By Kent Gray
Given the struggles to keep the European Tour financially and logistically viable in this unprecedented time, many feared the Staysure Tour would become a sad casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.

The doubters clearly hadn’t figured on Ryan Howsam’s vision for the over-50s circuit. The Englishman, who founded insurance firm Staysure in 2004, has become the first individual to have a controlling stake and leadership role in one of golf’s major circuits after taking a majority equity share in what is now known as The Legends Tour.

Howsam will oversee the Tour’s commercial strategy as part of the evolution of Staysure’s existing umbrella sponsorship announced in 2017. The Legends Tour was officially unveiled at the Wentworth Club, the European Tour’s HQ, on September 1 with former Ryder Cup captains Mark James, Paul McGinley, 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie and 1991 Masters champion Ian Woosnam on hand to sell the sizzle. The quartet will be joined by major champions Darren Clarke, Tom Lehman, Colin Montgomerie and Michael Campbell as Legends Tour ambassadors. The exciting news for Middle East fans is the work behind the scenes to bring a couple of Legends Tour events to the region. Well-heeled amateurs will also be intrigued by the exciting opportunities to compete alongside some of the game’s greats, including a ‘Legends Club” where Ams will compete in their own Order of Merit race.

New Legends Tour chief Mark Aspland chatted to Golf Digest Middle East soon after the tour’s unveiling to bring us up to speed with the all the latest developments of the circuit that no only refuses to die but is determined to become the “greatest amateur experience in golf’.

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It’s an incredibly exciting time for senior golf.  Discussions were at the formative stage when I started working on the then Staysure Tour in early 2019. Keith Pelley and Ryan Howsam have a really strong relationship and the idea was first discussed between them whilst on the golf course. For the staff and players, we have the best of both worlds, the European Tour will still operate the ‘inside the ropes’ activities, whilst Ryan will have overall commercial control of the Legends Tour and drive the commercial activity and vision.

Majority equity shareholder Ryan Howsam is flanked by Paul McGinley and Colin Montgomerie

It was quite a job to unpick 25 plus years of the integration with the European Tour operations, but the result is a big step forward for a traditional rights-holder to engage with an entrepreneur to drive the business forward.

To align with the premium nature of the product we are looking at aspirational and successful venues to host events. We have an optimum number of 24/25 events eventually and the product we are building and the value proposition behind the Tour will align very closely with Tourism destinations. We have a very successful 10 year partnership in Mauritius and now Seychelles to form the season-ending Tour Championship, and are currently exploring the Caribbean and Middle East to complement the existing events.

We believe the Legends Tour has a unique offering that will complement the European Tour in the Middle East. We are in regular contact with Tom Phillips in the Tour’s Dubai Office and have several opportunities that are being explored.  The UAE has history with the players now playing on the Legends Tour, and we hope to build on this going forward.

The Legends Tour can complement the other golf activity in the Middle East. We are focusing on the Legends Tour being the ‘greatest amateur experience in golf’. The Pro-am and Alliance formats are central to this – it’s not re-inventing the wheel, more focusing in on the commercial value of our players, and offering an ‘inside the ropes’ experience in the tournament that I believe doesn’t currently exist in the Middle East.

It’s not re-inventing the wheel, more focusing in on the commercial value of our players and offering an ‘inside the ropes’ experience in the tournament that I believe doesn’t currently exist in the Middle East.

Aligned to this, in the new Tour structure within the Staysure Group, we have access to over 5.5 million predominantly 50+ UK travellers. This creates a compelling opportunity for premium tourism destinations and helps us to pull together a long-term narrative for the Legends Tour in the region.

In the new proposition, we are planning for standard fields to be 60 pros and 30 amateurs playing over the 3 days of the tournament.  Two pros to 1 am will create an intense, competitive opportunity for the amateur.  We are creating a ‘Legends Club’, where amateurs can play in a number of tournaments and feature on their own Order of Merit too.

The Amateur spots will be at a premium as they are limited and different territories have slightly different commercial models. For example, we are targeting the US golf travel market for our events in the UK to create a week of golf at incredible venues culminating in the Alliance events.  A title sponsor could come in and own Alliance spots too then allocate to charity / junior golf for a CSR project?  We will work a model according to the commercial requirements of the individual events.

