Where In The World Is DJ: Bahrain, November 2021

Earlier in November, I had the privilege of visiting The Royal Golf Club in The Kingdom of Bahrain. The Royal Golf Club will always hold a special place in my heart as I was the first General Manager for Troon when we were brought in to manage the facility almost 10 years ago.  So it’s always nice to visit and see some familiar faces within the associates, management, ownership and membership.

The Kingdom of Bahrain has done a wonderful job in controlling Covid through 2021 bringing the 7-day average cases down to as low as 26 cases per day.  As a result of this, the country’s hospitality sector has opened up significantly in recent months and seen the return of indoor dining, sports activities, live sports matches and even music concerts.

The Royal Golf Club is seeing a very positive trend in the form of tourist golfers, F&B events, and the return of tournament golf, namely the Kind Hamad Trophy which was taking place while I was there.  This event see 90 top-level amateurs and professional golfers from around the globe compete to be the 13th King Hamad Trophy Champion.

The Royal Golf Club is also seeing a very positive trend in increased engagement at the club, particularly with Membership participation.  In a recently completed Member survey, 91% of Members said they are proud to be a Member of the Club.  The current Membership headcount is the highest it’s been since 2017 and Membership revenue is up significantly on prior year, even with the pandemic.  Club Membership is doing so well, that the club has implemented a Membership Cap with waitlists currently in place for one category, and caps soon to be implemented for other categories.  The capping strategy has been put in place to enable the facility to protect the experience for their Members as tee sheet compaction starts to be more prevalent.

A true sign of positive things to come for this spectacular facility.