The 33-year-old double Olympian (she competed in 2016 and 2020 and famously hit a hole in one at the Tokyo Games) broke new ground when she joined the LET 10 years ago and spoke to the ‘Power of the Game’ podcast with Golf Saudi about her journey and the changes she has seen along the way.

“I got into golf very randomly as a kid as we lived near a golf club and my parents decided to go there for lunch one day,” Maha explained. “I was running around the course with my sisters when the caddie master invited us to hit some balls on the range. I was not interested as I thought golf was a game for old people and my mother had to persuade me to give it a go.

“I found out I really liked it and that was the start for me. It is amazing how small things like that can have such an impact on your life and if my mum hadn’t encouraged me I would not be here.

“My parents didn’t play golf and there was no interest in the game in our home, so for my mum to persuade me to give it a go was great.”

The game has grown significantly in the Middle East – and not just through tourism and expat participation – and Maha is thrilled to see countries such as Morocco and Saudi push golf among locals as well as tourists.

“Most people in the Middle East have never really played golf – with a club in their hands – so I am always telling them to give it a go. Now I get so many messages from those who have discovered the game and see how much fun it can be,” she said.

“I am in my 10th year and now I am not the only Arab female on tour. Ines Laklalech, who I have known since she was little in Morocco, has joined the LET and that is a huge statement of how we are growing the game for females in the Arab world as we now have two women representing.

She modestly added: “I would never say myself that I was her inspiration but it is such an honour to hear her say how much I influenced her growing up.

“There has been such a key shift with local boys and girls getting into the game. As well as the two girls, we have the UAE’s Ahmad Skaik in the top 15 in the amateur rankings and the likes of Shergo Kurdi of Jordan doing well. It will only be a matter of time until we have an Arab winner of a big tournament.

“Just look at Saudi, in four years since the opening of the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club we now have the massive Saudi International for the men on the Asian Tour and the Aramco Series and tournament for the ladies. It has been pretty crazy to see the expansion and it is great to see how they are doing it to get the locals involved.

“Girls are being introduced to the game through the ‘Ladies First’ programme at schools and I think that is the only way to do it. How will they know if they like the game if you do not hand them a club? It is the only way to go. It is not just watching on TV or bringing in big names for a competition to take the money and then go home.

“To see kids get into golf is a huge win for Saudi and other Arab countries can follow this model and get youngsters involved through the schools.”

The post Maha Haddioui on the growth of golf in the Arab world appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

With Morocco’s Maha Haddioui, Indian Diksha Dagar and his H.E Yasir Al-Rumayyan in her corner, Team Hall earned the opening-round lead at the unique $1 million Pro-Am event at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club on Wednesday.

For deeper context, that’s a former major champion and European No.1 (Hall) leading her captain’s pick (Haddioui) who just happens to be the only Arabic player in women’s professional golf, a 20-year-old who has already won on the LET (Dagar) and, for good measure, the dual chairman of the event’s title sponsor and Golf Saudi. Call His Excellency an amateur with significant global trade and golf business influence if you like.

At -19, Team Hall lead Team Carlota Ciganda by a stroke. Hall’s captain’s knock, a seven-under 65, also sees her joint top of the individual standings with German Olivia Cowan. It all translated to excellent golf and PR gold.

H.E Yasir Al Rumayyan.

Hall finished last week’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International at the same venue 13-under-par and went blemish-free on Wednesday.

“Bogey-free is always a nice round here,” said Hall. “I tried to take advantage of not a lot of wind, and I still missed a quite few putts, but I’m happy with -7.”

Diksha Dagar.

Dagar – who missed the cut at the Saudi Ladies – wasted no time in making amends, shooting an opening-round 68.

“Today was very good in general. I had a very good start, and we have a very good team. We have a chance and tomorrow we can pick it up and continue playing good golf.”

Haddioui, a fan favourite in King Abdullah Economic City, chipped in with some momentum keeping putts.