The Legends Club proposition feeds directly into the three-day Alliance events and will initially be focused on events owned and promoted by the Tour, but will be built out further over time. We totally respect that a number of external promoters host tournaments and want to use their own format. We aim to have between 6-8 Alliance events for the Legends Club in 2021. The Legends Club is a lifestyle opportunity where you travel and play with your wife /husband/partner to premium destinations living the life of our pros.

The opportunity is not just for over 50s. it’s for anyone with a passion for golf and spending time with our Legends on and off the course. The Legends Tour pros are great fun to be with and provide the full experience of not just golf… eat with them in the Players’ Lounge and enjoy a drink with them afterwards. This is a unique, premium experience that true golf fans will revel in.

“Accessibility to our stars will form the basis of our growth plan moving forwards.”

The celebrity Pro-Ams we have planned with big names from the sports, music and entertainment worlds are designed to create additional charity / CSR, PR and marketing opportunities, plus enhance the playing experience during the week and therefore commercial value for the over-all event. We want to create a week of top quality entertainment to maximise the value of our events.

The Ambassadors are a crucial part of our strategy going forward and we have been specific in their criteria of being Ryder Cup captains and major winners. We will be using them to drive the brand forward, create awareness, generate content for legendstour.com and utilise them for lifestyle experiences as well as playing experiences. They are the perfect marketing channel for us and our partners and we have further exciting additions planned on top of those already announced.

The post Re-branded Legends Tour exploring ‘several opportunities’ in the UAE appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
In the absence of many star names plying their trade primarily on the PGA Tour Champions in the United States, what was the European Senior Tour, then the Staysure Tour, has always struggled for attention. Nostalgia was its biggest selling point, the circuit reliant on pro-am income to survive.

Although specifics in terms of scheduling and the number of future events are still to be determined, things are going to be different in 2021. For one thing, the Staysure name will be replaced by the rather grand Legends Tour. And for another, Staysure Group CEO Ryan Howsam has assumed a majority equity share in what is, in golf, a unique ownership structure. Working alongside the head of the Legends Tour, Mark Aspland, Howsam, who founded the travel insurance company in 2004, will oversee the tour’s commercial strategy.

In that regard, the so-far lack of many recognisable names to build events around has been acknowledged and rectified. Going forward, former Ryder Cup captains Darren Clarke, Mark James, Tom Lehman, Paul McGinley, Colin Montgomerie and Ian Woosnam, along with 2005 U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell and 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie, will act as the tour’s “official ambassadors.” They will, according to the press release announcing the changes to the 50-and-older circuit, “play a key role in outlining the tour’s vision in the months to come.”

“Our major champions, our past Ryder Cup players and captains and our European Tour winners have considerable pulling power,” Aspland said. “The accessibility to them offered by our new structure will form the basis of our growth plan moving forward.”

Indeed, perhaps the biggest difference will be in what Howsam calls the “alliance format” of the as-of-now undetermined number of 2021 events, in which amateurs will get the chance to play alongside the pros in tournament conditions. An additional focus on the amateur experience, will include a selection of celebrity pro-ams aimed at bringing together the “legends of golf” with others from sports, music and entertainment.

“I see the re-launch of this tour as something which could change the landscape of over-50s golf forever,” said James, a seven-time Ryder Cup player. “The alliance format brings a different dimension to competitive golf and will give the players the opportunity to meet a plethora of people and form new relationships, while amateurs will continue to hear the many stories from our lives on tour.”

Entry to that sociable atmosphere will come at a premium price. Membership into the “Legends Club” will cost £60,000, a source told Golf Digest. There will also be a dedicated Order of Merit where the amateurs will compete for a place in the end-of-season Tour Final by playing in three-day alliance events at some of the “best golf courses in the world.”

The post European senior tour preps for 2021 overhaul, eyes unique playing experiences for amateurs appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
In a strange new world in which professional golfers suddenly have time on their hands (and feet, legs and just about every other part of their anatomies due to the coronavirus), Paul Lawrie is suffering less than most. The 1999 Open champion has never had much trouble finding things to do, no matter the circumstances.

One of only eight men to have played more than 600 events on the European Tour—where he won eight times and twice represented the Old World in the Ryder Cup—the now 51-year-old Scot was last season’s rookie of the year on the Staysure (European Seniors) Tour, winning the Scottish Senior Open along the way. Lawrie also competes as and when he can on the PGA Tour Champions (invitations have, however, been less than plentiful), in between helping out at his eponymous Golf Centre just outside his home city of Aberdeen.

