“Our main goal is to develop and bring the game of golf to all citizens of Saudi Arabia over the next decade.”
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Majed Al Sorour, executive director of Golf Saudi and president of the Saudi Arabian Golf Federation, has set among other ambitious medium and long term goals to achieve that in this decade one million of his compatriots try for the first time the benefits of this sport (the country has around 36 million inhabitants) and that over the next decade golf reaches the entire population.
Continuing to organize men’s and women’s tournaments with global repercussions and building top-level courses designed by the most renowned international designers are some of the actions aimed at making Saudi Arabia an increasingly prominent presence on the world golf scene.
In this interview granted to Andalucía Golf / España Golf, the head of golf in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Arabian golf industry, explains in depth the projects aimed at promoting the sport and the golf industry in his country.
-What has led the country’s authorities to promote the sport of golf so strongly in Saudi Arabia?
-Golf Saudi formally launched in late 2018, with me at the helm as the first CEO (chief executive officer). This decision was driven by both the Ministry of Sports and His Excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the first (and current) chairman of Golf Saudi and the governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. and chairman of Saudi Aramco. The reason for his decision was to facilitate the adoption of golf in Saudi Arabia within the sporting framework of Saudi Vision 2030.
-What goals has Golf Saudi set for the development of golf in your country in the short and medium term?
-At Golf Saudi we are primarily focused on our long-term goals and our main objective is to develop and bring the game of golf to all citizens of Saudi Arabia over the next decade. Looking ahead to 2030, our vision for the future is clear:
– Educating, integrating and championing the great game of golf as a catalyst for Vision 2030 and Quality of Life 2020.
– Invest strategically at all levels of sport to establish a new ecosystem in Saudi Arabia, in which the game and its socio-economic benefits can thrive.
– To provide Saudi Arabian residents with unparalleled access, through traditional and modern means, to adopt the skills necessary to enjoy the game.
– Increasing golf club memberships to 20,000
– Ensure that more than one million Saudis have actively tried golf.
– Attract at least 5,000 international golf visitors per year.
– Attracting 60,000 visitors to Saudi-based golf events each year
– Oversee the construction of more than twenty new golf courses.
A by-product of this strategy will be the development of elite players, who will represent Saudi Arabia on the international stage, validating the measures taken to grow the game.
Our role is to carefully manage the national integration of the sport at all levels and provide clear pathways for all stakeholders to create a long-term sustainable golf ecosystem.
-One of Golf Saudi’s stated intentions is to achieve mass participation in the sport by Saudis. How will golf be made accessible to citizens throughout the Kingdom?
-That is exactly what we plan to do. We are very focused on creating world-class facilities, operational excellence and implementing international best practices to generate widespread acceptance in the game by Saudi citizens. To this end, we are creating a series of mass participation programs to introduce, educate and entertain citizens with golf. One of our key objectives is to provide a first point of golf contact to over one million first-time golfers. This will be done through on-course and off-course programs through which citizens can hear and learn more about the game before they decide to start playing. This is all part of our ultimate goal at Golf Saudi to enable the Kingdom to meet its audacious but achievable target of seeing more than one million Saudis actively trying golf by the end of the decade by offering opportunities to take introductory lessons run by Golf Saudi/PGA professionals.
-What role will women play in golf development plans in your country?
-Our vision is to grow golf throughout the Kingdom and make it accessible and enjoyable for all women.
At Golf Saudi we want to inspire many women to learn about the great game of golf and spark their interest in this wonderful sport. Golf Saudi ensures that women have full access to all golf facilities.
We have been working closely with the Ladies European Tour and last November we organized two back-to-back tournaments, the Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by Public Investment Fund and the Saudi Ladies Team International. They were the first professional women’s golf events to be held in the Kingdom, inspiring Saudi women to take an interest in golf. The tournament was a sensational moment for the country and helped us create a platform that attracts women from all over the Kingdom to witness the competition of top sports stars and set the pace to join the global movement for equality. By having some of the best female golfers in the world, we were able to inspire the next generation of young Saudi women and, looking to the future, hopefully we can foster the next generation of Saudi women golfers.
At Golf Saudi we saw great value in organizing a golf tournament for women, presenting the opportunity to help drive a ‘journey of change’ and accelerate the course of transformation that Saudi Arabia is already on by providing equal access to the sport for the next generation. We created the ‘Ladies First Club’, an initiative for Saudi women that offers free membership including golf lessons, driving range access and full 18-hole rounds on three courses. It opened to the first 1,000 Saudi women who signed up and membership had to close in just four days due to high demand.
