I Didn't Lose My Love for Golf When I Broke My Elbow

Before Q4 2023 I was working so deep in the golf industry that I'd stopped making time to actually play. From the outside it probably looked fine. I was in the game every day, around it constantly. On the inside, my game was awful, and the thought of teeing it up with members would genuinely concern me. Golf had become something I worked in rather than something I loved.

Then a freak accident, a broken elbow, took the decision out of my hands completely. No golf, at all, and possibly never again. That last part is what got me. Not just time off, the real possibility that it was over.

I ended up taking a job completely outside the industry, as a sales manager for one of the leading hospitality groups in the UAE, selling events across more than 15 venues in Dubai. Different customers, different sales cycles, a pace that didn't leave much room to dwell on what I'd lost. I learned how to sell an experience rather than a product, and how hospitality actually works from the inside.

Fast forward to now, mid 2026.

That distance changed what I want out of this game, and it's not just about my own scorecard anymore. It's about growing golf, here in this region and further afield, and making more people realise what it can actually be.

It's a business tool, closing more in four hours on a course than in four meetings in a boardroom. It's a family bonding experience, one of the few games where three generations can compete on equal footing. It's a networking tool, putting you next to people you'd never otherwise get access to. It's one of the easiest ways to meet people when you're new to a city, which matters more than people think somewhere like Dubai, where so many of us start over. And yes, it's still an incredible career, for the people who work in it and everyone around them.

I got lucky. I got the game back, and I got to bring the sales and hospitality skills I picked up in that period with me. I use them daily now, in service of getting more people into golf, not just getting myself better at it.