Dubai-based Joe Heraty has already tasted success on the golfing scene recently — and now he is targeting bigger things.

The Englishman made history as he claimed the win in the first-ever Mena Tour event held on Malaysian soil earlier this month — and now he has set his sights on the upcoming ‘home’ Challenge Tour double-header in Abu Dhabi.

Heraty went into the final day at the The Els Club Desaru Coast Mena event with a one-stroke lead and turned on the style to close out a nine-under, three-stroke victory over Malaysian Paul San and Italian Arron Zemmer.

Next up is the two events back-to-back in the UAE, the Abu Dhabi Challenge at Abu Dhabi Golf Club (April 27-30) and the UAE Challenge at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club (May 4-7), and Heraty goes into the Challenge Tour fortnight in Abu Dhabi with a renewed sense of confidence and ambition.

“I used to live in Abu Dhabi and cut my teeth here as a player assistant at Abu Dhabi Golf Club on an internship many years ago and it is great to be back on home soil for the Challenge Tour events,” Heraty told Golf Digest Middle East.

“I don’t actually have a status on the Challenge Tour and I will be competing on an invitation from Emirates Golf Federation and representing my Dubai club, the Montgomerie.

“But I am coming in with great confidence after my win in Malaysia on the Mena Tour and have played many Asian Tour events.

“My goals are to gain full status on the Asian Tour and possibly go for my DP World Tour card through Q-School and get my world ranking [currently 1,186] down.”

While Heraty turned professional seven years ago, this is something of a new beginning for the 31-year-old as he is starting out again after an extended break due to Covid.

“I moved back to the UAE, this time Dubai, from England last August and I am getting back into things again,” he explained. “I had something like a three-year break and I was actually caddieing on the DP World Tour and on the Ladies European Tour. Then I thought, I’m ready to play again, and got back out there, and it has gone from strength to strength. My win in Malaysia shows I can still compete and I have been given a lot of support.

 

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“I have kept quite calm. I said to the guys I was rooming with before the final round in Malaysia that I wasn’t nervous, and I put in a great round. I went into the final day with a one-stroke lead and, while there weren’t any leaderboards on the course — you had to just focus on your own game — I kept tabs on those closest to me and knew towards the end I could get over the line.”

Heraty has tasted success in the Middle East before, winning the inaugural Sahara Kuwait Championship in 2016, but the golfing scene in Asia and the Middle East is much changed now from when Heraty took his break, with massive investment in the game from Golf Saudi raising the Asian Tour off its knees to elite level, with much-improved purses on offer and bigger, better global destinations on the schedule.

“My game is much more suited to Asia and the Middle East than Europe so I love playing out here,” he said. “It is great what LIV Golf Investments have done with their investments. The standard of courses has got higher, the fields are stronger and the prizes are bigger. The Asian region as a whole has been massively boosted over the past 12 months or so.

“To get my full card on the Asian Tour would be brilliant so I can compete in all the events and get to play in all the destinations now on offer.”

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The 27-year-old had four birdies going out and three more coming home in a flawless seven-under 63 to edge the English duo of Stuart Archibald and Luke Joy, Scot Daniel Hendry and South African Luke Trocado on the opening day of the MENA Tour’s penultimate event of 2017.

Italian Philip Geerts and Scot Robert MacIntyre moved into a two-way tie for sixth on five-under 65, one ahead of a nine-man group that included two-time MENA Tour winner Andrew Marshall and English amateur champion Todd Clements.

Order of merit leader Jamie Elson signed for a level par 71 to be T-28, two shots Swede Fredrik From who is third in the points race behind as second-placed Joy stole an early march on his rivals.

Fresh from a T-3 finish at last week’s Jordan’s AYLA Golf Championship, Sturehed rode a hot driver in Kuwait City to fall just a shot shy of the course record, jointly held by defending champion Joe Heraty and Chile’s Matias Calderon.

