OMEGA Dubai Classics tournament director Simon Corkill is rolling with the punches in the suddenly complex new world that is golf tournament organisation

By Kent Gray
A few days either side of captivating victories by Daniel Berger and Webb Simpson at the Charles Schwab Challenge and RCB Heritage respectively, Nick Watney and Cameron Champ tested positive for coronavirus. Then, in a blink, Graeme McDowell and Brooks Koepka, like Champ, withdrew from the Travelers Championship in Connecticut after their respective caddies returned positives tests. Simpson and Chase Koepka scratched themselves hours later out of an abundance of caution. Cracks had suddenly appeared in the PGA Tour’s travelling bubble with fears it might burst, leading to another indefinite shutdown.

Trying to navigate his own COVID-19 conundrum at the time – namely how to get back to Dubai after being caught in Australia with the family when travel restrictions were imposed – Simon Corkill watched the drama unfold with a deeper interest than most.

Like the rest of us, the return of top-flight golf, even without spectators, was heartening. Indeed, the golf was exceptional at times, Berger, Simpson and co. showing few signs of ring rust. But as the Executive Tournament Director for Falcon and Associates, the positive tests on the other side of the world must have felt disconcerting close to home for the Englishman.

There is still a way to go before Corkill will assist at the inaugural $1 million Aramco Saudi Ladies International (rescheduled to Oct. 8-11) and oversee Dubai’s own Ladies European Tour stop, the OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic from Nov. 4-6. There’s longer still until the European Tour’s OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic returns to the Majlis course in late Jan. All going well, spectators will be allowed at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City and at Emirates Golf Club for both the women’s and men’s events in Dubai. But the first fortnight or so into the PGA Tour’s return showed elite golf and those tasked with delivering it are walking a wobbly health and safety tightrope. Above an equally scary business knife edge.

Fans could be marshalled around the majlis in COVID-friendly zones. (Getty Image)

“Yeah, it’s had its challenges,” Corkill admits. “We’ve spent the last few months looking at contingency plans for all our events, scenario A, B, C and D and even E on everything and it changes daily with the news.

“That stands us in good stead though. We already had emergency plans for all sorts of things but this has refocused everyone’s time. It’s interesting. There are seminars and talks going on at the minute about sports events [in the COVID era] but we’re well ahead of that because we’ve been living and breathing it since February when we were talking about it with the Saudi Ladies event [originally planned for late March].

While sagely planning for every conceivable eventuality (who saw a global pandemic coming?), Corkill insists the outlook for the Middle East events is positive. While the Desert Classic is in a “strong position” with all the event’s sponsors still on board for now, other European Tour events aren’t so fortunate. Corkill won’t be surprised if more fall by the wayside but is hopeful replacements will pop up in their place.

As European Tour chief Keith Pelley has said, the circuit will look radically different going forward, perhaps even with a PGA Tour twist with rumours of a takeover still swirling around the financially troubled European Tour. Only time will tell what the global golf landscape looks like post COVID but the impact, fingers crossed, mightn’t be so noticeable in the Middle East.

“The Desert Classic fits in where it has always been. It’s been one of the long-standing events on the European Tour, 31 years, the heritage is all still there and it will still be one of the best events on the tour,” Corkill said when asked where the Old World tour’s longest-running event outside continental Europe will fit in what is already a new-look European Tour.

“The talk of prize funds being reduced and courtesy cars not happening and different things, unless there are serious restrictions with COVID, that’s not going to happen. We are in very healthy shape as an event. We want to build on the success of the last few years and the event will be as good, if not better, than last year.”

Spaniard Nuria Iturrios is the defending Moonlight Classic champ. (Tristan Jones)

Falcon and Associates will, of course, be guided by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and the Dubai Sports Council at the two upcoming events. The Moonlight Classic will serve as a smaller scale testbed for the seemingly inevitable player and patron testing and social distancing measures set to be in place at Emirates G.C. in January. Corkill has vowed to share learnings from the Moonlight with the team tasked with delivering the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in December.

The talk of prize funds being reduced and courtesy cars not happening and different things, unless there are serious restrictions with COVID, that’s not going to happen.

“I think there will be a number we will be restricted to have on-site [for the LET Moonlight Classic] but with a golf course, it’s very big, we can work around those restrictions. As you look forward to bigger numbers [at the Desert Classic], yeah there is going to be restrictions but I think they’re going to be manageable. We can be creative with zones and things, how many people go in each area. Yes, there is going to be challenges around 18 [the hospitality chalets and spectator stands] but let’s be positive and think by the end of January, we’re in better shape.

“I think there will be social distancing elements around the golf club but that’s the norm anyway. The golf clubs have been fantastic in how they’ve adapted to this, they’re all geared up for it already, way ahead of a lot of businesses in the way they are dealing with it.”

Corkill insists the bullish attitude is rooted in lashings of real-world reality. He knows the region, as financially robust as it is, isn’t immune to any further global disruption caused by COVID. It’s a matter of being nimble, Corkill says, able to react swiftly and call on plans B, C, or D. Maybe even plan E.

“We’ve got to be prepared if we get something from left field that causes us to change things. If we get a second wave of COVID, then the whole world is going to change but we’ve prepared for everything. We’ve prepared for player safety, patron safety and it will be a fantastic event.

“The restrictions they [European Tour members] would have played in throughout the next six months, they’re driving to venues, and they’ll be staying in these bubbles, I don’t think we’ll be in a position where they’ll have to stay in bubbles. But if we have to create one, go to JA Resorts, we put them in a bubble, they come off flights and they go there, then so be it. But I don’t think we’ll be in that situation.”

The Saudi Ladies International has been rescheduled for October.

Approaching his second Desert Classic in charge, Corkill could never have imagined how his role (Falcon & Associates have also been appointed to assist with the delivery of rugby’s Dubai 7s) has changed so quickly. He’s thrilled with how his team have quickly adapted to the new norm that is online meetings but couldn’t wait to get back to Dubai and back to business, with all the new complexities confronting sports administrators the world over

“Yeah, there’ going to be challenges, there are no two ways about it, we are going to have to look at ways and think about how can we do it all a bit more efficiently,” he said.

“But the OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic is going to give us a great launching pad for the Desert Classic. What we really want to do for the Desert Classic is [show] Dubai’s back, it’s 2021, this is Expo year, we’re back, we can run a world-class event with everything that has been thrown at us. I’d like to think everyone who comes to the Desert Classic in 2021 won’t notice anything different apart from improvements.”

Here’s hoping.