AR
Joe Heraty. Mena Tour
Dubai-based Joe Heraty has already tasted success on the golfing scene recently — and now he is targeting bigger things.
The Englishman made history as he claimed the win in the first-ever Mena Tour event held on Malaysian soil earlier this month — and now he has set his sights on the upcoming ‘home’ Challenge Tour double-header in Abu Dhabi.
Heraty went into the final day at the The Els Club Desaru Coast Mena event with a one-stroke lead and turned on the style to close out a nine-under, three-stroke victory over Malaysian Paul San and Italian Arron Zemmer.
Next up is the two events back-to-back in the UAE, the Abu Dhabi Challenge at Abu Dhabi Golf Club (April 27-30) and the UAE Challenge at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club (May 4-7), and Heraty goes into the Challenge Tour fortnight in Abu Dhabi with a renewed sense of confidence and ambition.
“I used to live in Abu Dhabi and cut my teeth here as a player assistant at Abu Dhabi Golf Club on an internship many years ago and it is great to be back on home soil for the Challenge Tour events,” Heraty told Golf Digest Middle East.
“I don’t actually have a status on the Challenge Tour and I will be competing on an invitation from Emirates Golf Federation and representing my Dubai club, the Montgomerie.
“But I am coming in with great confidence after my win in Malaysia on the Mena Tour and have played many Asian Tour events.
“My goals are to gain full status on the Asian Tour and possibly go for my DP World Tour card through Q-School and get my world ranking [currently 1,186] down.”
While Heraty turned professional seven years ago, this is something of a new beginning for the 31-year-old as he is starting out again after an extended break due to Covid.
“I moved back to the UAE, this time Dubai, from England last August and I am getting back into things again,” he explained. “I had something like a three-year break and I was actually caddieing on the DP World Tour and on the Ladies European Tour. Then I thought, I’m ready to play again, and got back out there, and it has gone from strength to strength. My win in Malaysia shows I can still compete and I have been given a lot of support.
View this post on Instagram
“I have kept quite calm. I said to the guys I was rooming with before the final round in Malaysia that I wasn’t nervous, and I put in a great round. I went into the final day with a one-stroke lead and, while there weren’t any leaderboards on the course — you had to just focus on your own game — I kept tabs on those closest to me and knew towards the end I could get over the line.”
Heraty has tasted success in the Middle East before, winning the inaugural Sahara Kuwait Championship in 2016, but the golfing scene in Asia and the Middle East is much changed now from when Heraty took his break, with massive investment in the game from Golf Saudi raising the Asian Tour off its knees to elite level, with much-improved purses on offer and bigger, better global destinations on the schedule.
“My game is much more suited to Asia and the Middle East than Europe so I love playing out here,” he said. “It is great what LIV Golf Investments have done with their investments. The standard of courses has got higher, the fields are stronger and the prizes are bigger. The Asian region as a whole has been massively boosted over the past 12 months or so.
“To get my full card on the Asian Tour would be brilliant so I can compete in all the events and get to play in all the destinations now on offer.”
