Following on from a second European Tour appearance this year, I had the opportunity to ask the UAE’s No.1 golfer, Ahmad Skaik, a few questions about his journey from a 14-year old boy playing golf on his Playstation to aspirations of playing Pro at Augusta National.
Ahmad Skaik is very proudly leading the way for the Emirates Golf Federation and following on from a January debut at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championships and recent performance this December at the Golf in Dubai Championship presented by DP World, it is looking like there is a bright future ahead of him.
Citing his dad as the reason for getting into the sport ‘he has been playing for like 20 years so I figured I’d give it a shot, we used to watch golf together, I was 14 when I started to play’, Ahmad has since then had the opportunity to learn even more from some of the biggest names in the world of golf. 12- time European Tour winner Ian Poulter has been mentoring Ahmad as a part of his role as a DP World Ambassador, ‘It is very good for me to speak to a guy like Ian Poulter that has over 20 years of experience, he gives me lots of tips and answers all of the questions that I ask, it is good to have someone as confident as him as a mentor’.
In addition to Poulter, the UAE golfer had the opportunity to play in a practice round with Lee Westwood, one of the few golfers to have won tournaments on 5 different continents, ‘he is a very nice and humble guy and he ended up winning the tournament!’. But the one player which had left Ahmad truly star struck is golfing legend Tiger Woods on his last appearance here in Dubai, ‘Tiger Woods is my idol, the picture is on my lockscreen!’.
With a dream of becoming a professional golfer, representing the UAE on the big stage and opening the door for juniors upcoming in the team, Ahmad is committed to doing whatever it takes for his dream to become a reality, identifying the use of mental coaching as the next step in this exciting journey. ‘The mental coaching is very useful, I mean it’s not a guaranteed fix but it will help more than it will harm, so if I can improve 1% then I will go for it, I feel nervous because I really want to win’.
Reflecting upon his recent invitation to play in the Golf in Dubai championships, the 23 year old went on to say ‘it was an amazing experience for me and I learned so much from it, I think I grew as a player from this’.
Alongside his university studies, an important back up plan led by his parents, Ahmad is currently able to practice up to 5 times a week, often for around 5 hours at a time, with Trump International golf course being identified as one of his favourite spots for his game.
With the hopes of surpassing the achievements of the UAE’s first pro golfer, Ahmed Al Musharrekh, I, for one, as a fan, cannot wait to return to the beautifully pristine courses here in Dubai ( once spectators are given the green light) to watch exciting new talents such as Ahmad continue to do his country proud in his own backyard.
