oasis resort set to become a luxury, all necessities-covered camp for players.

“We are looking at the complete package that would leave the professionals with literally nothing else to focus on than playing golf tournaments,” Spencer said.

“We are talking about food and beverage, laundry, medical support, etc. We’d also need to look at something like a beach club, sailing or the like because we won’t be playing every day for six weeks.”

Jordan is currently in lockdown with Spencer saying the MENA Tour is “looking at a quarantine package” if the strict travel /health restrictions remained in place come October.

David Spencer

“We are really taking a deep dive but that’s part of our job and that’s to come up with realistic opportunities for our members. Ayla is so spectacular, we think the players will like the idea of staying in one place,” Spencer said.

“I think the days of a travelling sports circus are… a long time to come [return] for golf.”

That is a thinly veiled pointer to the challenges facing the European Tour, which has postponed or cancelled events to mid-July and given no timeline for a possible return to action despite the PGA Tour having locked in a mid-June restart. However, chief executive Keith Pelley has told his members a “radically different” European Tour could be kick-started with multiple events at one venue, much like the MENA Tour model, in what is one of a number of recovery options being considered.

The MENA Tour is believed to be the first Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR)-sanctioned circuit to suspend its season as the enormity of the pandemic was slowly becoming evident around the world, a March 5 decision for which the it tour’s leadership had “coped a lot of flak”, according to Spencer. However, the MENA Tour’s Australian commissioner was concerned players could become locked down somewhere in the Middle East if the organisation hadn’t of taken the early stance.

The tour’s ‘Journey to Jordan’ campaign was postponed after the confusingly entitled Journey to Jordan #2 Championship, won by Scotsman Ryan Lumsden, concluded on March 4. It was the second of three events scheduled to be played at Ayla, including the $100,000 Arena Tour Championship, which was due to have concluded today, April 23.

Events in Abu Dhabi, at Tower Links in Ras Al Khaimah and a Northern Emirates Open, to be jointly hosted at Al Hamra in RAK and Al Zorah in Ajman, were also locked into the schedule but now the season looks likely to be played out solely in Aqaba.

Ayla G.C.

Further details of the proposed Ayla encampment, such as prize money and the outcome of season-long rewards including invites to events on bigger tours that are a huge lure to fledging young professionals, are expected to become clearer in coming weeks.

The MENA Tour has long secured spots for its best performers at European Tour events including the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic but the seismic economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic has now put the very survival of a number of tours, notably the Challenge and European Senior (Staysure) Tours, into sharp focus.     

Spencer said he was indebted to the on-going support of Arena, the MENA Tour’s title sponsor, and Ayla despite their income streams being “decimated” like so many others in the sports/entertainment industry.

The post MENA Tour eyeing luxury, six-week Aqaba encampment to finish postponed Journey to Jordan season appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
It will still be known as the ‘Journey to Jordan’ but that’s about where the similarities between the current MENA Tour by Arena season and new-look 2020 schedule end. 

New events in Oman and the UAE – the latter an Alfred Dunhill Links Championship-style Pro-Am over 54 holes – two multi-venue tournaments (albeit at familiar courses) and a $25,000 increase in the purse for the season-ending tour championship headline next season’s schedule unveiled today.

RELATED: Arena become ‘umbrella sponsor’ of MENA Tour

Also gone for 2020 are the current spring and autumn swings, replaced instead by a condensed four-month season, again encompassing a two-stage Qualifying School at Ayla G.C. in late January. Q-School is immediately followed by the first event of the season proper, the Journey to Jordan #1 Championship, also at Ayla Golf Club.

With Aqaba in Jordan back as the tour’s destination partner, Ayla G.C. will again host four events (Q-School and three main season stops) including The Arena (Tour) Championship. The April 19-23 Journey to Jordan decider will be 72-holes for the first time since the 2017 Tour Championship, features an increased prize fund of $125,000 and becomes a full-field event for the first time in what will be the eighth season of the MENA Tour.

The increased playing opportunities and increased Official World Golf Ranking points (five OWGR points to the Arena Championship winner as it has become a four-round event) are by design, not necessity. David Spencer, Strategic Advisor to the MENA Tour, explains the rationale behind the radical rejig.

“There are two very good reasons why we decided to have the Tour schedule packed in one continuous stretch rather than have two legs in Spring and an Autumn,” said Spencer.

