By Kent Gray
Much like his last week in Abu Dhabi, Lee Westwood’s preview presser ahead of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic just kept getting better and better.

From details of his celebratory night out – not quite as juicy as the ‘massive bender’ The Sun newspaper would have you believe – to responding to all the congratulatory messages from his celebrity pals, to his concerns about kids starting golf too young, to his own eventual legacy, the Englishman kept the gathered media corps gripped.

Westwood’s goal of completing a dry January went, well, west after his age-defying two-stroke win in the UAE capital. That led to the inevitable early line of questioning about the night after his 25th European Tour triumph.

“I think because I had not had a drink for nearly two weeks, it affected many he really quickly. So I was a really cheap date for somebody, after about four drinks, I felt I was flying. I just went to the sports bar and watched Liverpool beat Man-United with Thomas Björn, so he was pleased. Went back around 3am for a chicken shawarma some chips, watching the 49ers. It was a perfect day, really, round of golf and watching the 49ers get into the Super Bowl.”

He woke up with more than a hangover to contend with as messages poured in from what Westwood described as his “fairly broad spectrum” of friends including the likes of Gary Player, Greg Norman, Ronan Keating and Robbie Williams.

“You know, got like 150 WhatsApps to reply to, 70 text messages and 30 e-mails. I love all the congratulations, but by the end, I was sending the thumbs-up back,” he said to laughter from the gathered hacks.

Westwood poses with the Falcon trophy after the final round of the 2020 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship last Sunday. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

With the morning after the night before out of the way, attention turned to Westwood’s remarkable longevity at the top level. The former world No.1 became the first player in European Tour history to win in four decades in Abu Dhabi and says his durability is not by mistake, even if fiancée and sometimes caddie Helen “tells me my diet could still be better”.

“But over the years, I’ve worked out a lot and I’m very fortunate to play practice rounds with people like Greg Norman and Nick Price, Nick Faldo in the early years and Gary Player and just obviously impressed upon me working out.

“I don’t so much need to be skinny, but I’ve always concentrated on maintaining the areas of my body that take a battering, knees, back, shoulders, I’ve done a lot of exercise over the years on them to try and prevent injury, really, rather than getting an injury and then having to fix it. I’ve only really been out once and that was when I tore a calf muscle.”

Westwood believes his relatively late introduction to golf – he was 14 – is part of the secret to his longevity, with his passion for rugby, football, cricket and athletics before than giving him a “physical base to work from”.

“I was just a strong lad growing up and pretty fit. Then I started playing golf at 14. I do sometimes worry about these kids who start playing golf at the age of five now, because golf, you’re bending over, you curve your spine that way, you rotate, as well. It’s not the ideal movement for a six- or seven-year-old kid.”

Do you think five is too young?

“I think, yeah, it probably is. Mentally, you’re not ready for golf at that kind of age. It’s a pretty draining sport mentally, and certainly look at my son, if he’d taken it up at a young age, he wouldn’t have enjoyed the game as much as he’s enjoying it now. He just started at 13, 14 years of age, which I did.

“I’ve been lucky with injuries, but I’ve also done the work when it’s needed, going to the gym in my late 20s. I probably should have gotten there earlier, but just didn’t switch on quick enough. So I got in the gym around my 30s which coincided with getting to No. 1 in the world and I did a lot of hard work with Steve McGregor kind of from 2006-ish to 2012, which is going to be a good foundation. I’m back working with him again.

“We’re doing a lot of leg strength and flexibility, and a lot of work on my back to try and pull my posture into line. In golf, you’re always like this [hunched over] you need to open them up.”

Westwood sees no reason why he can’t keep winning. The lure of September’s Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, after he was a non-playing vice-captain to Bjorn in Paris two years ago, will help to keep him young. He’s also learnt how to park wins and get on with the job at hand.

“I think the more you win, the more you get used to getting back to being on an even keel, really. A lot of people, if they are won early in their career, they struggle to bring themselves back again, but I’ve won a lot of tournaments and I’ve won weeks back-to-back.

“Yeah, it’s obviously a big achievement because nobody’s ever done it before. I’m proud of that, and you know, come back down for this week and get focussed on trying to play well again. I might play great and not win this week. But obviously playing great is a priority.”

Back-to-back Desert Swing wins would be something else in a career increasingly full of achievements. Not that Westwood wants his golf record to be the thing his admirers judge him on.