“It was really fun playing as a team,” said Haddioui. “I started pretty well but couldn’t keep it up on the back nine. But still, I made a few good pars when I needed to and had a few birdies on the front nine too, so it was nice.”

Ciganda had Spanish compatriot Harang Lee, Germany’s Leticia Ras-Anderica, and amateur Lee Seung Su in her team.

“I’m enjoying being on this course,” said Ciganda. “The back nine was tricky. There was a lot of wind today and the last few holes weren’t easy, but we did great as a team – when one player was in trouble we had another in good shape. That’s what you want in this type of format. I had a great time with Harang, Leticia and our amateur and we’re ready for tomorrow.”

Olivia Cowan won the Aramco Team Series – London’s team crown back in July. In sitting joint-top with Hall with two rounds to play, the German could now end this year’s run of Series events with a solo win, too. Team Cowan also sit just three behind Team Hall.

Maha Haddioui.

“I think we just worked really well as a team. On some of the holes where one didn’t do as well, the other two helped out. We had quite a few birdies which definitely helped,” saidn Cowan.

“Our amateur is really good to talk to and he’s really chilled out. We all get on really well, so it’s a good team. The most important thing is to have fun out there – and we’re having a good time, which makes us play well.”

The post Team Georgia Hall, including Arabia’s only female pro and an amateur of global influence, lead ATS-Jeddah appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
As the LET’s first and currently only Arabic player, Maha Haddioui is already a trailblazer. If former European No.1 and British Open champion Georgia Hall has her way, the Moroccan will create yet more history in King Abdullah Economic City this week.

After partnering Haddioui in the final round of last week’s Saudi Ladies International, Hall has picked the Casablanca 33-year-old for the Aramco Team Series – Jeddah which begins at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in KAEC today.

The 54-hole event is the final of a quartet of four new $1 million events on the LET featuring three professionals and an amateur. Following a NFL-style draft party at Riyal Greens, Indian star Diksha Dagar, part of the winning team at the ATS London event in July, is the third pro in Team Hall set to take on 35 other teams over the next three days.

Hall is hoping they can make history and provide a first win for any female Arabic golfer in the professional game.

“I played with her last week, and I said to my caddie before she is the person to pick and luckily no one picked her yet,” said Hall.

Georgia Hall.

“She’s a really nice girl and playing well. It will be fantastic for us to win and for her to achieve that first win, hopefully she makes a lot of birdies out there and we have fun at the same time.”

Haddioui is equally relishing a chance to team up with Hall and learning from one of the stars of the women’s game.

“I was really happy that she picked me. I think we turned pro at the same time, but she’s a very experienced player and just by playing with her last week I learned a lot.

“I was doing my stats after the round with her and saw how the short game made a huge difference.”

Maha Haddioui.

Elsewhere in the draft, England’s Bronte Law – who won last month’s Dubai Moonlight Classic – once again opted for her 2019 Solheim Cup captain Catriona Matthew, as she did in the Aramco Team Series’ Spain event earlier in the year.

“She’s just a good player,” explained Law. “I’m good friends with her and I know we’ll have a laugh together, so I’m looking forward to it. I obviously picked her for my team in Sotogrande and we had a good week, so hopefully we can have the same again this week.”

Another player to select a Tour veteran was USA’s Alison Lee who won the individual Aramco Team Series – Sotogrande, and who picked Dame Laura Davies.

“In New York I also picked two veterans and having them was awesome. Laura had a good week last week and she’s a legend with more than 80 victories, so it’s a no brainer to have her and to have that amazing experience on the team.”

Charley Hull went for a full English, choosing compatriot Gabriella Cowley. The five-time Tour winner – who won the solo title in the ATS – New York – explained: “I thought Gabs would be good. She won on the Rose Series this year so I thought I’d pick her. My advice to the team would be ‘play your own game’. It should be a good few days.”