Away from the tour, Lawrie and his wife, Marian, organize and run the Paul Lawrie Foundation, its core aim to get as many juniors as possible playing golf. Since its formation almost two decades ago, more than 30,000 youngsters have taken part in the various activities that run weekly from April to October every year.

And there’s more. On the back of helping European Tour player David Law with his various sponsorships two years ago, Lawrie founded the Five Star sports agency, which now boasts six clients, including himself. The company is also involved in running and promoting events like Lawrie’s own invitational pro-am, the Brewdog Northern Open and the Farmfoods Scottish Par-3 Championship.

That relatively modest operation suits Lawrie just fine, at least for the moment. Long experience has shown him the many pitfalls that can await a management group that gets too big, too fast. And, having made a few mistakes himself along the way, he brings to his still newish role a neat combination of enthusiasm and cynicism.

All of a sudden, for example, Lawrie has gone from always being able to get people on the phone, to having some not return his calls. It’s a strange feeling, one he sometimes struggles to understand. To him, it does seem like bad manners.

“I’ve always enjoyed meeting business people and being involved in any deals that result,” Lawrie says. “It’s not quite the same as playing, of course. But when I come away from a meeting with a good deal for a player, I get a huge buzz. So for us to take on more than we have at the moment, I would have to hire someone. I don’t want to do that just yet. As things stand, I can do all that I need to do and play a bit too. Six of us is enough at the moment because of how much I am involved.”

And on the other side of that equation?

“I’ve always been hard but fair with agents,” Lawrie says. “But I hammered them for not letting me know what was going on. If they had a meeting with someone, I wanted to know what happened straight away. I wanted to know what was said. Basic communication is huge with me. Plus, I like honesty. I’ve had situations in the past where I have signed with someone who told me their intent was to have only three or four players on their books. Then, six months, on they have a dozen, which affected how much time they devoted to me. That won’t be happening at Five Star.”

Ross Kinnaird
Lawrie says he hopes to continue to play some golf, after winning rookie of the year honours on the European senior tour in 2019.

Indeed, as a manager, Lawrie is impressing on all of his clients the importance of creating a close relationship with each and every sponsor. Which is how he operated as a player.

“I was always a little different from most players,” Lawrie says. “I wanted to really know my sponsors, which is unusual. Most players leave everything like that to their agents. They meet sponsors only rarely. But I have always maintained contact with those giving me money. I go and see them. I call them on the phone. I email. I often play nine holes with some of my longer-standing sponsors. I don’t pester them. But a few times a year it is nice to meet up and talk about things.

“When I set up Five Star, I drummed that approach into all the players,” he says. “It has worked for me. I am someone who has had sponsors for long periods. I’ve been with Aberdeen Standard Investments since 1999. I like to think there are good reasons for that.”

Lawrie’s charges can also expect their agent to take advantage of every opportunity. Living up (or down) to the careful-with-cash image of every Aberdonian, he was always well covered in company logos. “Festooned” might be a more accurate description.

“I had as many as 12 sponsors pretty much my whole career,” says Lawrie with a smile. “That is both sleeves, both sides of the chest, both collars, back of neck, hat, glove, ball, clubs, shoes. At the moment, David Law has only his left chest for sale.”

RELATED: Golf is still being played at St. Andrews, but the R&A Clubhouse closes

Looking forward, Lawrie sees only slow expansion for Five Star, mainly because he isn’t quite finished with his own playing career. Despite on-going issues with his feet and lower back, he still intends to play 14-15 events in any “normal” year. But not on what Lee Trevino famously called the “flat bellies tour.”

“I’ve enjoyed my time on the European Tour,” Lawrie says. “I’ve had a good career. But it’s over now. I can’t compete at that level. I still hit the ball far enough. But my body is letting me down. I don’t enjoy playing rubbish. I can’t do what I used to be able to do. I hit 100 balls now and my back is loupin’ [aching]. So I can’t do the things you need to do to maintain the level of play you need on the main tour. But I can still compete with the seniors. There’s no cut and although the standard is good it is nothing like the European Tour.”

So there’s still a lot going on for Paul “Chippy” Lawrie. Oh, one last thing, he also helps out his clients with their short games. The man never stops.

