Maha Haddioui, the first and only Arabic golfer to play on the Ladies European Tour, believes it won’t be too long before more Arab women join the professional ranks, thanks to the initiatives in place in the region.
Along with Golf Saudi launching the innovative ‘Ladies First Club’ last year, the Governing Body of Golf in the UAE has signed the R&A’s Women in Golf Charter, hired a full-time Ladies National Team coach and implemented golf as an everyday activity in Physical Education through their National Junior Development Program in recent years.
“As you know, it takes time from learning to being a good amateur, before turning professional and playing on tour, but I do believe that it is really going to happen soon,” said Haddioui, who was the only Arab in the field at this year’s women’s golf competition at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
“When I was an amateur, I used to travel to the Arab Championships or international events in Europe on my own, because there were no one other Moroccan players to compete with me. Today we’ve got a team plus we have competitions to make a team, so we’re already seeing a big improvement.
“I can tell you at least ten players in Morocco, in the next ten years, could be on tour.”
Haddioui helped inspire more than 1,200 Saudi women and girls to take up golf the weekend of last year’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by Presented by Public Investment Fund. Put into context, the Kingdom had fewer than 20 registered female golfers before the groundbreaking tournament.
“This is my fifth time in Saudi, and I initially came for the men’s event. There, I gave clinics and initiations for girls and at that time I didn’t think I’d be coming here to compete,” said Haddioui.
“Coming here last year was incredible and I was really proud to see young women take up the game. I’ve been out with some of the Ladies First Club members this week and that was just awesome.
“Coming from Morocco and seeing women’s golf develop like this in the Middle East is a great thing – and seeing girls who were just learning how to play a year ago now playing in the Pro-Am with me just makes it very special.”