Emily Kristine Pedersen is the defending ATS champion in Saudi Arabia, from the format’s debut event in what was then the Saudi Ladies Team International.

“Obviously I really like it here and I have a lot of good memories here, it’s good to be back. I know if I find my game I’m good enough to win and that gives me confidence.”

The post Hall picks Haddioui for ATS – Jeddah with a piece of Arabic golf history in mind appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The Ladies European Tour’s only Arabic player has witnessed first-hand, indeed played a pivotal role in, the drive to introduce golf to the Kingdom’s curious female population.

Haddioui helped inspire more than 1,200 Saudi women and girls to take up golf the weekend of last year’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by PIF. Put into context, the Kingdom had fewer than 20 registered female golfers before the tournament

“This is my fifth time here now and I initially came for the men’s event. There, I gave clinics and initiations for girls and at that time I didn’t think I’d be coming here to compete,” said Haddioui who represented Morocco in the Tokyo Olympics earlier this year.

“Coming here last year was incredible and I was really proud to see young women take up the game. Today, I was out with some of the Ladies First Club members and that was just awesome.

“Coming from Morocco and seeing women’s golf develop like this in the Middle East is a great thing – and seeing girls who were just learning how to play a year ago now playing in the Pro-Am with me just makes it very special.”

The post From beginners to Pro-Am partners, Maha Haddioui knows the growth of Saudi women’s game is real appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Illustrations by Nigel Buchanan

By Matthew Rudy
You tune into the Olympic coverage to see champions win medals, sure. But it’s more than that. A part of the fan experience is being introduced to obscure characters in each sport—athletes you want to root for because of their charisma, perseverance, origin story and chance to conquer the odds. Golf in Tokyo is no different. Jon Rahm, Inbee Park, Justin Thomas and Nelly Korda will be among the favorites to win medals, but here we profile five prospective Olympians for whom the Games are more than just a two-week interruption of summertime major championship preparation. For some, like Morocco’s Maha Haddioui, just making it to the first tee at Tokyo’s Kasumigaseki Country Club will bring exponentially more attention to a part of the world not known for golf. For others, like Chile’s Mito Pereira, it could be the first time we see a future star on the international stage. The men’s tournament runs July 29-Aug. 1, and the women’s Aug. 4-7.

Maria Fernanda Torres

Age 26 • San Juan, Puerto Rico

The Puerto Rican flag implies a relationship with the United States, with its stars and stripes and red-white-and-blue colourway. However, even though the island a thousand miles southeast of Florida is technically an American territory, it is considered a country by the International Olympic Committee.

Puerto Rico is a sports-mad place—with a rich history in baseball, basketball, boxing and tennis. (Monica Puig won Puerto Rico’s first gold medal, in women’s singles, at the Rio Games in 2016.)

When golf was voted back into the Games in 2009, Maria Fernanda Torres was a freshman equestrienne-turned-golfer at the Cupeyville School in San Juan. “I used to ride horses, and one day on the way back from practice, there was a range, and my dad asked me if I wanted to take classes,” Torres says. “When I tried it, I had a passion that made me want to continue.”

Continue she did, practicing relentlessly and making trips to the mainland for American Junior Golf Association tournaments across the Southeast. Torres earned a scholarship to the University of Florida, where she won five times and was the 2016 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year. She also represented Puerto Rico in the 2014 and 2016 World Amateur Team Championships—which in 2014 were played in Japan. Torres turned professional in 2017 and won a playoff for the final fully exempt spot through LPGA Tour qualifying school for the 2018 season.

That status set her up to earn enough world-ranking points to join the PGA Tour’s Rafael Campos as the two professionals who will represent Puerto Rico in Tokyo. “My dream was to play college golf and to win on the professional tour, but the Olympics is another thing. That’s a bigger dream,” says Torres, who had her best LPGA season in 2019 when she finished 73rd on the money list. “Everybody knows when the Olympics are, and the people at home are feeling the vibe. It’s amazing— another level.”