The post Paul Lawrie’s golf career takes a twist as he dives into sports management appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Despite this debatable company, though, golf is the only sport that takes competition among older players seriously. The PGA Tour Champions, founded in 1980 as the Senior PGA Tour, features golfers 50 and older playing a full January-through-November schedule with major championships (five of them!), a money list and playoffs. The European Senior Tour was founded in 1992 and features 21 events (some of them co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour Champions) and a two-tournament championship. Besides the fact that the non-major tournaments are 54 holes rather than 72, and players are mostly allowed to use carts, the format is essentially the same as the “real” tours.

These senior tours don’t enjoy the same status as other professional tours, but the impressive thing is that they enjoy status at all—and that the status is significant. It can be measured, in part, by money: The winners of PGA Tour Champions events make up to $720,000 (that was Steve Stricker’s take at this year’s U.S. Senior Open), and never less than $240,000. Already in 2019, nine players have made more than $1 million. For the entire season, the total purses almost reach $60 million. Those numbers don’t exist in a vacuum—it means that people want to come watch older golfers in person, and, more important, they will watch them on TV, too.

It’s tough to calculate the exact value of the PGA Tour Champions, because it comes as a TV package with the PGA Tour (and the Korn Ferry Tour), and to some extent, it might be subsidized by its more popular partner. But it’s also fair to say that it wouldn’t offer more prize money than the Asian or Japanese tours if it didn’t have a fair amount of popular clout.

Anecdotally, you can also measure the status of golf’s senior tours by coverage. It would be impossible to imagine reading pieces like John Feinstein’s essay on Tom Watson’s farewell to the Senior Open Championship, or John Strege’s coverage of Bernhard Langer winning the same tournament at age 62, in any other sport—just as it would be laughable to think of another sport that could round up $60 million for a league of old men.

This status, it’s fair to say, is extremely strange. So why does it exist? How is it financially feasible? What’s different about golf?

Stacy Revere
Steve Stricker’s second act as a senior golfer belies the unique opportunity the sport provides tour pros.

Partly, it’s because golf is more a sport of coordination than pure athleticism, which means there isn’t an enormous gap between younger and older players. Yes, no golfer older than 50 has ever won a major (though Tom Watson came agonizingly close on the threshold of 60 at the 2009 Open Championship), and only three have ever won a PGA Tour event, but the fact is that the brand of golf that the seniors are playing is still extremely good, especially when you consider it in relation to how a 50-year-old football or baseball player might perform. To win the Senior Open this past weekend, Bernard Langer shot a 66, which is far lower than any average schlub could dream of shooting. So when you watch the seniors play, you’re still watching a very high level of golf. In contrast, by the time most former professional basketball players hit age 60, your reasonably skilled high school player could beat them in a game of one-on-one. In most other sports, there’s an enormous athletic drop-off that doesn’t exist to the same degree in golf.

That’s clearly the most prominent factor. But, risking a digression into hokum, I’d argue that the spiritual side of golf also plays a key role. In the United States, particularly, golf thrives on nostalgia more than any other sport, including baseball. Sometimes this takes the form of a retrograde conservatism that damages golf’s reputation and leaves it woefully behind the societal curve, but other times it’s a more wholesome celebration of the past. Or maybe “celebration” isn’t quite the right word—maybe “yearning” is more accurate. Embedded within golf are subconscious desires to return to a simpler mode in terms of culture and nature.

Kris Kristofferson once wrote, “I’d trade all my tomorrows for one single yesterday,” and senior tours give golf fans a chance to experience yesterday today. They’re a portal to the past, where viewers can watch the golf stars of their youth still competing, and still competing with professional excellence. Watching them shields us, temporarily, from the impermanence of life and allows us to believe that the old ways aren’t dying. It lets us escape our fundamental dread of the future, and although this has potential appeal for everyone, you can imagine it appealing especially to an older audience—a demographic, you’d have to guess, which makes up the vast majority of television viewers.

Of course, we know this is an illusion: Life is not permanent, things are constantly changing, and nothing we do can stop time. But, I’d argue, golf’s senior tours, anomalous as they are in the world of professional sports, have a kind of beautiful nobility for the attempt.

Let me throw one final quote at you. This one comes from Satchel Paige and was borrowed, in part, by D.A. Pennebaker for his seminal documentary on Bob Dylan:

“Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”

Well, something is gaining on us, but the senior tours look back anyway. That takes a special kind of nerve, and it’s only possible in golf.

