By Kent Gray
His father was the first teaching professional at the Middle East’s first all-grass course and now, three decades later, Robbie Williams is poised to blaze an even brighter trail across the game’s hottest region – in golf administration.
Golf Digest Middle East can reveal the young Englishman, just 26, has been promoted to the newly created role of general manager of the MENA Tour.
The son of hugely popular Emirates Golf Club pro James Williams, Robbie replaces the retired Trevor Vari as the chief, and fresh young face, of the developmental Middle East and North Africa circuit.
MENA Tour strategic advisor David Spencer has hailed Williams’ elevation after his increasingly influential role in the small circuit with big ambitions. The former Wolverhampton Wolves junior and England Schoolboys football representative started as an intern in 2014 and worked his way up to the top job, most recently as ‘tournament executive’.
“At the age of 26, to be general manager of a tour with official world ranking status, one of just 20 tours in the world including the six major tours, is something to be really proud of and a promotion Robbie richly deserves,” Spencer said.
“Robbie was born and grew up in Dubai and this shows there is a real career path in golf for young people with genuine talent in this region.”
Williams Jnr’s elevation to the top role is the first tangible news out of the tour since the conclusion of its seventh season last October but won’t be the last significant release as the feeder circuit looks to reinvent itself after what will be a nearly 16-month hiatus.
A new naming rights sponsor, a new destination partner and a 10-event schedule will be unveiled by Williams post the upcoming Ryder Cup.
The 2019 season will be split into two five event blocks, the first directly after a Qualifying School in the first week of February and the second after the height of the Middle East summer. Each regular season event will carry a minimum purse of US$75,000 except the Tour Championship finale which will offer $100,000 in prize money. It is a significant increase on last season where $50,000 events were the norm but some offered just $30,000 purses in exotic locales (read expensive to reach destinations for young pros struggling to make ends meet).
Critically, Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) status remains as does an exciting European Tour opportunity, the latter to be announced soon involving the top 60 players from the 2017 order or merit who will retain full playing rights for 2019, plus 60 players from Q-School.
Spencer said the decision to put the MENA Tour on ice for more than a year had been carefully considered.
“This is part of our absolute quest and goal to become the finest feeder tour in the world,” the Australian said.
“We felt like we could only make changes like this once and now we will have no conflict with any other Q-school or tour in the world. This is going to be something the entire MENA region is going to be intensely proud of.”