The postponement of the Tokyo Games to 2021 upset golf’s collective schedule, but it might actually have been a blessing for Torres. Puerto Rico was pounded by a series of earthquakes in early 2020, followed by rolling blackouts. She and her family were safe, but those issues—plus COVID lockdowns that made it almost impossible for her to practice— would have been difficult to overcome ahead of a July 2020 tournament assignment.

“Thankfully, my family was fine through that, and we didn’t suffer serious damage, but it has been one thing after another,” she says. “It’s made for an irregular year, but I’ve been able to get back to work on the things I need to do for my game to be ready.”

Torres’ game has always been long on explosiveness. She averages more than 260 yards off the tee, and she is among the LPGA’s leaders in eagles. Now she’s working on her short irons and simplifying her pre-round routine to help channel her attention. “I’m going to try to take it like any other tournament and enjoy the ride. It’s a smaller field, and it’s a lot of the same players you play with every week,” Torres says. “I wish we would be able to see some of the other athletes and how they get ready to play, but it doesn’t look like that will be possible because of the restrictions. It would have been incredible to learn something from what they do. But if I saw LeBron James, I might die.”

Mito Pereira

Age 26 • Santiago, Chile

Scroll the Korn Ferry Tour results from any given week, and it’s a track meet of scores in the mid- and low 60s. You have to go low, a lot, to survive. The line between survival and eventually making it to the PGA Tour? As thin as you can imagine.

Just ask Mito Pereira.

Pereira missed earning full status on the Korn Ferry Tour for 2020-’21 by one shot. Conditionally exempt, he would have to make enough money in his spot starts to move up in the reshuffle to have any hope of playing a full season.

As the early schedule swung into familiar Central American turf, Pereira got his shot—and he didn’t miss. After a third place finish in Panama earned him a spot the next week in Bogota, Pereira won to lock up full privileges for the Korn Ferry season. In June, he won back-to-back events—shooting a career-low 62 in Raleigh to win the REX Hospital Open and shooting 66-64 on the weekend to win the BMW Charity Pro-Am by four—which gave him an instant battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour and a fully exempt season for 2021-’22.

For now, he’s sleeping in countryman Joaquín Niemann’s Florida guest room while he plots an American relocation strategy, and the two are preparing to represent their country in the Olympics. “Chile is a small country, and not everybody even knows what the PGA Tour is,” says Pereira, who won a bronze medal for Chile at the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru. “It was a way bigger deal that I got into the Olympics than it was that I won a tournament. If we can win a medal, Chile is going to blow up.”

Pereira’s qualification odyssey wasn’t even his first potential diversion from tour golf as a career. He was an elementary school golf prodigy in Pirque, a suburb of Santiago, and traveled the international junior circuit recording two World Championship wins. “I went to an academy in the States, and I just got tired of the game,” Pereira says. “I wanted to go to a regular school and do the normal things a kid needs to do.”

After two golf-free years— and a broken collarbone from a foray into dirt bikes and motocross—Pereira got an invitation from a friend to come back and play a recreational round. “I thought, Why not? and I went out and shot five-under,” he says. “I got back into it, and there was still time to get some interest from colleges.”

Pereira played one season at Texas Tech, where he rose to fifth in the world-amateur rankings, then turned professional and started on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica. Seeing players like Niemann and fellow All-Big 12 players Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler up close verified for Pereira that he had the game to make it to the PGA Tour. “You realize it’s not impossible. They’re great, but they make mistakes, too. They just play smart,” he says. “Working with a mental coach [Eugenio Lisana] has really helped. You have to feel like you always want to keep getting better. I’m ready to play with the best players in the world.”

Maha Haddioui

Age 33 • Agadir, Morrocco

Picture the ultimate golf destination and you probably visualise one of the usual photogenic suspects—Pebble Beach, Bandon Dunes, St. Andrews or maybe Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand.

