Photo by Jan Kruger/LIV Golf/Getty Images
With the money and publicity, you don’t expect anyone to pull out of a LIV event unless it is something very serious
By Shergo Al Kurdi, with Matt Smith
Raised in England but representing my father’s country of Jordan, I played my first elite event as a 14-year-old but first really came on the radar earlier this year when I became the first, and youngest at 18, player from the Middle East to make the cut on the DP World Tour at the UAE Swing’s Ras Al Khaimah Classic and finished T33 on 10-under.
I picked up $12,000 that day for my first payday and it has been so busy since. I am now a Golf Saudi Ambassador and since I turned pro, they have more than looked after me. They have helped me and invested in me and now here I am at LIV Golf.
At Bedminster, I was on the bench as an alternate, and all the talk was about Henrik Stenson, as he got stripped of the Ryder Cup captaincy before playing in his first LIV Golf event. The hype got bigger as he went on to win that event. Fast-forward two weeks in Boston — the fourth event — and again I was an alternate. Obviously with the money and the publicity, you don’t expect anyone to pull out unless it is something very serious.
Every week I just thought of it as a week of practice, focus on the range and in the gym, and do what I need to do to get better. Everything was going fine and I was just training away and doing practice work, and then 40 minutes before the shotgun start, I was told: “Stenson is not feeling well,” and I was in the
field for LIV.
Obviously it was a bit of a shock and also a panic as I did not have my dad with me and he was my caddie, and I didn’t even have any golf balls in my bag as I did not expect to play. I had no putting practice on the green…
Luckily it all came together as Stenson’s caddie — Gareth Lord — graciously offered to caddie for me, and we all made it time to tee off.
It was a whirlwind. Off we went and I found out I was playing with Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith — arguably the two biggest names in LIV Golf right now — because Stenson won the last one and was in the marquee group.
We started on the first hole and I would be lying if I wasn’t nervous, but it was such a great experience and I had never experienced anything like that before.
Luckily I had a good week and I didn’t let the team down, we finished third and I was 35th in the individual standings.
It was my birthday on the Monday, the day after the final round so it was a nice way to celebrate with a cheque for $144,000.
When we are not playing and stay on the bench, we do not receive any prize money, obviously, but the experience of being in this tournament environment and around the best players in the world is worth more right now as it helps me learn so much. I am loyal to the tour and I will be here every week, because you never know.
It is never going to hurt to be in this environment and I am travelling the world and playing all these different courses. Portland was my first time in the US for example, and even if I don’t play, it is such a valuable learning curve.
Next up now that the LIV season is at an end, I have some starts lined up on the new Asian Tour International Series in Morocco and Egypt, and also the new Saudi Open, which is a qualifier to the Asian Development Tour, and I will take it from there. I will certainly be aiming for the top five in Morocco and Egypt as I am pretty sure that will get an invitation to these LIV events next year.
Mr Majed Al-Surour and His Excellency Mr Yasir Al-Rumayyan of Golf Saudi have been brilliant in their support for me ever since day one. When I first turned pro, they were the first to help me financially, and what they have done to help get me in as an alternate has only been good, so I hope I can make them proud in the future.
Golf Saudi are showing the future of the sport and they have a few good national players. I have known Faisal [Salhab], Saud [AlSharif] and Othman [Almulla] ever since the Pan-Arab days as youngsters, I played the U-18 Pan-Arab with Saud, and it is good to be around players from my region and from Saudi, different Arab golfers, because I really think we have so much potential and I think that can really show in the future. It is great to see them at these LIV events and see them play with some of the guys in the pro-am, and we will see what happens from here.
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