“My legacy? When I die, I don’t want people to sit down and golf be the first thing they mention about me. I want them to focus on other things. You know, he was a nice lad or you know good fella and you could always go towards him. He was never nasty to people. He always tried to do the right thing, and then he won a few golf tournaments.”

The way Westwood has played golf with a smile the past 18 months, it seems his legacy inside and out the ropes is assured.

The post Lee Westwood is ready to park Abu Dhabi win and continue building a legacy that is not solely golf focused appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

After what will be a near 16-month hiatus, the remodelled 10-tournament regional development circuit will be re-launched at Ayla Golf Club in Jordan from February 9-11.

But there are three key dates before the US$100,000 season opener which fronts a five-tournament spring swing in Jordan, Kuwait and Dubai (the five remaining events in an Oct.-Nov. autumn window will be announced along with the tour’s first naming rights sponsor and a major co-sanctioning agreement soon).

Key among the three pre-season events is a 36-hole qualifier in January from which the top three players will go on to contest the 30th Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club from Jan. 24-27.

The ‘2019 Omega Dubai Desert Classic Shootout’, to be held at Dubai Hills on Jan. 20-21, is a coup in that will not only assist in rekindling stalled public interest in the MENA Tour but ensures the tour’s membership more than the clichéd “stairway to stardom” peddled in the new season PR. In another nod to regional development, the top-10 players on the second tier UAE PGA Tour will be invited to play the shootout alongside the top-60 players exempted from the 2017 MENA Tour order of merit (OOM) and the first 50 players who signed up for January’s Q-School.

Related: WIN a four-ball at Dubai Hills Golf Club!

There will also be an invite to the European Tour’s Maybank Championship at Saujana Golf and Country Club in Kuala Lumpur from March 21-24 for the OOM leader after the five spring events. Indeed, the top five players on the money list at the halfway stage of the 2019 MENA Tour season will be rewarded; the second placed player will tee it up in the Trophee Hassan II in Morocco from April 25-29, the third-placed player earns automatic entry into the new Jordan Mixed Open at Ayla G.C. from April 4-6 while the fourth and fifth players will be headed to the Asian Tour’s Indonesian Masters from July 4-7.

Increased prize funds for every event, on-going Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) status, perfect weather and the prime conditioning of courses on the schedule has ensured there has been no drop-off in interest from budding touring pros despite the season-long hiatus.

So much so, an oversubscribed entry list for Q-School has prompted organisers to arrange two separate qualifiers at Ayla immediately proceeding the 2019 season bow at the same club – from Jan. 29-Feb. 1 (category A) and Feb. 2-5 (category B) – to accommodate the overflowing, global entry list.

After Q-School, the tour will bounce around the region for five events in a month – at Ayla G.C. (Feb. 9-11), Al Zorah G.C. in Ajman (Feb. 19-21), Dubai (course TBC; Feb. 26-28), Sahara Kuwait Resort (March 3-7) and Dubai (course TBC; March 12-14).

Getty Images
Henric Sturehed won the last MENA Tour event, the tour championship at Al Zorah, in October 2017. The Swede and since gone on to contend on the European Tour.

The minimum prize fund on offer each week will be $75,000, an increase of 50 per cent from previous $50,000, with at least three tournaments to boast $100,000 purses.

“We have listened to our members on various issues and used this hiatus of one year to ensure that we not only have a strong, financially viable Tour with streamlined operation and logistics, but also one that makes it easier for our members to participate and excel,” said new MENA Tour general manager Robbie Williams.

“The Qualifying School at Ayla Golf Club is our first step in a new journey, one which is going to be very exciting for the players and the industry in the region. The response so far has been fantastic. Even before we announced any dates, we have had over 600 registered interests by golfers from across the globe about our plans for 2019 and beyond.”

The MENA Tour’s new 2019 logo.

Established in 2011 by the Sheikh Maktoum Golf Foundation, the MENA Tour is one of 20 global Tours recognised by the OWGR. It global recognition makes it a genuine pathway for players in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond to events like the Olympic Games and other major championships.

Rayhan Thomas, who became a poster-boy for the MENA Tour when he won the 2017 Dubai Creek Open and last weekend secured his second professional title as an amateur, has committed to playing much of the spring schedule before taking up a scholarship at Rickie Fowler’s alma mater, Oklahoma State University.