The post The beautiful weirdness of golf’s senior tours appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But Chris White believes the set-up of Ayla Golf Course for this week’s innovative 54-hole Jordan Mixed Open will prove it is possible – despite the average Challenge Tour player driving 284-yards in 2018, almost 50-yards further than their LET counterparts.

Related: Pioneering Jordan event is a PR dream

“With the course set-up as it is, there is no reason why there shouldn’t be one player from each of the three tours coming down the closing stretch with a chance of victory,’’ said White, Director of Operations at Ayla Oasis and the driving force behind the tournament concept.

Masterminded by White and his team at Ayla, with the approval of representatives of the three co-sanctioning tours, the Greg Norman-designed course will see the Challenge Tour players tee-up from 7,152-yards, with the Staysure Tour players competing from a yardage reduced by seven percent, at 6,601-yards.

There will then be a further seven percent reduction for the LET players, who will compete from a scorecard measured at 6,139-yards. The distances are comparable to the length the competitors would play from under standard tournament conditions.

“Our first and primary priority was to engineer a format that could showcase golfing talent regardless of gender,” said Chris White.

Chris White, second from right, with representatives from the Jordan Mixed Open’s co-sanctioning tours.

“This not only means taking into consideration carry yardages, both off the tee and throughout the player’s whole bag, but also the positioning of bunkers and hazards, which will be approached differently depending on the angle and distance that each competitor is playing from.”

“The beauty of golf is that everyone can compete alongside each other. In the amateur game through the handicap system, but with the correct set-up we believe that this can also be true when it comes to men, women and seniors in the professional arena,” White said.

The spin rates of approach shots have also been analysed and will be considered when preparing daily hole locations, while wind and other weather considerations will also be factored in each day before play commences.

“Golf needs more innovative concepts to continue to grow the sport globally and this is a truly exciting new format,” said Davide Lantos, the LET’s Director of Tournament Operations.

“The Tournament Directors have gone through a rigorous process to ensure that the set-up is a fair test for all the players, including the positioning of different tees at Ayla Golf Club. It will be a thrilling spectacle to watch the best players from three tours compete in Jordan.”

The post White confident of gender-neutral setup of Ayla G.C. for Jordan Mixed Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

That’s just one of the tasty little battles within the battle in Aqaba where Ladies European Tour (LET) stars will compete against the whippersnappers of the European Challenge and several former Ryder Cuppers from the Staysure (senior) Tour on the same course for a single prize fund from Thursday. 

Related: White confident of gender-neutral Ayla Golf Club set-up for Jordan Mixed Open

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll have some sort of wager running throughout the tournament,” Scott told the European Tour. “It will probably involve household chores.”

We’ll keep tabs on the Henry’s battle for domestic bliss but beforehand revert to the push for pre-tournament coverage. Normally a tournament would need to be quite novel for publicity cut-through but the team in Jordan have let the venue and nearby surrounds do all the heavy lifting.

Check out the video of the LET’s Olivia Cowan, Challenge Tour competitor Borja Virto and the former Ryder Cupper Barry Lane taking in the sights of Petra, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, and Wadi Rum:

History isn’t made everyday, but when it is, it’s worth celebrating. Star golfers @OliviaCowan, @BorjaVirto and @BazLane recently joined us to do just that. Here we share their journey through Jordan… Behind-the-scenes coming soon, stay tuned! #WeShareTheSameDrive pic.twitter.com/r6fOhum8et

— Ayla Oasis (@AylaOasis) March 28, 2019

We’re still coming to terms with Lane’s attempt at the floss and look forward to the impending bloopers cut.

Beforehand, enjoy the publicity shots from Petra and Wadi Rum, an increasingly dramatic collection of red sandstone mountains which has served as the backdrop to films such as Lawrence of Arabia and more recently scenes from The Martian and the latest Star Wars blockbuster, Rogue One.

Barry Lane, Olivia Cowan and Borja Virto at Petra.

Olivia Cowan lets one rip into the stunning vastness of Wadi Rum.

Meanwhile, Ayla Golf Club course designer Greg Norman has lent his support to the event.

‘’Any initiative that sets to break down the barriers that prevent people from taking up the sport and that looks to change the narrative regarding women and girls in sport must be encouraged,” said the Great White Shark.