Morocco’s golf landscape has all of those features—linksland, oceanside cliffs, mature forests and even snowcapped mountain ranges—all within a few hours drive. The North African country is the Shangri-La you didn’t know existed, and for the second-consecutive Olympics, the country will send one of its players to compete. “Close your eyes and you don’t know if you’re in Arizona or Morocco,” says Maha Haddioui, who played for Morocco in Rio and qualified again for Tokyo. “One of the royal courses in Dar Essalam, you could be in a forest in Georgia. My course in Agadir, Taghazout Bay, is a links course. You could be in Ireland.”

But even with all that natural landscape, the game in Morocco has traditionally been one played by the wealthy—or the royal. Claude Harmon (Butch’s father) gained some notoriety in the 1970s for spending his off-seasons coaching King Hassan II in Rabat, and Butch was the head professional at Dar Essalam golf club in the 1980s. When Haddioui was growing up in Agadir, a coastal city at the base of the Anti-Atlas Mountains, the golf course near her home was the curiosity where the tourists came to play. “I thought it was something boring, for the old people,” Haddioui says. “But my mom said I should give it a try. I loved it, and my sister and I started.”

It wasn’t long before Haddioui outgrew the sparse competition at home—“It was kids’ tournaments and social golf, and I was playing with the boys by the time I turned 15,” Haddioui says—so her parents sent her to Marseilles, in the south of France, to compete in European junior amateur events. From there, she traveled to the United States and played at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., where she was the top-ranked golfer in Division II.

“I loved it. It was the best thing I ever did,” says Haddioui, who became fluent in her fourth language, earned a degree in international business and was offered a job in the school’s statistics department after graduation. “My choices were to take that job or to go back home to Morocco and take a risk and turn pro. When I came back, it was a controversial decision. My family loves sports, but they wondered when I was going to get a real job.”

Ten years later, Haddioui has developed into an established professional athlete who not only won the 2012 Moroccan Ladies Professional Championship but finished third in the men’s version of the same tournament that year. She has been a regular on the Ladies European Tour since 2013 and remains the only Arab woman with status on a major professional golf tour.

Haddioui’s trailblazing status at home made her first Olympic experience an overwhelming one.

“To represent your country, it’s a different feeling, and you have to be prepared for it,” she says. “I played in a lot of tournaments, but I had never represented Morocco. Players in other parts of the world can do Junior Ryder Cup or Junior Solheim Cup. I didn’t have that chance. You know all the eyes are on you, and I wasn’t prepared for that.”

Haddioui spent two weeks in Rio almost shell-shocked, keeping mostly to her room except for one foray to watch eventual bronze medalist Mohammed Rabii box. Haddioui finished last but resolved to come back in four years a different player.

“I swore to myself, next time I come, I’ll come as an athlete—not a spectator or a golfer,” says Haddioui, who regularly posts her Olympic-caliber workouts on Instagram. “I didn’t work out much before. I went to the gym, but I didn’t know what to do. Now I’m stronger in the swing, and I can be stable through the shot. I’m ready this time.”

Rasmus Højgaard

Age 20 • Billund, Denmark

One of the staples of Olympic programming is the identification of (and investment in) a Cinderella story—the longshot you never knew you wanted to know so much about.

Golf has some of those charming narratives at these Games, but Denmark’s Rasmus Højgaard is not one of them. Instead, he’s a representative of European golf’s future—a star in waiting you just might not have heard of yet because of the COVID-era stop-and-start scheduling around the world.

The 6-foot-2 Dane won twice in his rookie 2020 season and averaged 320 yards off the tee, proving courses like The Belfry (where he went 67-65 on the weekend to win in a playoff) are more likely to get overwhelmed than he is. The Olympic Games could well be his first opportunity to occupy the world golf stage—and to expand that stage in Denmark. “I don’t know what the experience will be yet, but I’m looking forward to the mystery,”Højgaard says. “It’s like you’re giving something back to the country.”