-Fostering promising talent in the world of golf is a cornerstone of Golf Saudi’s strategy. How do you plan to do this?
-Our mass participation strategy is fundamental. We have spent time understanding the local market and its characteristics. Sixty percent of the Saudi population is under the age of 30, so we must ensure that our
s development programs are relevant and targeted to the right audience segments. This is being driven through our partnerships with schools, access to classes and a promotional strategy that aims to raise awareness through our “Let It Fly” campaign.
There will be a clear balance between modern and traditional developments. There are plans to look at creating mobile activation solutions that expose the general public to a variety of exposures to the sport; bringing together courses, golf simulators and introductory programs such as SNAG golf to stimulate interest.
We are also analyzing the type of golf course development in consideration of what will trigger the best response among potential players and beginners. For example, we have plans to look at how municipal golf is used to provide easy and affordable access, but also a way of playing that suits the vast majority position as beginners. Ball drop areas are being reviewed to make them more spacious, with fewer complications, to ensure that we give people the best opportunity to take up golf and prevent them from dropping out.
We are developing academies and have included training facilities in many of our initial development plans. These will include entertainment options, such as TopGolf, but have been created to ensure that we have access for current players or those who have shown initial interest in the game.
One of our strategies to ensure we address any major hurdles also involves hosting future conferences. In 2020, we were fortunate to host the Golf Saudi Summit, which brought together industry leaders to do business primarily, but also discussed with us how best to mobilize new ways of thinking and working to ensure the right goals.
-After the country’s experience as a venue for European Tour and Ladies European Tour tournaments, do you plan to continue in this line of attracting major international professional golf events and perhaps hosting some with even greater media impact?
-Definitely! We will continue to organize more tournaments of the professional circuits for both men and women. women. For example, take this year’s Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers. The tournament had an incredible honor roll that included five former world number ones, five Race to Dubai champions, ten players totaling 21 majors, golfers totaling more than 75 PGA Tour victories, others with a combined total of more than 250 European Tour wins and 24 players with a total of 74 Ryder Cup appearances. By hosting top players from both the European Tour and Ladies European Tour, we at Golf Saudi have the opportunity to tell many new and different stories about the Kingdom and all that the country has to offer. This is a great advantage for us and why we choose to make such significant investments in golf. It is clear that all of our tournaments (since the first Saudi International in 2019) have been widely watched by large national and global audiences, which means that people participated and continue to participate in our events in multiple ways, which can only be seen as a good thing for us.
-How do you see golf from a tourism point of view, to make your country an interesting golf destination on the international scene?
-Obviously, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and early 2021 has made things incredibly difficult for all countries, governments and organizations globally. However, being only at the beginning of our tourism journey in Saudi Arabia (visas were first issued in late 2019), the Kingdom’s unique approach is just beginning to play a key supporting role in the development of our country and, over time, will undoubtedly provide a very welcome positive economic impact.
Saudi Arabia has a unique geography when analyzing its proximity to mature golf markets. When you consider the diversity of the type of landscape and its natural beauty, coupled with the developing hospitality sector, with major hotel chains and a wide range of leisure attractions, the overall end product has the ambition to be among the best in the world and welcome a wide range of visitor types. As such, we are already in discussions with numerous of the projects currently underway in Saudi Arabia to ensure that a quality golf offering is an integral part of the tourism plans for the Kingdom.
Does the fact that Jack Nicklaus is designing one of the future Saudi golf courses mean that new projects will also bear the signature of world-famous designers?
-Continuing with the tourism theme, it’s big news that the world’s greatest player will oversee the development of his first course in the country, a championship golf course in Qiddiya, the entertainment, sports and arts capital of Saudi Arabia. The course, located 40 minutes from the Saudi capital Riyadh, is in the design process and awaiting construction to begin.
Both Nicklaus Design and Golf Saudi are working closely with STRI, Atlas Turf and GEO to ensure that the Qiddiya course we develop maximizes environmental sustainability from initial site assessment through construction methodology, including day-to-day project operations and the creation of a golf environmental legacy.
As mentioned earlier, tourism is poised to become a major economic driver not only for Saudi Arabia but also for Golf Saudi, as golfers look to travel the world and play new courses. Therefore, we want to focus on infrastructure as part of our mandate to grow to grow the game of golf in the country. By getting involved in Qiddiya, we at Golf Saudi want to help revitalize that interest and encourage Saudis to take up the game and become registered golfers and help create a golfing nation in a country where golf is not a common sport among the local population.
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