“To construct a format in which women and men compete together over the same course is an impressive feat and there is no doubt that events that showcase golfing talent regardless of gender, such as the Jordan Mixed Open presented by Ayla, are the future of the game.’’

Norman’s sentiments were have been echoed by LET star Carly Booth and Staysure Tour member Phillip Price.

“I am delighted to be taking part in this unique event in Jordan,” said Booth. “I’ve always believed that we are all equal and creating environments where that can be celebrated can only be a good thing for our sport and also for our communities. It’s a great concept and I can’t wait to get going.”

Three-time European Tour winner and member of the victorious 2002 Ryder Cup squad, Price is also keen to see how the tournament plays out. The layout has been specifically set-up to ensure competitors from each circuit can compete over an equal playing field, with bunkering and hazards, alongside tee placement, taken into consideration.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity, not only to compete with the female players but also to test my game against the up-and-coming players on the Challenge Tour,” the Welshman commented. “Playing golf in Jordan and competing against the Ladies European Tour professionals are both new and exciting experiences and it’s going to be really interesting to see how the format works in practice.”

The post Pioneering Jordan Mixed Open a PR dream appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

How do you set up Greg Norman’s new, 7512 yard, par-72 layout on the shores of the Red Sea so it is an equitable challenge for the diverse field of 123 players, made up of 40 members of each tour and one leading amateur from the mens, ladies’ and over-50s’ games?

Representatives from the three co-sanctioning tours believe they solved the set-up conundrum after a recent site visit to the Aqaba resort.

Simon Higginbottom, a Staysure Tour and Challenge Tour Tournament Director, admitted the inaugural Jordan event presents  “some challenges regarding course set up.”

“With its design emphasis on proper playing angles, strategy and firm ground conditions, the course at Ayla is well suited to the mixed format and will, with our carefully managed tee and pin positions, provide all three categories of player with the ability to score well,” Higginbottom said.

Davide Lantos, the LET’s Director of Tournament Operations, concurs, and knows the set-up is critical for the April 4-6 event. Careful attention was paid not only to the length of the course facing each competitor but the angles of play as well, ensuring, where possible, bunkers and water hazards have an equal impact.

Related: Unique trophy for trailblazing Jordan Mixed Open unveiled

“The Jordan Mixed Open presented by Ayla, which will be played in the cradle of modern civilisation, is a great opportunity to showcase all that is great about women’s golf,’ he said

“In a world that is beginning to recognise the importance of gender equality, this unique format and event could not have been better timed.

“The real challenge for us is in preparing the course and in ensuring the correct format of play so that our male and female professionals can compete on the same course with the same chance to score well. We are sure that this will be a challenging but enjoyable tournament for players and an exciting and engaging event for spectators.”

Chris White, Director of Operations at the Ayla Oasis Development Company, cannot wait for April.

“Both representatives from the Tours gave very positive feedback on our projected vision for the golf course set-up and we are confident that we will be able to establish a format which encourages exciting play and will see all players given an equal chance of being crowned our inaugural champion.”

The post Organisers confident of level playing field for ‘world first’ mixed gender event in Jordan appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Players from the Ladies European Tour and men’s Challenge and Staysure (seniors) Tours will chase a place in golf history at the ground-breaking Jordan Mixed Open presented by Ayla next year, an event first revealed by Golf Digest Middle East in April.

By virtue of its inaugural status, they’ll also be playing for a brand new trophy at Ayla Golf Club in  Aqaba from April 4-6 next year.

The 15kg, cut crystal “Triquetra Trophy” was unveiled at the World Travel Market in London on Friday by representatives of the three tours and Dr Abed Al-Razzaq Arabiyat, managing director of Jordan Tourism Board.

Designed using an ancient ‘triquetra’ shape, the trophy features a circle passing through three interconnected loops. It fulfils its complicated design brief with clever simplicity, and a nod to ancient history as the PR blurb accompanying the unveiling announcement suggests.

“Each loop is representative of the event’s co-sanctioning tours, while the golf ball further emphasises the cohesion between three forces of the sport,” the release trumpeted with the help of a little history lesson.

“The word ‘triquetra’ is Latin for ‘three-cornered’ and although the exact origins are unknown, examples of its use date back over 5,000 years. “

“This shape is commonly used to represent equality and, using the brand colours of each tour, perfectly encapsulates the underlying principles of the Jordan Mixed Open presented by Ayla.”

