GOLF – BAHRAIN could host a tournament in the first quarter of next year on the newly relaunched Mena Golf Tour, it has been revealed.
In an exclusive interview with GDN, Mena Golf Tour chairman and commissioner Keith Waters says that discussions are ongoing to hold an event in the kingdom as part of the tour’s first season back, and possibly beyond.
“We’re really committed to playing in a few different countries, and we’ve already got some commercial interest going to Bahrain,” Waters told GDN. “I think Bahrain will be an important destination for the tour in the future – absolutely!”
Established in 2011 and last played in 2022-23, the newly rebranded Mena Golf Tour remains the only Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR)-recognised circuit headquartered in the Middle East.
The tour’s return with Waters at the helm was announced earlier this month, as published in GDN. Waters, an ex-professional player, is the former DP World Tour chief operating officer and is an OWGR board member.
“The goal is to create opportunities primarily for players in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region,” Waters said, adding that the new season is pencilled in for November of this year to March of 2026, featuring a 12-event schedule.
“There is also an opportunity for international players because, when we looked at the scheduling of the Mena Golf Tour events, there are less tournaments generally around the world during the November-to-March period.
“The DP World Tour doesn’t play many tournaments, although they play in South Africa and Australia mainly, with one or two in the Middle East. The HotelPlanner Tour doesn’t play, the Asian Tour has some events but those are slightly different and further away, so we knew we’d create opportunities for European and international players, as well as local.
“We’re going to focus on the region and we’re going to work with the federations.
“We’re also talking about an initiative to create qualifying schools events in various countries, where the winners get opportunities to play in these tournaments, so we’re very much looking to develop a regional schedule.”
Of the possibility of playing in the kingdom, which also hosts the Bahrain Championship on the DP World Tour, Waters said: “We definitely hope that this winter we will find a date.
“Bahrain has the challenge of having not many golf facilities to host events, so we have to work closely with the club there. We definitely have commercial interest, we’ve got interested sponsors, and we’ve got an investor who wants to play in different countries, and Bahrain is one of them.
“Hopefully, Bahrain will be part of the schedule – I think we’re targetting March of next year for possibly a tournament in Bahrain.”
The relaunched 2025-26 Mena Golf Tour season will commence in Portugal. The opening event will follow a qualifying school in November, designed specifically for non-exempt players.
Additionally, the Mena Golf Tour is currently in discussions with both the DP World Tour and the HotelPlanner Tour to establish a clear development pathway, with the ambition to provide the leading Mena Golf Tour players with the opportunity to advance directly to the DP World Tour qualifying school and the HotelPlanner Tour.
Waters highlighted that players from across the region will greatly benefit from the newly relaunched circuit, which will act as “a stepping stone to get to bigger events”.
“There’s the experience of playing at a high level in professional tournaments, there’s going to be world ranking points, and we’re looking for a pathway to bigger events and the DP World Qualifying School possibly and the HotelPlanner Tour,” Waters explained.
“All those things are under negotiation now as to what the pathways are going to be for the leading players at the end of each season. There will definitely be opportunities – this is like a stepping stone to get to bigger events.”
Waters added that there is interest in also establishing a Mena Golf Tour for women in the future.
“If this is successful in the first year or two – and we feel we’ve got the capacity – we will build a similar tour for the ladies,” Waters said. “We want to create an opportunity for the ladies to play in events at this time of the year as well. We’ve already got some commercial interest in that.
“We’re very pleased with the impact that we’ve had in the [relaunch] announcement and some of the conversations we’ve had before the announcement, so we’re very positive about how we can grow this.
“We really have to demonstrate some credibility and integrity in the first place that we can deliver the events, so we’re not looking to run too quickly. We just want to run some nice events in the first year or two.”
Bahrain hosted two tournaments in the past, in 2019 and 2020, when the circuit was still known as the Mena Tour.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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