Meet the CEO: Chris May

The CEO of Dubai Golf, Chris May, talks about a career journey that has seen him managing Nigel Mansell’s golf club in Devon and hosting European Tour events in the Middle East, and why the UAE is now a true golfing destination.

Chris May is the chief executive officer of Dubai Golf, a man who has witnessed and shaped the growth of Dubai in the last three decades. He has made the journey from Devon, England over to the Middle East, steering Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club to hosting the Dubai Desert Classic back in 1999 through to major events across several tours and watched the game of golf explode throughout this dynamic city.

Chris, could you tell us about your career and what led you to leaving university and moving out to the UAE?

It goes back a long time now because I celebrated 25 years in Dubai earlier this year! But going back to university, I studied sports science and then did a Masters degree at Loughborough in recreation management. I was always a football player- as in soccer – and squash, they were my big games.

I always played golf with my dad in the summer. I was okay at it, but not brilliant. When I finished my degrees, the first job I got happened to be in a hotel chain called Country Club Hotels, but ultimately became Marriott in the UK. I worked at a small country club in Kent, it was the place to be in that part of the world! I worked there for three years, and it gave me great insight into the leisure, hotel and golf industries.

I really got a passion for golf and thought this is something that’s really exciting and I would really like to pursue further. I met my future wife and after three and a half years of working, we both decided to give our jobs up and go travelling. We worked in Australia, we travelled through Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand for ten months altogether. We came back home after this incredible trip and the London Golf Club was opening, which was the new biggest thing in the UK.

I applied and within a day I was working again. It was great to have the opportunity to work at the London Club, which was and still is one of the premier golf facilities in and around London. I was assistant manager there from 1992-1997, I got on really well with the owner, and he had visions for me being the general manager one day. One day Nigel Mansell, one of our honorary members, offered me the opportunity to go and head his golf club up in Devon. I had the opportunity to work with some amazing people there.

My wife and I took the opportunity. She ran the leisure club, I ran the golf club. It was a great experience working for Nigel; he really helped me understand what it was like to run a business. He helped me look at things differently and explained how he would approach certain problems. That travel that we did overseas put the seed of travel in both my wife’s and my own head. And we thought, wouldn’t it be great to work overseas?

When did you join Dubai Golf and could you tell us more about your different roles since starting at the company?

I applied for the assistant manager job at Dubai Creek and was one of 400 people who applied. I was the lucky man for the job, so I moved out and my wife followed me six months later. She ended up getting a job in the pre-opening team of Burj Al Arab, the seven-star hotel, and ran the gyms and leisure there. My first week of work was the first Dubai Desert Classic in 1999 at the Creek, so it was kind of a baptism of fire. An incredibly busy week and a really great week to be part of. Subsequently, I’ve been part of the Desert Classic many, many times.

My boss at the time, Rod Bogg, knew that he would be moving to head up Dubai Golf, and I would take his role. Within three months of arriving in Dubai, I became the club manager of this incredible facility. We hosted some special events from Elton John to Pink Floyd concerts. I moved up to Emirates Golf Club as club manager in 2008. My role initially was to open the club up a little bit more and make it more accessible to a wider population.

I became CEO of Dubai Golf in 2012 and we were then reporting into Wasl Asset Management. They’re a very commercial operation but very supportive of what we do. It’s been an interesting journey and I was very lucky at the Creek to be in the right place at the right time.

How important do you think events such as the Dubai Desert Classic, which just celebrated its 35th anniversary, have been in enhancing the UAE’s status as a global golf destination and encouraging wider tourism?

It’s very difficult to overstate how important the Dubai Desert Classic has been in promoting the game of golf in Dubai. The first Desert Classic was held in 1989 and it was the first time the European Tour had been outside mainland Europe, taking a risk but ultimately it was a great success. The players were made to feel really welcome, giving them a great option to start their season off playing at the amazing Majlis Golf Course. Great facilities with great weather helped grow the reputation of golf in this area. Another milestone was when Seve won the event in 1992. I think it took the tournament to a different level.

2001 was really an amazing year in the Desert Classic when it moved back to Emirates Golf Club and Tiger Woods played for the first time and almost won. Tiger subsequently came back and then won it again in 2006 and 2008, which again helped promote Dubai massively.

You’ve always had the best players in the world play in the Desert Classic, whether it was Seve Ballesteros, Fred Couples or Mark O’Meara through to Colin Montgomerie and Tiger Woods. The last two years we’ve been very lucky to have Rory McIlroy win it, but many of the greatest players in the world have won here.

How do you feel that Dubai and Abu Dhabi have evolved as golf destinations since you arrived in the UAE?