“Most development Tours do not start until the end of April, mostly because of the playing conditions in Europe. We are fortunate to have perfect weather in the Middle East during that period. This gives our players a solid run of tournaments, which is great preparation for them going into the summer. Also, it just simplifies things logistically for our players and makes the cost of ‘life’ on the Tour more affordable.

“With the multitude of playing opportunities we provide on European, Asian and the Challenge Tours, the new-look schedule dovetails perfectly with the other Tours.”

RELATED: MENA Tour breakthrough a ‘massive” confidence boost for Allan

The first of the circuit’s new events, the Muscat Open, is to be hosted by at Muscat Hills from Feb. 10-13. The Muscat Open is the first of back-to-back events in Oman ahead of The Ghala Open at Ghala Golf Club (Feb. 16-19).

Muscat Hills G.C.

Troon International venues will feature prominently in the circuit’s new multi-course events. The first, the ‘Triple Crown’ in March, will be co-hosted by Yas Links, Saadiyat Beach G.C. and Abu Dhabi G.C. while Al Hamra has joined forces with existing host venue Al Zorah in Ajman to co-host the Northern Emirates Open.

In another first, the MENA Tour by Arena Invitational Pro-Am will be modelled on the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the European Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. A venue and purse for the MENA Tour’s iteration has yet to be announced but it will be staged in the UAE and is in the schedule for Mar. 22-25, the week after Abu Dhabi’s Triple Crown.

A minimum of 30 players from each stage of Q-School will secure their cards for the season.

MENA TOUR BY ARENA – 2020 SCHEDULE
Jan. 20-23: Qualifying School A – Ayla GC, Aqaba, Jordan ($6,000)
Jan. 26-29: Qualifying School B – Ayla GC, Aqaba, Jordan ($6,000)
Feb. 2-5: Journey to Jordan #1 – Ayla GC, Aqaba, Jordan ($75,000)
Feb. 10-13: The Muscat Open – Muscat Hills GC, Muscat, Oman ($75,000)
Feb. 16-19: The Ghala Open – Ghala GC, Muscat, Oman ($75,000)
Feb. 23-26: The Bahrain Open – Royal GC, Bahrain ($75,000)
Mar. 1-4: Journey to Jordan #2 – Ayla GC, Aqaba, Jordan ($75,000)
Mar. 15-18: The Triple Crown – Yas Links/Saadiyat Beach GC/Abu Dhabi GC ($75,000)
Mar. 22-25: MENA Tour by Arena Invitational Pro-Am – UAE TBA (Purse TBA)
Mar. 29-April 1: Ras Al Khaimah Open – Tower Links GC, RAK ($75,000)
April 5-8: Northern Emirates Open – Al Hamra GC, RAK/Al Zorah GC, Ajman ($75,000)
April 12-15 TBA – Venue TBA ($75,000)
April 19-23 The Arena Championship – Ayla GC, Aqaba, Jordan ($125,000)

The post Innovative events and new venues highlight ‘condensed’ 2020 MENA Tour schedule appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The MENA Tour’s bid to become the “best little mini-tour in the world” has just become a whole lot more realistic.

Arena Middle East & Asia has bolstered its sponsorship of the regional Pro-Am circuit which will now be known as the MENA Tour by Arena. The provider of turnkey structures for the “most prestigious occasions in the global calendar” – think most of the spectator and corporate hospitality infrastructure at the major Middle East golf tournaments, for example – Arena will also have the naming rights to three tournaments in the Autumn Schedule – this week’s Abu Dhabi Open at Yas Links and later in Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah.

While no financial details of the deal were disclosed at the announcement on the eve of the Abu Dhabi Open, MENA Tour strategic advisor David Spencer insists the “umbrella sponsorship” will help the circuit’s expansion plans.

Back this year after a near 17-month restricting hiatus, the 2019 MENA Tour includes 10 events with minimum $75,000 purses and Official World Ranking Points. The number of events is expected to grow next season, enhancing the pathway to golf’s larger pro tours for the tour’s membership and helping players from across the Middle East qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

“The MENA Tour by Arena is committed to becoming the most preferred development tour in the world,” said Spencer.

“The partnership with Arena and their vision for the region makes it all possible. We are truly thankful to (Arena Middle East & Asia CEO) Paul Berger and his team for the faith that they have shown in us. [This year] we have enhanced the prize fund of each tournament, increased the playing opportunities for our members and have streamlined the schedule. There are many more plans in the pipeline but these do need corporate support.”

RELATED:  MENA Tour says no to ‘single-use’ plastic bottles with help of sponsor Arena

Arena are clearly committed to helping the circuit deliver on its player development remit.

