Ask any up-and-coming general manager, and they will probably all say the same thing… managing a golf operation is becoming increasingly more challenging, with demands not only from members, but owners alike depending upon which side of the divide you are employed on.

So, for a moment, imagine the pressures that managing not just one, but three world class golf destinations bring, in one of the most demanding customer-focused environments on earth… the UAE.

With seven-star hotels, glitzy eateries and high-wealth customers demanding the very best in customer service, the UAE has become a mecca for visitors the world over.

Ask any frequent flyer these days, and most will say that the Middle Eastern carriers offer a level of service far beyond their US and European competitors. And it is this level of service, plus attention to detail, that many within the golf industry aspire to.

When The Emirates Golf Club opened in Dubai in 1988, it became the first golf course in the Middle East and set the standard many have followed ever since.

Now part of Dubai Golf – which manages Jumeriah Golf Estates and Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club – its sister company, Viya Golf, manages three courses in neighbouring Abu Dhabi… Yas Links, Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, and Yas Acres Golf & Country Club.

And the man tasked with managing the Abu Dhabi trio is 41-year-old Englishman, Karl Whitehead, who has the title of Cluster Club Manager, and a responsibility many would dread, but one which Whitehead appears to relish.

As I sit with Whitehead in the boardroom at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, it is apparent that he feels at home, and in familiar surroundings following his appointment in February 2024. And that, in part, is due to the small fact that Abu Dhabi has been his home since 2012.

Like many within the industry, Whitehead started his career in 2005 at The Belfry as a golf professional but soon realised that teaching wasn’t for him.

After obtaining a BA Hons in Applied Golf Management Studies from Birmingham University, he spent two spells at the Marriott Forest of Arden, sandwich between working at Celtic Manor in 2010 – the year of the Ryder Cup, a period he has fond memories of.

“It was incredible,” he recalls. “It felt like you had such a strong purpose, and there was a buzz, and energy every single day. Tiger Woods was in his prime, and the build-up to the Ryder Cup was hard to describe.

“The place was just buzzing every single day, and it just didn’t feel like work. I would be driving to work excited every day.”

Following Europe’s famous victory, he was invited to return to the Forest of Arden as golf operations manager, a move which ultimately opened the door to his current life in the Middle East as he explains.

“A good friend of mine, Phil Waine [now GM at Trump International in Dubai] went from the Forest of Arden to Abu Dhabi Golf Club, which at the time, was managed by Troon.

“I flew out to see him in 2011 for a holiday, played some golf in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and got to learn more about Troon.

“I remember thinking at the time that the UAE was the place to be, so when a position was advertised at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club and I applied, thankfully my references were from good people, and in this industry, references are the most important thing.”

Whitehead was successful in his application, and so started a ten-year tenure with Troon, and his love affair with the Middle East. “For me, this was the place to work,” he recalls.

“There was a sense of adventure, a new challenge, new environment and a new culture. Everything’s different, everything’s new, and you become a better person for it.

“The Middle East is so attractive because it’s so innovative. It’s so fast-paced, what they’re trying to achieve here – they are trying to be the leading country in the world.”

Reflecting on his first stint in the UAE, Whitehead adds: “It was an incredible time. Saadiyat Beach Golf Club was already establishing itself as a stand out venue, and Abu Dhabi’s golf scene was really gaining momentum in 2014.

“The golf club was brand new; the team was incredible; the budgets were supremely healthy, and the market was good. I loved it!

“It was just unbelievable, and everything we did was all about quality, and how do we make this the best it can be – I’ve actually never seen anything like it since in terms of that focus.

“Then I received a phone call from Mark Chapleski [Troon vice president] offering me the role of director of golf at Montgomerie Dubai, and I actually turned it down,” he recalls, as he had just met his wife and was very happy in Abu Dhabi.

But after being persuaded by Chapleski that it was a great opportunity, he spent two years in Dubai, during which time he won Troon’s director of golf of the year award.

“Mark is a very smart man, and actually, it turned out to be one of the best experiences, maybe even the best of my career and most important,” he confesses.

In 2016, Whitehead’s reward for leaving Saadiyat Beach Golf Club was his first GM role at The Els Club in Dubai, where he spent four years before curiosity got the better of him, and during covid, he felt that in order to broaden his horizons – and career prospects – he needed to look further afield.

“I spent over eight years in the Middle East and had a strong appreciation for Asia.

“I was fascinated by how different the golf business was over there, but also from a career point-of-view, I’d done Europe, and I’d done the Middle East, and I wanted the chance to do another continent.

“I don’t know many people that have actually worked in three continents. Having Asia, Middle East and Europe separates you because a lot of people get bracketed as UAE people.”

Whitehead spent the covid years working at Vattanac Golf Resort in Cambodia, an experience which appears to have made more of a lasting impression, than the brief two-year spell he spent working for Golf Saudi before returning to Abu Dhabi last year and starting his career with Viya Golf.

“There are a couple of things [at Vattanac] that are amazing, and their F&B was the best I’ve ever seen. They have two courses and seven Japanese style tea houses on the course. Some of them are over two floors, and they are absolutely incredible.

“In terms of the experience in Cambodia, you play six-balls, not four-balls,” he explains. “Six-ball is the norm, and you can even play eight-ball, ten-ball, 12-ball or 14-ball if you want.

“It’s unbelievable, and the difference is that every single person has an individual four-seater golf cart, and you have a caddy, and a lot of people take two caddies. It’s ready golf and everyone over there is on the same wavelength.

“You’re not worried about the pace-of-play – you’re there to enjoy the day. And if there is an eight-ball in front of you, and you’re a four-ball, they just drive past and play the next hole and then come back later and play the hole they’ve missed.

“It sounds chaotic, but it’s not,” laughs Whitehead. “But it teaches you that it can be done. And coming back to Abu Dhabi where we see an increasing number of VIPs play, it gives you the ability to know that you can handle events like this, no matter what.

“There’s many different ways you can do it, but it’s having the open mindset, whereas if you stand there and say, ‘no, that can’t be done’, you could put yourself in a difficult position. So, it was eye opening to see what can be done when it needs to be done.”

And as to his future, he calmly sits back in his chair and says: “Right now, honestly speaking, I’ve got my blinkers on. It’s all about Abu Dhabi.”