Beauty is, of course, in the eye of the beholder but you’ll get no arguments here.

What is guaranteed is a world first in April when 40 professionals from each of the the men’s, ladies’ and senior’s tours compete over the same golf course for the same prize purse. They will be joined by a leading amateur from the men’s, ladies’ and over-50’s games.

RELATED: ‘Ground breaking’ Jordan Mixed Masters hailed

They said it…

Dr Abed Al-Razzaq Arabiyat, Managing Director of Jordan Tourism Board
“Golf is central to the vision of Aqaba as a tourist destination and of Ayla as one of the world’s most forward-thinking residential and recreational communities.

“Accompanied by the Jordan Tourism Board’s dual commitment to the promotion of Jordan to travelling golfers and to creating new air travel routes in order to welcome more visitors than ever before, we believe the Jordan Mixed Open presented by Ayla is set to be a landmark event which further endorses and showcases our offering, announcing Jordan onto the world golfing map.”

Mark Lichtenhein, Chairman of the Ladies European Tour
“The Jordan Mixed Open will be a unique spectacle with both male and female golfers competing for the same trophy and there is no doubt that all LET players will have a keen eye on the Triquetra. The design perfectly reflects the unity of three tours coming together to compete in a brand new format and we thank Ayla for their strong commitment to sporting equality.”

David MacLaren, Head of the Staysure Tour
“The Jordan Mixed Open presented by Ayla is an important event not just for the continued development of the Staysure Tour, the Challenge Tour and the Ladies European Tour, but for golf in general.

“We have seen huge levels of engagement when male and female professional golfers have had the opportunity to compete alongside each other, as they do at the Vic Open and in Morocco at the Trophée Hassan II and Lalla Meryem Cup, or against each other as we saw at GolfSixes and the European Golf Team Championships this year.

“The Jordan Mixed Open adds a new dimension to mixed tournament golf with men competing against women for the first time in a stroke play event and seeing the trophy first-hand has only increased our excitement for next April’s tournament.”

Jamie Hodges, Senior Project Manager, European Challenge Tour
“This tournament involving the Challenge Tour, Staysure Tour and the Ladies European Tour is a landmark moment for all three tours.

“Jordan will represent the 50th country that the Challenge Tour has visited, and we are excited to achieve this milestone in a way that will grow the sport globally while furthering our history as a Tour that takes golf to new markets.

“What makes the Jordan Mixed Open presented by Ayla truly ground-breaking is that everyone in the field is competing for one prize, so I am thrilled to see the way the Triquetra Trophy represents this key innovation, while also being just a beautiful standalone piece of artwork.”

The post Trophy for trailblazing Jordan Mixed Open unveiled appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Related: Brandel Chamblee berates himself after missing Senior Open cut at St. Andrews

In other words, the last thing the 17th needed was an added challenge, something 18-time European Tour winner Mark James received on Thursday in the Senior Open Championship at the Old Course. After going out in three-over 39, James fought back and arrived at the 17th tee at two-over par, which is currently well out of contention but still in the mix to make the cut. Those chances got much slimmer when James struck his tee shot and it hit a seagull mid flight, causing the ball to cruelly ricochet out-of-bounds:

Unluckiest golf shot of the year?

Mark James’ tee shot on the famous 17th hole on the Old Course, St Andrews hits a bird before going out of bounds. #SeniorOpen pic.twitter.com/jow7G0YbqN

— Staysure Tour (@StaysureTour) July 26, 2018

We’ll spare you the “not the birdie he was looking for” joke and just say that’s an awful break, and not the first time it’s happened to a professional golfer this year. This past April at Harbour Town, Kelly Kraft’s tee shot on the par-3 14th also struck a bird in mid-air, causing the ball to drop into a water hazard. Although Kraft would end up missing the cut by a shot, he still saved bogey. James was not as fortunate, making a triple-bogey en-route to a five-over 77, which currently has him tied for 122nd, nine off the lead.

The post Pro’s tee shot hits seagull on the Road Hole at Senior Open, causing ball to ricochet out-of-bounds appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Tournament-starved Ladies European Tour players have led a chorus of approval as more details of Jordan’s new mixed-gender professional event were released on Tuesday.