“Golf forms a major part of our portfolio and the MENA Tour gives us a great opportunity to visit some of the leading golf courses and countries in the region,” Berger said. “Arena has been an integral part of the growth of golf in the Middle East, having provided infrastructure to almost every big tournament here since their inception. We are also very confident that our partnership with the Tour will help play a massive role in nurturing a home-grown champion very soon.”

This week’s Abu Dhabi Open is the seventh stop of the 2019 MENA Tour season which is split (by the region’s summer heat) into two five-event swings.

Ayla Golf Club in Aqaba and Jordan are official destination partners with the season-long Order of Merit (OOM), much like the European Tour’s ‘Race to Dubai’, now known as the ‘Journey To Jordan’. Ayla G.C. has already hosted a two-leg Qualifying School and two $100,000 events – including last week’s Journey To Jordan-2 Championship won so impressively by Robin ‘Tiger’ Williams. It will also host the season-ending $100,000 Tour Championship in late November.

Playing opportunities on the European, Challenge and Asian Tour’s are major lures for players from around the world. The MENA Tour announced a host of new invites just before the start of the autumn swing including starts in the 2020 Omega Dubai Desert Classic for the top two professionals and leading amateur in the final OOM race, plus to the winner of a separate ‘Final Five’ money list over the five-event autumn swing.

RELATED: MENA Tour unveil European and Challenge Tour invites for autumn swing schedule

There is also a ‘Penultimate Four’ race – the autumn swing events excluding the Tour Championship, which will see the winner teed up to play back-to-back Asian Tour events in New Delhi (Panasonic Open India) and Bangkok (Thailand Open).

The post Arena become ‘umbrella sponsor’ of MENA Tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

MENA Tour offers rich playing opportunities through its autumn schedule

By Kent Gray
The MENA Tour’s ambition to become the “best little mini-tour in the world” continues to gather momentum with a host of new European and Asian Tour invites dangled in front of its members.

The region’s Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR)-sanctioned circuit announced the opportunities – courtesy of new ‘Final Five’ and “Penultimate Four’ Autumn Swing order of merit races within the overall season-long OOM race – as the second half of the 10-event season looms.

The tour’s ‘Journey to Jordan’ resumes September 29 with the $100,000 Journey to Jordan 2 Championship at Ayla Golf Club, the first of five Autumn Swing tournaments culminating with the $100,000 Tour Championship, also in Aqaba, Jordan, in late November.

Invites to the 2020 Omega Dubai Desert Classic (ODDC) had already been secured for the eventual Journey to Jordan champion, second-placed professional and leading amateur, a race currently led by Englishman Curtis Knipes.

Now a fourth ODDC invite to the European Tour event at Emirates Golf Club (January 23-26) has been announced for a new category within the overall OOM race; the ‘Final Five’ is a separate money list encompassing the final five events of 2019. The tour has also unveiled the ‘Penultimate Four’ (the four autumn swing events excluding the Tour Championship) which will offer the winner invites to two full-field Asian Tour events: the Thailand Open (Nov 7-10) and the Panasonic Open India (Nov 14-17).

Here’s the full Autumn swing schedule:

Sep 29-Oct 2:  Journey to Jordan-2 (Ayla G.C/$100,000)
Oct 6-9: Abu Dhabi Open by Arena (Yas Links Abu Dhabi/ $75,000)
Oct 20-24: Al Ain Open by Arena (Al Ain ESG/$75,000)
Oct 27-31: Ras Al Khaimah Open by Arena (Tower Links GC, Ras Al Khaimah/$75,000)
Nov 24-28: Journey to Jordan Tour Championship (Ayla G.C./$100,000)

Journey to Jordan leader Matthew Baldwin.

Apart from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic start, the overall Journey to Jordan champion will also receive invites to another European Tour event – Made in Denmark – and the Diamond Cup which is co-sanctioned by Japan Golf Tour Organisation and the Asian Tour. Englishman Matthew Baldwin currently leads the professional OOM race but is unlikely to return until the Tour Championship as he chases a European Tour card via the Challenge Tour where he is currently 30th in the Race to Mallorca rankings. Robin Roussel, second on the MENA Tour OOM, is in even better shape to automatically graduate to the European Tour by finishing inside the top-15 on the Challenge Tour; the Frenchman is 7th overall and looked set to collect more valuable ranking points after making the cut in the Open de Bretagne in France which was due to reach its climax later Sunday.

