Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
In just a few short weeks time, the Royal Golf Club will be hosting the Faldo Series Middle East Championship 2009.
This is a first not just for the club but for the kingdom to welcome the cream of the region's young golfing talent to compete in what is rapidly becoming one of the largest junior events in the world.
The tournament gives talented local and expatriate golfers the chance to qualify for the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final at Mission Hills Golf Club in China, in what is now an R&A World Amateur Ranking event. A fantastic opportunity I think you will agree.
Younger children who may not yet be at the standard required to play in the main tournament can also get involved with events and development activities planned at the club as part of our overall commitment to growing the game of golf among the young of Bahrain.
The Faldo Series Asia was launched in 2006 following the success of the European version. Many series graduates have already seen success in the professional ranks with the likes of Nick Dougherty, Rory McIlroy and Mel Reid past champions.
Asian golf is thriving, no doubt about it. Ye Yang's comeback victory at the US PGA Championship a few weeks ago was a significant breakthrough for the region's male golfers who, until that glorious Sunday at Hazeltine, had knocked on the door, but never quite walked through it to the Major winners' circle.
It was inevitable that an Asian would win a major at some point given the game's boom in popularity in the Far East over the last 15 years or so - it's just a surprise that it took so long!
Korean and Japanese players dominate the women's tour and Yang's victory can serve as a springboard within the men's game. Yang turned professional at the age of 24 in 1996, the same year as Se Ri Pak who became the first South Korean to win a woman's major, the 1998 US Open.
Pak, who has won five majors, inspired an upsurge in the game back home, but while Eun-Hee Ji, Inbee Park, Jiyai Shin, Jeong Jang and Grace Park among others have followed in her footsteps by winning a women's major, the men have found it harder to break through.
Yang's victory is storybook stuff that is sure to inspire many youngsters to take up the game. This will simply add momentum to an already healthy golfing bandwagon and despite Yang's heroics, long term the biggest player in this process is likely to be Japan's 17-year-old Ryo Ishikawa.
Already established as a superstar in his homeland, Ishikawa generates the same enormous levels of interest wherever he goes that is normally reserved for the one-and-only Tiger Woods.
He is a phenomenal talent and certainly as he matures we could be witnessing a shift in golfing power before our very eyes over the next few years.
The Faldo Series is designed to showcase this kind of talent and bring it on in strict tournament conditions and against the best from all over Asia.
The Middle East region, and in particular Bahrain, is brimming with young golfing talent that we are committed to developing through our junior programmes.
Next stop Mission Hills! Good luck to all of you taking part.
Face-to-face with Faldo
Why did you set up the Faldo Series Asia and what do you hope it will achieve? What is your philosophy behind the series?
The Faldo Series Asia is an extension of our existing programme originally launched in the UK in 1996 and now expanded throughout Europe and South America.
Our intention has always been to identify and nurture the next generation of champions whilst also making the game accessible to younger, potential golfers through grass roots activities. It is my hope that through our combination of top level competition and golf-specific education we may be able to unearth the next generation of Major-winning golfers - perhaps even from Bahrain.
What do you think Bahrain and the Middle East will gain from their association with the Faldo Series Asia?
Well, first and foremost, with the support of our Major Partners like The R&A, Mission Hills and UBS, we'll certainly be able to offer an amateur tournament of real quality that will attract the best players from throughout the Middle East - one that will also give many young children a chance to experience the sport for the very first time. But the opportunities offered by the initiative go way beyond that.
Leading players from the tournament will be invited to participate in the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final which I host every year at Mission Hills Golf Club in China. There they can meet and compete with young golfers from across the world. I also hope that I can pass on to all of our finalists some of the knowledge that I've picked up during more than 30 years playing golf at the very highest level.
Why would you encourage the young people of Bahrain and the region to take up golf?
It's our aim to create opportunities through the sport - be they for younger players that might benefit from an introduction to the game or better players that could really progress as sportspeople with a little bit of considered direction. Golf has created so many opportunities for me in my life and I want to pass on those same opportunities to young people both in Bahrain and across the region.
We're now coming in to our 13th year and we're beginning to see successful professional golfers emerge from the programme including Nick Dougherty, Marc Warren, Oliver Fisher, Rory McIlroy, Tseng Ya-ni and Kiran Matharu.
Bahrain's national golf team has long been one of the strongest in the region. What words of advice would you give to up and coming Bahraini youngsters who hope to make the team?
Practice, practice, practice! We can only offer so much to any individual no matter how talented they are. Beyond that, it's all about commitment and dedication - it's what a player does with what we give them that can really make a difference.
You have a golf course design company - would Bahrain be the kind of place that you would like to work?
Bahrain is certainly a region that is starting to attract real championship-standard projects and, if the right one came along, then I'd be absolutely delighted to work in the area.