As Golf Digest Middle East exclusively revealed in April, players from the LET will pit themselves against Challenge Tour players and ex-European Tour stars now playing the Staysure Tour (formerly European Seniors) in a 54-hole, individual strokeplay event at Ayla Golf Club, Jordan’s first 18-hole grass course in the Red Sea port city of Aqaba, early next year.

Related: Battle of the Sexes – Jordan event set to pit LET women against Challenge Tour men and European Seniors stars

The Jordan Mixed Masters, presented by Ayla, will be played from April 4-6 with a field of 123 players – 40 each from the LET, Challenge and Staysure Tours plus one amateur from each demographic.

Members from the three tours will tee off from different yardages but will compete in a single competition. The three-day event will see the field cut to 60 for the third and final round competing for the yet-to-confirmed winners cheque. The leading players from the other two tours will also receive a “special accolade”.

Reigning LET No.1 Georgia Hall welcomed the development after reaching the quarterfinals of the European Tour’s GolfSixes which included female professionals for the first time in England last month.

“GolfSixes was such a successful event and it was so nice to connect with so many fans. The format was popular with everyone and it was great to see so many women and juniors there,’ Hall said. “The Jordan Mixed Masters, presented by Ayla, is the next step to show that golf is a game for all. The women are looking forward to joining together to make this another fantastic week and the future is looking good with more events like this on the calendar.”

LET players have been starved of playing opportunities in recent seasons with just six events so far this season; the last of them in April.

Felicity Johnson, a prominent name on recent Omega Dubai Ladies Classic leaderboards, echoed Hall’s sentiments on social media.

??? great vision from all parties https://t.co/4zEJ6ZJOcd

— Felicity Johnson (@FlicJohnsonGolf) June 26, 2018

Related: First Look – Ayla Golf Club

Mark Lichtenhein, Chairman, Ladies European Tour, said: “The popularity of recent collaborative events such as the Oates Vic Open, Lalla Meryem Cup and GolfSixes have demonstrated that there is a huge public appetite to see men and women playing alongside each other in different formats.

“This unique tournament will be the first of its kind, where men and women will compete individually, for the same trophy. The event will give our players a tremendous opportunity to showcase their talents in a level playing field for both genders.”

The 4th hole at Ayla G.C. in Aqaba.

The announcement of the event builds on the success of the European Tour’s innovative GolfSixes tournament, a 16-team, six-hole event, which included some of Europe’s top female stars and a mixed pairing of Ryder Cup Captain Thomas Bjørn and his Solheim Cup counterpart Catriona Matthew.

Male and female players will also tee it up in August in the new European Golf Team Championships, part of the Glasgow 2018 European Championships, which will include a mixed foursome strokeplay event.

They said it…

Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour
“The Jordan Mixed Masters, presented by Ayla is a fantastic development for the Staysure Tour, the Challenge Tour and the Ladies European Tour. This unique event goes a step further, bringing together the stars of three Tours for a truly innovative tournament. There seems to be an appetite in golf for mixed events right now, and this is another opportunity to deliver another entertaining yet credible format. The European Tour is leading the transformation of global golf and I commend Ayla’s vision and their determination to spearhead the concept of hosting the three Tours.”

Chris White, Director of Operations at Ayla
“Golf is one of the only sports whereby competitors, regardless of age or gender, can compete fairly together. To see our vision come to life and have the support and collaboration of all three Tours gives us great confidence that our event will be recognised as unique in the world of golf and showcase not only the beauty of Ayla, but the great nation of Jordan.”

Alain de Soultrait, Director, European Challenge Tour
“The introduction of a tournament involving the Challenge Tour, Staysure Tour and the Ladies European Tour is a landmark moment for all three tours, and playing all together will be great.”

David MacLaren, Head of the Staysure Tour
“Following on from the spectacular success of Dame Laura Davies’ trailblazing appearance at the Shipco Masters earlier this month, we are absolutely thrilled to be part of a unique tournament that will bring together players from different parts of the golfing spectrum, but who share in common great achievements within their individual Tours.”

Phil Golding, a four-time Staysure Tour winner and two-time victor on the Challenge Tour
“This is such a unique tournament. It’s fantastic that we have brought the three Tours together and it’s an event in a new country for us, which is another bonus. It’s great that we’re doing things a little bit different, and this is another step after playing on a nine-hole golf course in Sharjah over the last two seasons and also having Dame Laura play with us in Denmark. I’m really looking forward to it.”

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