In a year, Højgaard went from the European Challenge Tour to the top 100 in the world rankings. The speed of the ascent might be a surprise, but given Højgaard ’s competitive pedigree, the destination is not. Højgaard and his identical twin brother, Nicolai, were introduced to the game by their parents at 4 as a way for the family to do something together during summers in Billund, Denmark (which is the birthplace of LEGO toys), and between them, they overwhelmed the family trophy room with amateur hardware. In 2018, they joined with John Axelsen to win the Eisenhower Trophy at the World Amateur Team Championship in Ireland for Denmark (beating the American team of Collin Morikawa, Cole Hammer and Justin Suh by a shot). Nicolai won the European Amateur, and Rasmus won the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup by four—over Nicolai.

Andrew Redington

The brothers turned professional in early 2019, and both found success right away. Nicolai finished second to Sergio Garcia at the KLM Open, and Rasmus missed automatic promotion to the European Tour through moneylist performance by one shot before grabbing a card in the final stage of qualifying school. That became academic when Rasmus won his fifth European Tour start, in Mauritius, just after Q school, and followed it with that win at The Belfry last August. He’s playing in Tokyo with fellow Danish qualifier (and 2020 European Tour winner) Joachim Hansen, and Nicolai is a good bet to make it hard to tell the Højgaards apart during the 2024 Games in Paris.

Rasmus says during the Tokyo Games most of Denmark’s eyes will be on the men’s national handball team, which is the defending gold medalist and two-time defending world champion in the team sport that plays like a cross between dodgeball and soccer. He’s been watching, too—as a fan and to crib training notes from his mates on the team. “The explosiveness you need in handball is good for a golf swing, and that’s something I’m working on,” says Højgaard, who played club handball until 15. “Golf is nowhere near the level of popularity of handball or soccer in Denmark, but it’s growing. If we could bring back a medal? That would be big. Everyone will be watching.”

Aditi Ashok

Age 23 • Bangalore, India

It would be an exaggeration to say that Aditi Ashok came from nowhere to establish a promising career as a tour player. After all, she grew up in Bangalore, India—a city of almost nine million people. But in golf vernacular, India really is out-of-bounds. It has just 200 courses for 150,000 golfers, out of a total population of 1.4 billion. Even though Ashok represented India in women’s golf at the Rio Games as a newly minted 18-year-old professional, more than half of Indian sports fans surveyed ahead of the Games didn’t even know golf had returned as an Olympic sport.

Ashok aims to change that, in Tokyo and on the LPGA and LET tours. “I read that after the Olympics, Google searches for golf in India were huge,” says Ashok, who started playing at age 5 when she and her parents began taking lessons at Bangalore Golf Club—one of the oldest clubs in the world outside the British Isles (established in 1876). “Just seeing the impact it had and the exposure it got at the time was a big deal for me.”

The Rio Olympics were just the next step in a progression that saw Ashok become one of the most decorated young players in the game. After thrashing the limited amateur competition in India—she won the National Women’s Amateur as a 13-year-old in 2011 and was a three-time national junior champion—Ashok validated those credentials by winning the Ladies British Amateur Open Stroke Play in 2015. She turned pro in 2016 and had one of the best seasons for an 18-year-old this side of Tiger Woods. Flashing a deadly short game that offsets below-average length, Ashok briefly led in Rio during the second round before fading to 41st. After the Games, she made a successful trip through LPGA qualifying school and followed it with her first two professional wins back-to-back weeks at the Hero Women’s Indian Open and Qatar Ladies Open.

Since then, Ashok has been trying to juggle playing the American and European professional tours while navigating the severe COVID challenges facing Bangalore and all of India. For months, she was restricted to hitting balls into a sheet on the terrace of her parents’ home in Bangalore, and travel restrictions limited her to just a handful of LPGA events in the first half of 2021—and none in Europe—before she got back to work in mid-June.

