Only a matter of time

Dubai: It will still take a while for the UAE youngsters to make their mark at the professional level, feels Abdul Aziz Al Hakim, Secretary General of the UAE Golf Association (UGA).

"Our Junior Development Programme (JDP) has already started yielding results and there are at least four youngsters on whom we can pin our hopes. However, one has to give them time," said Al Hakim.

It's been little more than two years now that he has taken over the responsibility, and there is some more coming his way.

Come year-end, and this successful banker is all set to become the golf captain of the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, being the first national to take up such a position in any golf club in Dubai.

Steady progress

"It's a big privilege. I will try my best to carry on the legacy of somebody like Colm McLoughlin, from whom I will be taking over," Al Hakim told Gulf News.

Getting back to the topic of promising young talent in the country, Al Hakim said that the likes of Khalid Yousuf and the Mosharrekh brothers are making steady progress.

"We have got possibly the youngest contingent in the region where the top five to six players are below 20 years.

"With world class facilities, courtesy the support of the government, it's possible one of our juniors will be playing in the Dubai Desert Classic in the years to come. Why not," he said.

A five-time national champion ten-pin bowler in the eighties, Al Hakim is certainly the kind of personality who's been there and done that.

Fascinated

He won the national bowling championship for five years in a row between 1983 and 1988, and has two GCC titles to boot in '83 (Dubai) and '88 (Doha).

The passion for bowling saw him setting up the hugely successful Thunderbowl bowling centre - not to speak of his professional responsibilities where he is the Area Manager (retail banking), for Emirates Bank.

What was it that drew him to golf?

"It was during the mid'90s, after I had given up active bowling, that I got fascinated by the game.

"Having spent all my sporting career indoors, I thought why not go out outdoors and try my luck," said Al Hakim, tongue firmly in cheek. After having taken his first few swings at the Dubai Creek Club, Al Hakim found out this is where he belonged.

Asked if his exploits on the course matched that of the bowling alley, he hastened to add: "No, no...whatever I have won is at the club level.

"But then, golf is a game which teaches you every day and you cannot have enough of it.

"Fortunately, there is no retirement age in this sport."