It’s almost unrecognisable. When I came in 1999, not many people had heard of Dubai. When Tiger Woods first played in the Desert Classic in 2001, it became a little bit more on people’s radar. I think to be a true golf resort, you probably need six or seven golf courses. So soon after I arrived, the first golf courses that were in real estate developments started to be built in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

In Dubai at that time, we had three golf courses, a fourth was added in 2000 with the Montgomerie and then Arabian Ranches, and then the Els club and then Abu Dhabi. Now we have 20 golf courses in the UAE, 11 in Dubai, three 18-hole golf courses in Abu Dhabi. I think the UAE is now a true golfing destination.

In the five years since we took over Jumeirah Golf Estates in 2018, we’ve really changed the way the operation works and improved the golf courses, improved the team. The club is now a really thriving, active community and is probably one of the most sought after communities in Dubai to live in. That’s been really great to see. The team have done a great job there.

It’s been a phenomenal period of five or six years; the city has really grown. It’s not just the golf clubs, the hotels, the shopping, the real estate has grown. I mean, the restaurant scene in Dubai; you can’t recognise it now from what it was in 1999.

In your opinion, how big is the impact of golf in the UAE economy currently?

I think there’s been a growing trend in golf tourism linked to actually watching events and then playing on the other golf courses. If you come to watch the HSBC Abu Dhabi Golf Championships at Yas Links, it’s very easy for you to come down and play in Dubai. If you come for the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, it’s very easy to go and play the amazing golf courses in Abu Dhabi, whether it be Yas Links, Abu Dhabi National or Saadiyat; they’re great experiences and something unique to this region – you can play four golf courses that have just recently hosted top golf tournaments.

Other golf clubs subsequently introduced night golf. Either in our summer months when it’s pretty warm in the summer, or in the middle of the week in the winter months, playing night golf is a great option.

How are the venues under the stewardship of Dubai Golf and Viya Golf helping to develop young local golfers, to increase the number of UAE nationals playing and enjoying the game?

Dubai golf and Viya golf are helping to develop young local golfers. Expanding the golfing population is something that is really important for us. We work very closely with the hard-working Emirates Golf Federation. Golf is now in the curriculum in all the UAE national schools.

We’ve got some top-class UAE nationals, many of whom have played in the Desert Classic and the Abu Dhabi Championship. The aim would be to see some UAE nationals competing for the Race to Dubai Order of Merit soon. I’m sure that will come.

The Emirates Golf Federation has a number of places for UAE nationals to give them the opportunity to see how they compare to the best. Up and coming young professionals on the Challenge Tour come and show them how hard you need to work, what you need to work on. It’s not just playing golf, it’s diet. It’s exercise. It’s the mental side of the game. And when you’re playing with people that are better than you, you realise pretty quickly you need to improve. Giving UAE players the opportunity to participate in competition is something that we’re very keen
to do.

You have one particularly unique property in your portfolio, Topgolf Dubai. Tell us how that fits in, and how entertainment products fit into your business?

We think it is critical that we bring people in at grassroots level and give them the opportunity to hit a golf ball, perhaps for the first time. Topgolf has been a real key asset for this, allowing guests to have fun hitting golf balls.

We’re three years old now but we were looking at Topgolf as an opportunity probably for a decade before we finally opened. Initially, it was really just a driving range concept, with some food and beverage. And I think over the past decade it’s really changed into an entertainment concept around golf.

The two objectives that we set out with were growing a successful business and attracting non-golfers, putting a golf club into people’s hands and make sure they’re having fun with it.

We passed over 50 million golf balls hit inside three years. We’re getting over 600,000 guests every year through Topgolf – and most of those guests are local residents. But it’s also become one of the best things to do in Dubai for overseas guests. We’ve got an amazing view of the skyline of Dubai and Dubai Marina. We have a great team that delivers a really authentic, Dubai-style Topgolf experience.

The first time you play, golf can be challenging and a bit intimidating. We’ve broken down those barriers with Topgolf. We’re very excited to continue growing the brand around the Middle East and to announce our second venue. Topgolf has opened our eyes to other opportunities around social entertainment concepts, around other sports that we’re looking to bring to the region and create a real hub of activity.

What is next for Dubai Golf and Viya Golf? What might the next five years hold?

There is a key focus on continuous improvement alongside training and development. The Viya app is very important to us and that’s going to be a key business for us as we take that outside of the UAE. We would be certainly looking to build new golf courses in Dubai in the next five years – probably with a real estate development around it. The demand is growing, both locally and internationally. It makes sense to build those facilities.

New opportunities will come up with other developments, whether it be golf courses or other sports and design concepts. We’re working very hard to grow our business through Viya and take everything that we’ve proven to be successful in Dubai and, and now in Abu Dhabi, into other markets.

It’s been an amazing opportunity to have been involved in the operation of the golf club, the memberships, the growth of golf, whether it be through tournaments or, tourism, or Topgolf, and how successful that has been and using that success to grow.

I think the future is looking very bright for Dubai, for Abu Dhabi and the golf industry in the Middle East as a whole.