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Ewen Murray first visited the UAE in 1982 & started commentary in Dubai
Gulf News
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2/15/2025
Ewen Murray - the voice of golf looks back on his first time in the UAE in 1982, and how his journey through golf commentating started in Dubai.
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00:00
So how have you seen Dubai change since the first time you came here?
00:09
My first time here was 1982, so there have been several changes, many changes, over these four decades.
00:17
I remember flying into Dubai, there were three planes there.
00:21
One was Gulf Air, and I flew in on British Caledonian.
00:25
And there was one building, and it's still there, the Trade Centre, but of course it's swamped by all the other buildings they've had.
00:33
I remember them saying at that time, there's going to be big changes here in the next 20 years,
00:38
and there'll be a marina built out by where they were going to build a golf course.
00:43
None of that was there obviously, just a hard rock cafe.
00:47
And I walked away thinking, this is not going to happen.
00:51
And of course you look at it now, and it's like, I wouldn't say a mini Manhattan, I'd probably say a grand Manhattan.
00:58
So, massive changes.
01:01
And what brought you here to Dubai back then?
01:04
We played in a series of programs to promote golf for the airline, for British Caledonian at that time.
01:11
They had the route to fly into Dubai.
01:15
So we played at the Dubai Country Club, which was sand, with a piece of asphalt like this size.
01:23
And you could use that if you were on the fairway, but not on the rough.
01:27
And we also played in Abu Dhabi.
01:30
They had a sand golf course as well, quite near the centre.
01:34
We also played in a place called Das Island, which I believe is 100 kilometres off the coast here.
01:41
And we played around gas tanks, and fuel tanks, and airline runways.
01:46
And it was wonderful, it was a wonderful adventure.
01:50
But it was another world away, and of course it is, it's a lifetime almost.
01:54
How did the golf commentary and Dubai come together for you?
01:59
My first commentary was at the Emirates, in strange fashion.
02:06
A phone call came on Sunday lunchtime from Andrew Miller, who was I think the executive director of the Emirates.
02:14
And they'd only been running a year or so, they'd only had one Desert Classic.
02:18
And he was looking for Brian Barnes to do the commentary.
02:22
But Brian had had a liquid lunch, that wasn't strange for Brian.
02:27
So I said, listen Andrew, I'll do that.
02:30
And he said, oh that's great, he says we'll send you an airline ticket, and we'll pay you ÂŁ500 for the week.
02:36
I said that'll be absolutely fine.
02:38
And I came over, and Channel 33 were the people who were covering the live golf.
02:45
They'd never covered golf before.
02:48
And Richard Coram, who was a disc jockey, a radio host in Dubai, became the presenter.
02:57
I became the commentator.
03:00
Channel 33 were doing golf for the first time.
03:03
So that wasn't a recipe, I don't think, for great success.
03:08
They were used to doing camel racing, they were used to doing the Dakar rally.
03:13
And after an hour, the director, Hamid Mubarak, said to me, he says, are we doing OK?
03:20
I said, well we kind of need to see the ball.
03:23
And he actually had his cameraman on the other side of the spectators, out of manner, out of respect.
03:30
But of course, they needed to be on the other side.
03:33
Come Saturday afternoon, the ball never left the centre of the screen.
03:38
It was like they'd done it all their life.
03:41
And Hamid Mubarak became a great friend, a really close friend.
03:46
And we finished it, and I was on my own, just one commentator.
03:52
I quite enjoyed it.
03:54
And when I got home, Sky were just beginning.
03:58
And they had brought the Desert Classic highlights with the commentary on it.
04:03
And asked if I would like to go to Spain in a couple of weeks' time to do their Spanish Open, or whatever tournament it was.
04:11
Which I did. And that was it. That was the start of me doing commentary.
04:17
What do you find is the gift to be successful at Golf Commentary?
04:22
In the beginning, there was a lot of rough edges, obviously, if you're doing something for the first time.
