Where In The World Is DJ: Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, Saudi Arabia February 2023
DJ Flanders headed off to Saudi Arabia last week, to visit the team at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club ahead of the 2023 Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by Public Investment Fund. He has visited Saudi Arabia multiple times in the last few years and it’s always interesting to get his travel diary and watch how the destination is developing and see the work the team at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club continues to do to encourage participation in the game.
Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting our Troon-managed facility, Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Our strategic partner, Golf Saudi, was hosting the Aramco Saudi Ladies International Presented by Public Investment Fund, the fourth significant golf event that the facility has hosted in the last twelve months. This is one impressive feat for our associates and for the organizers and involves a lot of effort from all involved to execute.
Over the past several years, Golf Saudi has launched the world’s first Arabic golf club industry education pathway, committed to a National Golf Sustainability Strategy and has been actively growing golf participation in the Kingdom. Most recent statistics show us that Golf Saudi’s mass participation efforts has reached people in all 13 domestic regions of Saudi Arabia and they are on track to reach their goal of having over 135,000 school children learning the game by 2025 thanks to their in-school programs.
With all of this in mind, the future is bright for the game of golf in Saudi Arabia as more and more spectacular new golf courses are added to the country in the years to come. Hosting some of the world’s best golfers for tournaments in the region mean those young, potential golfers, can see first-hand the great sport that is golf and find role models in the game.
A key focus for us at Troon is to encourage participation across the board and #GrowTheGame on all levels and it’s always cool to see initiatives that are in line with that, having such a positive impact.