“I’m the kind of golfer who thrives on momentum,” she says. “There’s no right time for things you can’t control, but the world is dealing with bigger things right now.”

The post Five underdog golfers arrive at the Tokyo Olympic Games with a shot at unprecedented glory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

As the first Arabic professional golfer to play on tour, the Moroccan 32-year-old knows better than most the significance of this week’s LET double-header at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City.

“I am really pleased and proud to represent my region in my region,” said Haddioui on the eve of the inaugural $1m Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by Public Investment Fun (Nov. 12-15) and the $500,000 Saudi Ladies Team International (Nov. 17-19).

“It’s a big tournament, a big statement and it’s positive to see women’s golf get more recognition. Saudi is opening up to the world of golf and it is going to help grow the game, which I am happy about. I can’t wait to get started on Thursday.

The 72-hole Aramco Saudi Ladies International will be Haddioui’s 102nd LET start. She’s still searching for her first win and arrived in KAEC fresh from a lowly T-38 finish at last week’s OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic. But she has rattled off three top-12s in this disrupted season, including a 6th placing at the Swiss Ladies Open in Sept.

“Winning anywhere would be special but it would mean a lot more to happen here in an Arab country. I love the course, I love the place and feel really welcome here,” who has career earnings of €139,847 on the LET.

“I am so grateful to be able to have picked up the game and it has changed my life, I’d love for other Arab women to be able to pursue this and enjoy the opportunities that I have had.”

“The prize fund is a huge statement from Golf Saudi.

To celebrate the historic nature of both tournaments, Golf Saudi will this week launch a world-first ‘Ladies First Club’, which will offer free golf to 1,000 women living across the Kingdom.

The post Maha Haddioui: LET double-header prize-fund a ‘huge statement’ from Golf Saudi appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

With a swing speed three miles faster than the average PGA Tour player (116mph compared to 113mph) and an eye-popping competition best hit of 402 yards, long drive champion Troy Mullins is sure to be a huge drawcard in more ways than one at the Ladies European Tour’s (LET) $500,000 season-ender from Dec. 6-9.

At least that’s what Tournament Director David Spencer is banking on after granting the Californian her 72-hole pro event debut at Emirates Golf Club.

Spencer took plenty of heat for handing Paige Spiranac her pro debut at the then Dubai Ladies Masters in 2015 and repeating the sponsors’ invite visit last season. He unashamedly admits the social media audience that accompanies Spiranac everywhere was a key driver behind the decision, to the point where the American is returning to the emirate as official starter for the men at January’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Related: On the tee…Paige Spiranac

The key driver behind Mullins’ invite is the one the 5ft 8in American wields, and rather impressively so as this tweet highlights:

She did it!

Troy Mullins is the #MileHighShowdown Women’s Champion! #WorldLongDrive pic.twitter.com/TfM5OpFt7Y

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) July 26, 2017

Nicknamed the Trojan Goddess, Mullins only took up the game after attending Ivy League Cornell University when a hamstring injury curtailed her promising heptathlon career. Now she has genuine LPGA Tour ambitions.

Mullins won the 2017 Mile High Showdown, a World Long Drive event, in July with a 374 yard drive in the final and has a swing so sweet it has some of the game’s most critical analysts swooning, including Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee.

Spencer is excited about what Mullins, who speaks four languages including Chinese, Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL), brings to the tournament. She will hold a clinic for spectators after play in the second round on Friday, Dec. 7.

“Troy caught our eye…we’ll we only started following long drive golf because she was on the Golf Channel and was being touted as having a perfect swing,” said Spencer.

“She’ll certainly be the longest player in the field but she’s also an accomplished golfer. We’ll she just how accomplished she is when she comes up against a professional field.”

Key Omega Dubai Ladies Classic signings (from top left clockwise): I.K. Kim, Susana Benavides, Klara Spilkova and Troy Mullins.

