When Pro Golf Meets the Real World

Two weeks ago in Alabama, I finished T-10 at Clutch Pro Tour qualifying for what was supposed to be the start of a great adventure: a mini-tour swing through the Middle East starting in Oman. For a pro golfer who likes chasing opportunities in strange places and writing about them, it seemed like a dream assignment. 

Then the bombs began falling on Iran.

With the Middle East in turmoil, the Clutch Tour postponed its entire MENA series scheduled for Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. An email from the tour said:

Over the past several weeks Clutch Pro Tour has been closely monitoring the evolving situation in the Middle East in consultation with host venues, national federations, the DP World Tour group and international travel advisors…Following these discussions and a full operational review, we have taken the decision to INDEFINITELY POSTPONE the Clutch MENA Series.

My friend Jhared Hack qualified for the Pro Golf Tour of India this year because it offered a pathway to the DP World Tour for top finishers. The gamble seemed to immediately pay off as he won the first PGTI event of the season, which qualified him for two HotelPlanner Tour events (feeder tour for DPWT) in India this month. The HotelPlanner Tour just cancelled the first event due to significant travel disruptions for tour members. 

Videos of attacks on the UAE have circulated widely online, and the HotelPlanner Tour is scheduled to compete there in April. The MENA Tour — the Middle East’s primary developmental circuit — has two upcoming events scheduled in Jordan, where the Jordanian Army has been shooting down ballistic missiles.

Will any of these events be played as scheduled? The odds are somewhere between Nicklaus winning a 19th major and Tiger winning this year’s Masters.

With so much death and destruction, whether golf tournaments are contested or not doesn’t matter much. The ripples of war travel to unexpected places.

The major players in pro golf have long touted the importance of the game’s global reach and have welcomed investment from Middle Eastern companies and governments. DP World’s title sponsorship in the European Tour provided significant long-term investment. LIV Golf’s rapid rise is fueled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. For ambitious parties in the region, investing in golf was a way to expand influence and prestige. 

But the limits of golf diplomacy are on full display. High-profile stakeholders often argue that golf can be a force for good in the world. Moments like this test that idea. 

Developmental tour events have a localized, grass roots connection to a place they’re played. Mini tour pros get more cultural flavor as they try to keep their costs down, relying on community with fellow pros and engagement with locals. These interactions don’t change the world, but developmental tour golf often creates moments of connection that leave a lasting impression.

I’ve been stranded on a lush mountain outside of Kuala Lumpur with nothing but my golf clubs. A Malaysian named Mr. Lou was the only passerby and fortunately, picked me up. Mr. Lou took me to his golf club and invited me to his house for dinner. “It’s a good thing you have golf clubs, otherwise I would have never stopped,” Mr. Lou said. 

When there were no hotel rooms around a jungle golf course in Borneo, a course employee took me to a small village where he generously set me up with a windowless room to sleep in and made arrangements for someone to cook my meals. I put together my best scores of the season that week. Sometimes, winning requires you to surrender to an experience.

I once coached junior golfers in Taiwan in exchange for a course to practice at and a room to stay in. The only English TV channel played Good Luck Chuck with Dane Cook and Jessica Alba on loop. There was a ping pong table (on which I often lost to the junior golfers), and freshly cut Dragon fruit in the mornings.

In South Korea, a man offered to save another player and I a sickening bus ride hours away to a mountaintop golf course. He drove us, paid for all our meals, and caddied for me for free. (We found out along the way he was a member of the South Korean mafia…but hey, no one’s perfect!)

My caddie in Thailand once went door-to-door in the early morning, knocking frantically to find a ride to a tournament round when our arranged taxi didn’t show up. A man answered the door in his underwear – and agreed to drive us. 

Golf was the common denominator in all our lives.

Golf has the remarkable power to bring total strangers together; you may look different, not speak the same language, or understand one another’s culture. But when two people can appreciate a soaring golf ball and a breaking putt that falls in with perfect speed, you have something to build on. I’ve never been to the Middle East. Most Americans would say the same. Now more than ever, we need more engagement between people willing to learn from one another, both at home and abroad.

I’ll never forget the kids I coached in Taiwan. My guess is they’ll never forget the American coach whose Mandarin was barely coherent – but who tried to speak to them about more than their golf swing every day.

I was excited to get outside my comfort zone again on the Clutch Tour. Golf won’t solve the world’s problems and it won’t prevent war. But curious golfers can open hearts and minds. Violence has the opposite effect.

The Middle East is being reshaped in real time. Where golf tournaments fit into that new reality is a question for another day.