The J2J runner-up will be invited to two leading Asian Tour events – the 2020 Bank BRI Indonesian Open and the season-ending Indonesian Masters (Dec 12-15), meaning the MENA Tour Championship is also likely to be a lure for Roussel.  

The player finishing third in the overall J2J will receive invites to two European Challenge Tour events. The fourth-placed player will be invited to two Asian Tour tournaments, while the fifth-placed player will be assured of a European Challenge Tour invitation.

“In the early part of the season, we had quite a few Challenge Tour members playing our tournaments and players like Matthew Baldwin, Robin Roussel and MG Keyser have already won tournaments on the 2019 MENA Tour. However, they will be busy with their own schedules during the next few weeks and we decided to create the ‘Penultimate Four’ and the ‘Final Five’ to provide an added incentive to our members who are playing a full MENA Tour schedule,” said David Spencer, Strategic Advisor to the MENA Tour by Arena.

“After regular discussions with our members, we have realised there is a strong desire and ambition in them to be able to play on higher-profile tours,”

“Every player on the development tours is looking for these opportunities. I think with the unveiling of these invitations, we have been able to present a very impressive array of rewards for our members.” 

The post European and Asian Tour invites unveiled for MENA Tour’s looming autumn swing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Golf’s ‘Mad Scientist’ will return to Emirates Golf Club for the $3.25 million European Tour event from January 24-27 as world No.5 – three seasons after topping the amateur standings in the 2016 Desert Swing tournament on the Majlis.

Related: The 11 most unusual things about Bryson Dechambeau

With world No.1 Brooks Koepka and No.3 Dustin Johnson confirmed to challenge two-time defending champion Tommy Fleetwood, it seemed the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship the week proceeding Dubai had edged the Desert Swing’s star billing stakes.

But Desert Classic tournament director David Spencer has pulled another rabbit out of the hat to complement a Majlis field including Fleetwood and former champions Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Colin Montgomerie, Thomas Bjorn, Miguel Ángel Jiménez and Haotong Li.

Related: Fleetwood, Garcia headline “30 years of Ryder Cup heroes” for 30^th Desert Classic

“Bryson is one of the most exciting young stars of global golf. He visited Dubai as an amateur and was a class act. We’re delighted that he will join us again in 2019 as a pro for our 30th anniversary,” said Spencer who was rewarded for bringing DeChambeau to Dubai as an amateur with a T-18 performance from the American following rounds of 70-69-68-69 for a -12 total, seven shots adrift of eventual champion 2016 Danny Willett.

DeChambeau won low amateur honours at the 2016 Omega Dubai Desert Classic where he finished T-18 overall.

The 25-year-old Californian has just began his third full, main tour season in the U.S.like he left of last season – by winning the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open early last month, edging Patrick Cantlay by a shot in Las Vegas to record his fifth PGA Tour title. It came after a breakout 2017-18 campaign in which DeChambeau won Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament in Ohio and the first two events of the FedEx Cup playoffs, The Northern Trust and Dell Technologies Championship, en-route to finishing third behind Justin Rose and Tiger Woods in the season standings with a cool $8 million in prize money.

The back-to-back playoff wins were historic in the 12 year history of the FedEx Cup and saw DeChambeau earn one of Jim Furyk’s four wildcard picks for September’s Ryder Cup where he went 0-3, including a 1-down loss to Alex Noren, as the U.S. were hammered 17½ 10-½ by Bjorn’s Europeans.

WATCH: Golf Digest Middle East’s video interview with DeChambeau in 2016

Prior to turning pro, DeChambeau won the NCAA Division 1 and U.S. Amateur Championship in 2015. He is only the fifth player in history to win both in the same yea,  joining Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus and Ryan Moore.

DeChambeau earned the ‘Mad Scientist moniker partly because of his unique one plane swing and a bag comprising single-length shafts, but more so for his increasingly left-field philosophies on the swing and winning.

His irons and wedges are all 37.5 inches long – the same as a 7 iron – and all have the same lie and bounce angles. Instead of numbers, he stamps the clubs with names; his 60 degree lob wedge is named ‘The King’ after Arnold Palmer and his 6 iron is named ‘Juniper’ after the sixth hole at Augusta.

The Californian put his famed, single length irons on display back in 2016 at Emirates Golf Club.

Related: Bryson DeChambeau and the extraocular – He wins again doing it his own way

The post DeChambeau set to bring his sorcery back to Dubai for 30th Desert Classic    appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.