For more information on Q-School, the ‘2019 Omega Dubai Desert Classic Shootout’ and new-look spring schedule, visit menatour.golf

The post Dubai Hills-Desert Classic prelude to new-look MENA Tour schedule; another European Tour opportunity for UAE PGA brethren  appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

I played a little as a child, occasionally at Emirates Golf Club when my father was in his first stint at the club, and during the summer holidays back in the UK. I actually made a hole in one on my first full 18 holes on a golf course at the age of 10 during one of these summer trips. Sadly, I haven’t had one since.

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I didn’t really play again until I was playing professional football at al Nasr at the age of 19. Only training for two to three hours a day, I had plenty of time on my hands and this was when I truly caught the bug and became a little bit of a range rat, spending most mornings and afternoons on the practice tee up at Jebel Ali.

RELATED: Robbie Williams – Let me entertain you

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After school I took a gap year to pursue my football career and ended up signing for Al Nasr Club in Dubai, playing in the youth and reserve teams. Due to the Arabian Gulf League regulations, only a certain number of foreign players could play for the first team in one particular season and at that time they had a host of foreign players including a World Cup winner in Luca Toni. Unfortunately for me, they were a lot better than I was. I played as a centre midfielder or a number 10 for most of career.

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I attended Jumeirah English Speaking School by Safa Park. Then, at age 11, after spending a year at Dubai College, I moved back to the UK having signed schoolboy forms with Wolverhampton Wanderers. During my final year of school, I was selected to play for the England Independent School representative team and we played against the Australian and Scotland schoolboys teams. Unfortunately, I was released from Wolves at age 15 for being too small.

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Like most people at the age of 22, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do as a career. My only real plan was to try and become a professional footballer. That was why I thought I’d try and do as many things, in as many different industries as possible, to find a career path. It just so happened that I managed to find it in the first industry I tried.

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I happened to be playing golf with Chris Turlik, who was working on the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at the time, and told him that I didn’t think my career in football was going to amount to anything; he asked if I’d be interested in working as an intern for 25th anniversary edition in 2014 and I jumped at the chance. It was really a baptism of fire.

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I’m very fortunate that I’ve found my passion at 26. The region has given so much to my family, being our home for over 30 years, providing incredible opportunities for my father, and now me. I feel a great responsibility to support the game in this part of the world.

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We have a very close relationship and as many are aware, my father [Emirates G.C. teaching professional James Williams] has a great affinity for conversation. He’s great to be able to bounce ideas off and has been very supportive of me and my sister in our respective career paths. My sister, Anna-Louise, is a physiotherapist in London.

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He’s been a huge influence but by his very nature, I don’t think he’d like to take any of the credit in this regard. He’s very conscious of not getting too involved with what I’m doing and to letting me find some things out on my own. But it is comforting to know that if I ever do need any advice or assistance, I don’t just have David Spencer [the MENA Tour’s strategic advisor] and [tour founder] Mohamed Juma Buamim to turn to.

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It’s a huge honour to become general manager of the MENA Tour, and I’m very grateful that David and Mohamed have entrusted me with such a responsibility. They have been great mentors and have included me in all aspects and discussions regarding the tour from the very beginning. We’re a young tour made up of young players, in a region that in a golfing sense is still quite young, so it’s quite fitting that we have a young general manager, brought up in the region to take the tour on its next steps.

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Williams is flanked by the MENA Tour’s amateur trailblazer Rayhan Thomas, patron Darren Clark and Dubai Golf boss Chris May.

I wouldn’t say star-stuck, but there are a few moments when you have to pinch yourself doing what I do. Spending a couple of days with [former Open champion] Darren Clarke, our patron… I got to hit balls with him on the range, compete in chipping competitions, play on the course with him. That was a pretty incredible moment. Darren’s been great at imparting his wisdom, not only with me but with players on the MENA Tour and we wish him well as he embarks on his career on the Champions Tour.

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The best part of my game is probably my short game, in particular, bunker play. My father is probably the best bunker player I’ve ever seen and that includes tour pros and Pete Cowen, so it’s something I’ve always enjoyed working on.

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I’m a relatively straight driver of the ball but lack in distance, a fact that annoys me given I play a lot of golf with MENA Tour players and my girlfriend…all of whom hit it longer than I do. My girlfriend is a good golfer, currently playing off one handicap. She works as a cabin crew for Emirates Airline and is looking to head to LPGA Q-School in August.