Related: Swede Sturehed fires course record, finds Joy atop the Ayla Golf Championship leaderboard

“I struck the ball very well off the tee and holed some good putts when I needed to and that was the key to going low today,” said Sturehed.

“The course is playing nice and there are plenty of scoring opportunities out there if you can hit the fairways in regulation.”

Archibald finished sixth in Kuwait last year after taking a two-shot lead into the final round and rekindled those found memories by also going bogey-free. “I played some lovely golf. Missed just one green which means I had 17 chances to pick up a shot,” said the 33-year-old Englishman.

“I struggled a bit to get the pace of the greens on the front nine as I had arrived just in time for my tee time, but found the touch as the round wore one. Didn’t miss any green coming home.” s

who finished in a tie for sixth last year after heading into the final round with a two-shot lead.

Perennial contender Joy produced one of the highlights of the day, hitting a 3-iron from 228 yards to within 15 feet on the 9th before duly holing the putt for an eagle-3 en-route to a tidy 64.

“I hit the ball clean throughout the day and putted solidly. The course is nice. Had some good fun out there,” said the Englishman, a two-timer winner on the MENA Tour.

Trocado also had a good day at work, reeling off six birdies, two eagles and three bogeys to put himself firmly in the mix.

England’s Todd Clements continued his purple patch of form with an opening with a 66 to lead the amateur division by a stroke from Switzerland’s Michael Harradine. Saudi Arabia’s Othman Almulla settled for a 75.

Elsewhere, defending champion Heraty slipped into a tie for 46th after carding a 72 while Morocco’s Ahmed Marjan posted a bogey-free 69 as UAE’s Ahmed Al Musharrekh, three over through 10th, recovered well to sign for a 71.

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Heraty Jnr opened the event with a then MENA Tour record equalling 62 and closed it with the circuit’s then lowest final round score of 65 to offer his ill idol the ultimate pick me up.

“It was a tough week, but everybody was pretty supportive which kind of calmed me down. I wanted to win it for him and that gave me extra strength, making the win very, very special,” said 26-year-old Englishman.

Fast-forward 12 months and Heraty is back at the scene of his maiden and thus far sole MENA Tour win for the penultimate event of the development Pro-Am season. Thankfully the Heraty men are in a better space too.

“My dad is doing well now and it feels great to come back to the venue of my first win on the tour.”

After a injury-disrupted season, Heraty needs to play the Sahara Kuwait Championship to qualify for next week’s Tour Championship in Ajman – the top 50 pros and top 10 amateurs make the cut for Al Zorah proving they’ve played a minimum of seven events.

Related: Elson ends 14-year wait for second tour victory, on cusp of winning multiple European and PGA Tour starts

This will be Heraty’s seventh start (likewise for Welshman Toby Hunt) and he’s trending nicely having finished 11th and 3rd in his last two starts, the Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open and Jordan’s AYLA Championship. The season-best in Jordan could have been better to but for an opening 75 but he’s comfortably inside the top 50 at 33rd and will be looking to climb higher.

“Hopefully, I will be able to pick up where I left off last year, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Heraty said.” I’m just hoping to play well again and see where that leaves me.”

After his victory in Jordan, Jamie Elson tops the order-of-merit race on 32,453 points and has destiny in his own hands with a 10,033 buffer to second placed Luke Joy and just the two events remaining. Conversely, fellow Englishman Joy (22, 420) and Swede Fredrik From (20, 311) know exactly what they need to do to drag themselves back into the OOM title race which promises the winner starts in the European Tour’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic, the Maybank Championship in Malaysia, Morocco’s Hassan II Trophee and the PGA Tour’s DEAN & DELUCA Invitational at Colonial CC. A full Sunshine Tour card for 2018 and exemption to the final stage of qualifying for the Asian Tour also await the MENA Tour champion which would give Elson options and he is also through to the second stage of European Tour Q-School.

Heraty with Wael Abdulrahman Al Welayti, member of Sahara Kuwait’s golf advisory committee.

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