The growth of golf in the Gulf
As the finishing touches are put to this month’s Living Golf, I can only reflect on a fascinating journey to the Middle East.
Spread over nine days, we were there to look into the growth of the game in the Gulf, on the back of an ever-increasing commitment to host top-class European Tour events.
It seems like only yesterday but I was getting ready to leave school in Tipperary, when the Dubai Desert Classic was held for the first time in 1989.
The top players like Ballesteros, Faldo and Norman were still using persimmon woods and metal was still a novelty.
That first event was won by the former Ryder Cup captain Mark James and 22 years on, it goes from strength to strength, as testified by the winners’ list, which is a veritable who’s who of golf greatest names during that period.