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We’ve got a lot of work to do with the MENA tour over the next few years and I hope to see this through to the end. Dubai is my home and I see myself staying here for a long time to come. The game is still young in this part of the world and I wish to continue the work of David, Mohamed and my father by contributing to its development as best I can.

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It is a bold ambition to become the finest feeder tour in the world and so should it be. The MENA Tour is headquartered in a city that was built on bold ambitions and lofty goals. We have the opportunity to introduce the game to more people in the region and offer a pathway for those in the region, expat or local, to progress.

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David Spencer is a great ideas man and for him to be so open and approachable is one of the reasons I love what I do. David’s been around the golf industry so long and is really on the pulse of what is happening in the world of golf. He’s a mentor and I can’t wait to work even closer with him in the years to come.

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I’ve known ‘MJB’ [Juma Buamaim] since I was a young child and he was GM at Emirates Golf Club. To work with him over the last few years has been a true insight into Dubai’s story and golf’s story in the region. His passion is evident in everything he’s been involved with and he’s constantly encouraged me to put myself in uncomfortable positions and to understand I have a responsibility to grow the game in this part of the world.

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The tour has so much potential and this is starting to be recognised throughout the region. There is no reason that we can’t be staging 15-18 quality tournaments a year, with prize funds north of US$100,000. We also have ideas of a mini MENA Tour and other grassroots programmes that we’re looking to implement as we progress too.

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I’ve never really been a gamer despite being from that generation. In fact, the only console I owned was the original PlayStation. Strangely though, I have recently taken an interest in eSports as it’s an exciting industry. The ties with the traditional sporting world grow ever closer.

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“It can get quite frustrating for my Mother, with the constant golf talk, however, she has a remarkable amount of patience, and a good knowledge of the game considering she has never had any interest in playing.”

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I was aware of how respected and popular dad was as I encountered others in the industry who know him, but I was still amazed at the amount of praise he received after rejoining Emirates G.C. (earlier this year). He’s a great character and one certainly of the old-school, and I think the genuine care and passion he has from the game is infectious and resonates with people.

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We actually don’t work on the range together that much anymore. He knows my swing so well, having been there when I first started, that we often have a lesson over the phone or a cup of coffee. Whether I put his advice into practice is another story though!

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Like most people working in the golf industry, he doesn’t often get the opportunity to play much. In fact, I don’t think we’ve ever played a full 18 holes together. Since returning to Emirates he’s had a little more time to work on his own game and it’s great to see him hitting balls on the range out of our office window. He’s a hugely talented sportsman and his golf swing is a joy to watch. I hope he can get back to playing competitive golf again. — with Kent Gray

The post Meet the new, 26-year-old GM of the MENA Golf Tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Golf Digest Middle East can reveal the young Englishman, just 26, has been promoted to the newly created role of general manager of the MENA Tour.

The son of hugely popular Emirates Golf Club pro James Williams, Robbie replaces the retired Trevor Vari as the chief, and fresh young face, of the developmental Middle East and North Africa circuit.

RELATED: James Williams is back on the tools at Emirates G.C. delivering lessons – and legendary tales – with unbridled joy

MENA Tour strategic advisor David Spencer has hailed Williams’ elevation after his increasingly influential role in the small circuit with big ambitions. The former Wolverhampton Wolves junior and England Schoolboys football representative started as an intern in 2014 and worked his way up to the top job, most recently as ‘tournament executive’.

“At the age of 26, to be general manager of a tour with official world ranking status, one of just 20 tours in the world including the six major tours, is something to be really proud of and a promotion Robbie richly deserves,” Spencer said.

“Robbie was born and grew up in Dubai and this shows there is a real career path in golf for young people with genuine talent in this region.”

Williams Jnr’s elevation to the top role is the first tangible news out of the tour since the conclusion of its seventh season last October but won’t be the last significant release as the feeder circuit looks to reinvent itself after what will be a nearly 16-month hiatus.

A new naming rights sponsor, a new destination partner and a 10-event schedule will be unveiled by Williams post the upcoming Ryder Cup.

The 2019 season will be split into two five event blocks, the first directly after a Qualifying School in the first week of February and the second after the height of the Middle East summer. Each regular season event will carry a minimum purse of US$75,000 except the Tour Championship finale which will offer $100,000 in prize money. It is a significant increase on last season where $50,000 events were the norm but some offered just $30,000 purses in exotic locales (read expensive to reach destinations for young pros struggling to make ends meet).