As well as unveiling Kim and Mullins, a new name to bring the LET event “into the ‘classic’ family”, and a “sister” trophy to match the Dallah (Arabic coffee pot) handed to Desert Classic men’s champion, Spencer also revealed 16 other name players.

They include Kim’s fellow LPGA players Suzanne Pettersen, Brittany Lincicome, Olafia Kristinsdottir, Mel Reid and reigning Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open champion Beth Allen.

Aditi Ashok, who sealed LET Rookie-of-the-Year honours with a share of third place at Emirates G.C. last December, also returns along with Rafa Cabrera Bello’s sister Emma, Dame Laura Davies, Amy Boulden, Carly Booth, Felicity Johnson, Olivia Cowan and Moroccan trailblazer Maha Haddioui.

New names include Kristinsdottir and Susana Benavides while Czech Olympian Klára Spilková returns.

Benavides is the only Bolivian-born golfer to ever play in an LPGA event and like Spiranac, will bring a strong social media audience with her to Dubai.

Being away from social media made me wanna come back ??er… #poorgreens #highheels #shooting #lpgadresscode #not

A post shared by Susana Benavides (@mumita_b) on Aug 29, 2017 at 6:41pm PDT

Spilková became the first Czech player to win a Ladies European Tour event with a one stroke victory over Pettersen at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco in April.

Photo courtesy LET
Klara Spilkova

Kristinsdottir brought forward double jaw surgery, a procedure that reportedly involved the addition of titanium plates to her nose and screws to her jaw, to correct an underbite just before becoming the first Icelander to play on the LPGA Tour. She is currently 82nd in the CME Rankings with one top-10 in her rookie year, a fourth placing at the Indy Women in Tech Championship Presented by Guggenheim.

Photo courtesy LPGA Tour Olafia Kristinsdottir

I.K. Kim, the highest ranked player in the field at No.8 in the latest Rolex Ranking, banished the haunting memory of missing a 14-inch putt to win the 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship when he won the Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns

Related: In-Kyung Kim gets her major redemption with two-shot Women’s British Open victory

Englishwoman Sophie Lamb, who closed with a 69 at Kingsbarns to win low amateur honours, will is also a confirmed Majlis starter along with the 29-year-old South Korean.

The post Troy Mullins set to rip it past major champion I.K. Kim and co. in rebranded Omega Dubai Ladies “Classic” appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

At 46th on the money list heading into the week, Haddioui tees it up in her fifth Omega Dubai Ladies Masters today comfortable in the knowledge her Ladies European Tour (LET) status is safe for next season.

With the pay cheque pressure off thanks to her career best LET season, the 28-year-old Casablanca-based professional can now dream of capping 2016 with a top-10 finish at Emirates Golf Club.

Haddioui’s T14 finish at the inaugural Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open in Abu Dhabi last month hints at game good enough to achieve that, especially now she realises on course angst and good scoring are mutually exclusive.

“I used to be quite demanding on myself but that’s not the case any more. I have learned to accept things as they come,” Haddioui said.

That has included accepting her Olympic bow didn’t quite go to plan, her dream selection for Rio soured when she finished 59th and last following rounds of 82-76-80-77.

“It was absolutely amazing to represent Morocco and being part of the African contingent at the Olympic Games. But it was really tough for me as I didn’t play good golf,” said the US-educated pro who is supported by Trophée Hassan II Association.

“I think I set up an objective that was too high and I kind of just stuck to it the whole time, but I learned so much from it.

“It’s hard enough to play golf when you are trying to make a living and trying to keep your tour card. And then playing to represent your country, having like not only golfers in Morocco watch you, but every Moroccan watch you, it something bigger. The whole experience is going to help me.”

The nine-under-par performance at the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open at Saadiyat Beach showcased the Arab No.1’s new inner calmness, something she intends repeating around the Majlis this week regardless of what happens.

“I have my objective in the back of my head. I just need to play golf and try and make good shots. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, I have tried by my best, given every shot 100 per cent.”

The post Haddioui calmly targets top-10 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.