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The Lion’s Den, let’s call it, is a golf society for “like-minded golfers” who play against each other every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (with the main Lion’s Den) being on a Friday also.
It started five years ago, and it was really spontaneous. At The Els Club in Dubai, there are a few societies like the “Bacon and Eggs” for example, that we all used to play in. But then we just wanted to make a society that’s a bit more competitive and less social.
So every Tuesday everyone plays in a stroke play event between the silver and blue tees and it’s purely net scoring with the top three players securing prizes. On a Thursday, we take it back a notch to almost to the tips and it’s both stroke play and net scoring amongst everybody, including the professionals. Then on a Friday, we play off the back tees as a net game, while the professionals also play a gross tournament amongst each other.
It’s always very inclusive and it’s open to anybody, just as long as they have a valid handicap index of five or less and is passionate about golf the way most of the guys and girls here are passionate.
We have recently partnered with eGolf Megastore as our main sponsor and the title partner of the eGolf Tour that we have for the professionals, which is played over 36 holes each Thursday and Friday. The whole idea is really to give back and that’s why I do it. I’m retired, I have time and I love to play golf. It’s a bit egotistical and selfish, but at the same time, it’s to give back to Dubai which has given all of us here a lot.
I love what we’re doing and I also love what eGolf is doing. For ten years I’ve seen my good friend Dean Cheesley, Founder and CEO of eGolf Megastore, work his butt off. He’s played less golf to create what eGolf Megastore is, which is a world-class golf, retail and fitting outlet.
So I figured he was the best person to partner with because not only have eGolf done a great job, but they have built a pretty nice infrastructure for the golfer to go get fitted, get good clubs, good clothes, etc. Also, a lot of the professionals that play in the Lion’s Den and the eGolf Tour are guys and girls that don’t necessarily have a contract with Titleist or Callaway or TaylorMade and a lot of them are grinding away on mini tours so having eGolf help them out with their fitting, clubs, clothing, balls etc is something that is very beneficial to them.
We have about 10 to 20 regular tour pros whenever they’re in town, but they might leave because they have a Challenge Tour event here, or they’re qualifying for the DP World Tour there, or an Asian Tour event somewhere. We also do have some more established players from the LET, LPGA and PGA Tour who are in town that come and play.
Cole Madley and Patty Tavatanakit – Harry Grimshaw
Today for example we had two ladies who play on both the LET and LPGA, Patty Tavatanakit and Morgane Métraux. Patty has played with us before, but Morgane was playing for the first time, and they’re here playing because they’re going to Saudi next week for the Aramco Saudi Ladies International. They heard about it and thought this is a good way to fine-tune their game, get their competitive juices going, and get over the jetlag. So it’s nice and it’s important for us to give back to the pro golfers who during COVID, a lot of them came here and got stuck here. That’s when we started doing these pro series events which is a year or a couple of years after The Lion’s Den started. So we’ll continue doing it as long as they’re enjoying it in the end.
Then it’s good because the amateurs get to play in a pro-am almost every week and the pros enjoy it as well because it’s still competitive. They enjoy the people they meet, sometimes they get sponsored by other amateurs who are playing with them because they became friends.
All we’re trying to do is really complement what’s out there. It’s definitely growing, I get probably on a daily basis a WhatsApp or an Instagram message from someone asking what is it all about? We have a mixture of almost 400 elite amateurs and tour pros in various WhatsApp groups, so I’m happy that now we have the eGolf Tour website up and running which is more informative and is able to document what’s happened more than anything else.
Morgane Métraux – Harry Grimshaw
I hope it grows and I hope it grows organically and just gives these pros a bit of a platform to get onto a big tour to then hone their craft. We’re still here to have fun. That’s what’s most important to be honest with you. You know, being a professional golfer is a very, very, very stressful job. It’s not a fun job at times. So when you can come and play, enjoy yourself and get to do that in a competitive environment with other tour pros and elite amateurs, it’s a fun atmosphere. That’s what we’re trying to do here and I think we’ve accomplished that.
I would not be able to do it without The Els Club because I need their infrastructure. They treat every Thursday and Friday like it’s a professional tour event. The greens are cut, the pins are tucked and they help with the scoring. Between the golf club, myself, eGolf Megastore, the golfers whether they are amateurs or professionals, everybody’s combining to do something that’s good for everybody.
Order of Merit as of week 18 (Friday 1st March 2024):
1 – Gary Stal
2 – Paul Dunne
3 – Cole Madley
4 – Gary Hurley
5 – Mathieu Decottignies Lafon
6 – Dominic Foos
7 – Thomas Detry
8 – Alexander Levy
9 – Joel Stalter
10 – Johannes Veerman
Main Image: Harry Grimshaw