Critically, Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) status remains as does an exciting European Tour opportunity, the latter to be announced soon involving the top 60 players from the 2017 order or merit who will retain full playing rights for 2019, plus 60 players from Q-School.

Spencer said the decision to put the MENA Tour on ice for more than a year had been carefully considered.

“This is part of our absolute quest and goal to become the finest feeder tour in the world,” the Australian said.

“We felt like we could only make changes like this once and now we will have no conflict with any other Q-school or tour in the world. This is going to be something the entire MENA region is going to be intensely proud of.”

The post Robbie Williams, just 26, unveiled as general manager of new-look MENA Tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
James Williams is a stress-free interview. Simply press record, sit back and enjoy a captivating journey through a lifetime in golf as colourful as that famed tan, one that strangely never acquainted itself with his legs. It seems there is a reason seasoned golf professionals wear trousers and if you ask nicely, Emirates Golf Club’s newest “old” pro will likely hitch said slacks to keep a running joke rolling. Self-deprecation is one of the Shropshire product’s endearing trademarks.

But we digress. Back to an interview where probing lines of enquiry, beyond the initial conversation starter, are rarely required.

So, how did you get into golf?

“My golfing life started…actually, I was a much keener cricketer to the extent that I did play a lot of county cricket and got selected for England training. Didn’t get on the team, but that was my true love. Left-handed cricketer, totally right-handed person.”

Williams is a totally natural storyteller too, and clearly just warming to his task as the next 112, almost pauseless minutes prove.

It transpires his introduction to golf came through his father, a bank manager who took up the game later in life. Williams’ Snr saw a neighbour throwing out an old set of clubs one day and seized on an opportunity for young James.

“It was a rusty old pencil bag with about eight clubs in there. Believe it or not they were hickories. We cut them down and of course I gripped it cack-handed because they’re right-handed clubs. I probably would have been world No.1 if I didn’t remain left-handed,” Williams says with a hearty dollop of English jocularity.

He may never have become a world-beater but the then Shrewsbury G.C. member was good enough to get down to a one-handicap and play county golf. And in some illustrious company too.   

“I come from a county that at that time had five courses so we had to join forces with a neighbouring county. We played in the Midlands league… [European Tour Dubai chief] Nick Tarratt probably played against me years ago, we didn’t know each other then. [Golf in Dubai President and former R&A chief] Peter Dawson actually played for Warwickshire. They’ve got like 20, 30, 50 golf courses, we had five, got thrashed every time.

“The incredible thing was, we had as our No.1 and No.2, AWB [Alexander Walter Barr or “Sandy”] Lyle and Ian Woosnam. So the other 10 of us turned up and lost most times and those two played together in the foursomes and always won.”

Williams eventually fell into a PGA traineeship and deeply in love with teaching. After cutting his teeth in the UK, foreign adventures beckoned and he soon found himself mixing with 4-Star Generals at Woodlawn G.C., a course within the Ramstein Air Base in southwest Germany which remains today the U.S. Air Force’s European HQ and home to the NATO Allied Air Command.

It was an enlightening life and golf experience but the icy German winters eventually wore thin so Williams applied for a role at a club soon to open in the UAE. It was 1987 and his military pals were worried.

“No one had heard of the UAE but I speculated and put in an application.” Williams sat back and waited for a response. And waited. Six months later he’d almost given up but decided a call to Emirates Golf Club was in order, if only to politely register his disappointment at the lack of a courtesy call to say he’d missed out.

An apologetic Rodney J. Bogg, Emirates G.C.’s first general manager, answered and had a surprise, inviting Williams out for a trial along with two other hopefuls.

“I stayed for a week – gobsmacked! Horrible word, but just gobsmacked by the whole place. I remember walking on the driving range. I’ve been to many golf courses by this time but I was tip-toeing across the grass. I have never seen anything so level, every blade of grass vertical to the ground like a brand new scrubbing brush. ‘Well hit a few shots, guys.’ You know I’m a big ball and turf guy which golfers should be if they are going to strike the ball. But I didn’t dare take a divot, I was just clipping it off the top, didn’t want to be the guy digging up their new range.”