04:27
But I had the same producer for the first two years of working for several different channels.
04:34
Eurosport, which was Sky Sports as we know it now, just before Sky Sports started.
04:40
Screensport was another, and that was the European Sports Network.
04:45
And I did some work in South Africa, but I had the same producer.
04:49
And he knocked some of the rough edges off me, or as many as he could afford to knock off me.
04:56
And each evening, we'd sit down and he'd say, look, I like what you did there, keep that.
05:01
But you have to get rid of this.
05:03
So, bit by bit, I was very well trained.
05:07
I was what they call produced, which doesn't happen so much nowadays.
05:12
But I was ever so grateful to him by having these two years and learning the trade.
05:17
It was like an apprenticeship.
05:19
I think you must understand, well, you certainly need the knowledge, but I had that as a player.
05:25
And the people I was commentating on, I had just finished playing with.
05:30
So, that wasn't difficult.
05:32
But then you have to learn how television works.
05:35
I'd say the most important thing for golf commentary is realising that silence is probably your most effective weapon.
05:44
Like, OK, it's easy to know when to talk.
05:47
It's maybe not so easy to know when not to talk.
05:51
So, I think that makes a good commentator.
05:54
I also think you have to think of the fellow who's sitting on his sofa watching it on television.
05:59
If you were in his position, would you like to be listening to what you're delivering?
06:04
So, that was a big part as well.
06:06
I was very fortunate because Sky Sports started in 1992 at the beginning of the era of the Dubai Desert Classic,
06:14
just before Abu Dhabi got involved in.
06:18
And they were a company that came in and were going to be here for quite some time.
06:24
So, they were patient and they built themselves up nicely.
06:28
The Premier League came at the same time, 1992.
06:32
So, I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.
06:36
I think when you look back in your life, you may have done some good things.
06:40
We definitely have done some bad things.
06:43
But to be in the right place at the right time is either fate or luck.
06:47
Maybe a bit of both.
06:49
And obviously we're here for the final event on the DP World Tour season.
06:54
This is the one that all the players want to win, isn't it?
06:57
And how's this event grown since 2009?
07:00
Quite enormously.
07:03
It's a season-ending event and a reward for those who make it here,
07:08
for the way they've played over not just a couple of good tournaments, but they've played over 12 months.
07:14
So, as a player, this is what your goal is.
07:18
Once you get here, your goal is to finish as high up as you can.
07:22
But you look around, the Earth Coast wasn't even built in these days.
07:27
It was maybe on a blueprint somewhere, but it wasn't built.
07:30
But you look at it now, and that's quite a short space of time.
07:34
You're looking at 14, 15 years.
07:36
And you look at the show they have here, the way it's set up,
07:41
the way everything is looked after.
07:44
They consider everything carefully so that it's a spectacle that goes around the world that they're proud of.
07:50
So, it's not just the players.
07:53
It's not just the reward at the end of the season.
07:55
It's the DPU World Tour.
07:57
And based here in Dubai, DPU World Tour.
08:00
They're coming home to their place.
08:02
The best golfers in the world.
08:04
The number one golfers at the top of the list.
08:06
I think if you'd said that in 2008, they maybe would have questioned you.
08:11
But that's how much it has grown.
08:14
And it's a wonderful spectacle.
08:16
And people look at Dubai now.
08:18
If you take a wide shot of the marina, for instance, everyone knows that's Dubai.
08:23
It's become recognisable all over the world.
08:26
They've got the biggest building in the Khalifa time.
08:29
All these things weren't there.
08:31
So, the tour has grown with them in their field.
08:34
And we're very fortunate.
08:37
Very fortunate that we've had the support of everyone in this part of the world.
08:41
And I include Abu Dhabi and I include Qatar in that.
08:44
They were in it at the beginning as well.
08:46
And year by year, it gets bigger and better.
08:53
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