Dubai: Seeing your name appear nine strokes ahead of Tiger Woods on the leaderboard of a major golf tournament is the stuff of childhood dreams, but Dubai-based schoolboy Rayhan Thomas made it a reality at this month’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
The UAE-born-and-bred 17-year-old, whose family is originally from Kerala, India, qualified to this European Tour event after winning last season’s local Mena Golf Tour Amateur Order of Merit.
He went on to card a four under par 68 to Tiger’s 77 in the first round of the tournament on his home course at Emirates Golf Club, and also finished ahead of the two Indian full-time European Tour professionals he was playing alongside that day; Anirban Lahiri, who shot 69, and Shiv Chawrasia, who carded 77.
At one stage Rayhan even drew the wrath of Henrik Stenson when his legion of local Indian expatriate supporters, who were following him around, cheered too loudly on a birdie just as the Swede was about to tee-off on the next hole.
“He gave me a stare and I didn’t know what to do,” recalls Rayhan while sipping on an orange juice outside the clubhouse, where we met up with him earlier this week.
Tiger withdrew on day two due to a back spasm, but the former student of St. Mary’s School in Oud Metha, who now fits in online study around his golf, went on to become only the second UAE-based amateur to make the cut in this event since England’s Matthew Turner in 2009.
He followed up his opening round of 68 with a 75 and two 74s to finish three over par 291, tied for 60th in the leaderboard, 22 strokes behind winner Sergio Garcia.
If it wasn’t for the fact that he was an amateur — because only professionals can win prize money — he would have won $7,000 (Dh25,700), enough to pay his school fees for an entire year. Alas, he couldn’t claim the cash, but he was still celebrating as it was the first time he had made the cut in a major tournament in three European Tour appearances, having also earned similar invites via the Mena Tour to appear in the 2016 Qatar Masters and 2017 Abu Dhabi Championship.
Woods’ excuse in Dubai may have been injury, but there were many other star names bar the 14-time Major winner that finished below Rayhan, not least respective Ryder Cup captains past and present Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn.
Less than a fortnight later though, while those he played against are onto the next European Tour event in Australia, Rayhan — who is counting down the days until he can learn to drive — is back and forth on the metro to the course near Jumeirah Lakes Towers from his home in Garhoud, as if nothing ever happened.
“It was pretty awesome,” he tells us from behind the wheel of a golf cart that he’s only just been permitted to drive – they recently lowered the age restriction from 16 to 14.
“I’m just a regular kid playing in such huge events with such big names like Tiger Woods, who you can only dream of playing with.
“But my friends don’t really understand much about it, so to them I’m just Rayhan Thomas.”
He started playing golf with his dad John, at the age of eight, before joining the Mena Tour in 2013, aged 13.
It wasn’t until last year that he got his first win, in the Dubai Creek Open, becoming the youngest player and first amateur to win a Mena Tour event, eventually winning the season’s overall Amateur Order of Merit in the process.
The Mena Tour is an annual 16-stage series held across the Middle East region with additional stops in Thailand and South Africa, which looks to provide a platform for developing golfers by awarding world ranking points, and slots into European Tour events for the best players.
Before the Mena Tour, which was formed in 2011, talent used to reach a glass ceiling of playing the same pool of local players over the same courses until monotony forced them back into nine-to-six jobs or continued study.
But now there’s a lifeline to the next level, and it’s a route that Rayhan’s desperate to take.
It was on the Mena Tour that he got his nickname ‘Silver Back’ in reference to his indomitable presence on course, but he’s taken to it in good humour by getting the moniker engraved across the back of his club heads, and buying a trademark Gorilla club cover, which protrudes out of his golf bag.
The UAE, with a population of nine million, has around 20 golf clubs, that’s a course for every 450,000th person, but despite golf bringing $270 million (Dh992 million) to the local economy through sports tourism and plush events, it’s yet to produce its own home grown talent on a major tour.
Major prospect
With support to pay exorbitant club membership fees from the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation, Rayhan might one-day become the first local breakthrough golfer, but he’s not getting carried away just yet.
“My mum, dad and coach help keep me grounded,” he said. “I know Dubai is just a small part of a huge industry and I’ll have to work hard to make it, but I enjoy the grind so it’s not a big deal.
“I’m just glad to have played four rounds of a European Tour event. Unfortunately [for them] some of the names that finished below me were huge, but it felt really good to know I was around the mix,” added Rayhan, whose average drive is 280 yards, which is just over average on tour.
“This gives me a base for what I need to do going forward. And although my first round was good I fell away in the remaining rounds and just made too many mistakes, so there’s plenty to work on. But for sure it gives me thought for what I want to do in the future.”
Rayhan now has invites to play in an array of amateur events in the US and will do the full Mena Tour schedule again this season, but, as India’s current No.1 Amateur, he is also hoping for an invite into next month’s Indian Open in Delhi, which would be his fourth European Tour appearance.
“It would be a second homecoming I guess, I’m obviously not as familiar with those courses but it would be good to be in my country again.
“There’s always pressure to make the cut but whether I do or not it doesn’t really matter so long as I learn from the experience and just enjoy myself.”
Pro call can wait
As for turning professional though, he says that can wait.
“I want to finish school first and that will be in 2019, after that, depending on whether my game is good enough to play consistently on a high enough level, I will turn pro.
“If not, I will go down the US collegiate route, play amateur golf and continue my studies, and then see where I am after that.
“I’m enjoying being amateur at the moment, I don’t have the financial pressures most others have, so I’m not thinking about paying a mortgage or whatever, I’m just taking things as they come.
“The rest is all too far ahead to think about, but my mind is definitely set on golf and I’m not sure what I would do without it.”