Williams became part of the furniture at Emirates G.C. for the next decade as Dubai grew up around its pioneering grass golf course. The next chapter in his career spans 20 years at Jebel Ali where, as golf operations manager, Williams was the perpetually smiling face of the resort course. Recently though, the grin started to fade as he did a stocktake of his career and realised he was no longer in the customer-facing roles he loved. A hankering to get back to those happy old teaching days become impossible to ignore and thankfully Emirates G.C. were receptive to a home-coming.

“I was the first pro to get here, and sadly now I’m the oldest pro,” Williams jokes of being back on the tools as part of Dubai Golf’s Peter Cowan Academy Dubai team.

“It is fabulous fun. I’ve got to rebuild my clientele but a lot of the original members have already come back. It never goes fast enough for me because I want to show that it’s worth Emirates having me back but it’s been very encouraging so far. I hope it’s been for the club. I couldn’t be happier.”

Mustufa Abidi/Motivate Publishing
James Williams and son Robbie are now working side-by-side at Emirates G.C. where Robbie is part of the Golf in Dubai team delivering the Omega Dubai Classics and MENA Tour.

The role means Williams now has the joy of working even closer to his 25-year-old son Robbie who is part of the Golf in Dubai team behind the Omega Dubai Desert and Ladies Classics and increasingly the face of the MENA Tour. Like his father, Williams Jnr’s first love wasn’t golf either, rather football. He was good enough to play for England Schoolboys and sign junior papers with Wolverhampton Wanderers but also cunning enough to see a good opportunity when the father of Emirati golf, Mohamed Juma Buamaim, offered him an internship.

“As a Dad, to see him growing and getting all this experience, yeah, I’m very proud. I will say that there is no one prouder than me seeing him on television doing the Desert Classic presentation. I’d be shaking like a leaf and apparently he was but he doesn’t stumble over his speeches like me.“

James Williams is equally proud of his daughter Anna-Louise, a physiotherapist in London, and grateful to his understanding wife Heather for allowing him to pursue a career where weekends and family time are a precious commodity. “She’s been very patient with her husband. You’d better get that in writing before she divorces me!”

Conversation reverts back to his beloved cricket but this time with a golf spin, not unlike the leg-breaks he used to “turn a yard”, at least the ones that bounced anyway. His childhood hero was the elegant left-handed West Indian batsman Sir Garfield Sobers so imagine the thrill when, during his initial stint at Emirates G.C., Bogg asked him to look after the visiting cricketing knight one day.

“He was just the greatest guy to talk to. When your hero turns out to be as nice as that, it’s one of the biggest things that has happened to me out here. Perhaps in our own countries we would never meet all these famous people. Is it a big deal? To me it has been. To actually see these people and find out they are normal like us has been a thrill.”

Williams played in the first three Desert Classics but his biggest playing kick came before the inaugural event in 1989 when he was asked to guide another idol, Tony Jacklin, in a reconnaissance lap of the Majlis course. The 67 he shot in the company of the Ryder Cup legend is a treasured memory and made all the practice beforehand, and some predictably nervy play in the tournaments proper afterwards, worth it.

“We were working 14 hours a day preparing everything for the first Desert Classic so I’ve hardly played and I’m going to look stupid in front of the members. All of a sudden I’m feeling a lot of pressure. So three weeks before I fished my clubs out. I would finish giving lessons at 10 o’clock at night, quickly run home, have a shower, half an hours kip, and then put the range lights on and belt balls all night long, over and over and over again until I actually had an awful cut down here [pointing to his left palm] because of a poor grip and soft hands. I don’t think we paid for the electricity in those days but I’ve paid with a scar for life.”

Williams would love to play more often and has a goal of teeing it up in the Sharjah Senior Masters if he can get his game, and his now 59-year-old body, to co-operate. But it’s teaching that really inspires him.

“I don’t think I’m really somebody, maybe not good enough, to be at the sharp end teaching top professionals but that was never been my goal. I actually don’t think you get as much satisfaction as seeing someone that’s come along, dead keen, they finally get the ball up in the air, they’re running around jumping in the air, like whoopee!

“I’m sure some people here think I’m a bit of a pain in the arse, but for people to say its really nice to have you back, and there’s been too many saying that for it not to be half true, it’s humbling. I think maybe they just like my enthusiasm, that I care. It is lovely to be back.”

The feeling from friends old and new at Emirates G.C. is mutual. For lessons, and yarns, delivered with genuine enthusiasm, the club couldn’t have hired anyone better.

The post James Williams is back on the tools at Emirates G.C. delivering lessons – and legendary tales – with unbridled joy appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.