Dubai: Ahmad Al Musharrakh and Khalid Yousuf, the UAE's leading golfers, have stressed that more needs to be done to develop Emirati players beyond the inaugural four-leg Mena Tour, which ended last month.
Billed as a pathway to professionalism for Emirati golfers, in reality the Tour fell short of its intentions this year, with Al Musharrakh and Yousuf — the only Emiratis from a field of 80 — absent for the first two events.
While the Tour teed off with the Abu Dhabi Open and Ras Al Khaimah Classic, Al Musharrakh and Yousuf were representing the UAE at the Arab and Asian Championships. They returned in time to play in the Shaikh Maktoum Dubai Open and the Mena Tour Championship series-ender and still reached seventh and eighth respectively in the amateur Order of Merit.
The Mena Tour was eventually won at a professional level by Britain's Jake Shepherd, while Moroccan Ahmad Marjan topped the amateur Order of Merit.
"The Mena Tour didn't really benefit us this year because we had some date clashes," Yousuf said.
"We're the only two Emiratis who reached the plus-one handicap entry requirement, which limits it for some but ensures the competition is of good standard," he added.
"There was a good level of competition, which is good for our game, and the professionals made some money and had a great four weeks and the amateurs got to play in professional surroundings," he added.
"But Ahmad and I have played in professional events before. Therefore I don't think it really made much of a difference for us, it's not really changed anything as we are already used to exposure of that calibre."
Al Musharrakh said: "The Tour has been all over the news and has caught media attention, so in that way it should inspire young nationals to take up the game. The Emirates Golf Federation is also taking good care of juniors from ages five to six with the national development programme."
But Al Musharrakh implied that — between the grassroots junior development programme and the high-end Mena Tour — there was a serious lull in quality and quantity of Emirati golfers in the middle, meaning the Tour wouldn't fulfil its promise of professionalising a local player until these juniors had come of age and reached scratch handicaps — a prospect that could take a decade.
"The Tour is quite important but more needs to be done of course. It's a new sport and we are just generating the attention of junior nationals. In the meantime we have to bridge the gap to get more local talent up to scratch, increasing the pool before the most can be made from the Tour," he said.
