Ewen Murray first visited the UAE in 1982 & started commentary in Dubai

Gulf News

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.  Read more Golf in UAE stories here:   https://gulfnews.com/sport/golf-in-uae  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #golf  #sports

Transcript

00:00So how have you seen Dubai change since the first time you came here?

00:09My first time here was 1982, so there have been several changes, many changes, over these four decades.

00:17I remember flying into Dubai, there were three planes there.

00:21One was Gulf Air, and I flew in on British Caledonian.

00:25And 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.

00:33I remember them saying at that time, there's going to be big changes here in the next 20 years,

00:38and there'll be a marina built out by where they were going to build a golf course.

00:43None of that was there obviously, just a hard rock cafe.

00:47And I walked away thinking, this is not going to happen.

00:51And 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.

00:58So, massive changes.

01:01And what brought you here to Dubai back then?

01:04We played in a series of programs to promote golf for the airline, for British Caledonian at that time.

01:11They had the route to fly into Dubai.

01:15So we played at the Dubai Country Club, which was sand, with a piece of asphalt like this size.

01:23And you could use that if you were on the fairway, but not on the rough.

01:27And we also played in Abu Dhabi.

01:30They had a sand golf course as well, quite near the centre.

01:34We also played in a place called Das Island, which I believe is 100 kilometres off the coast here.

01:41And we played around gas tanks, and fuel tanks, and airline runways.

01:46And it was wonderful, it was a wonderful adventure.

01:50But it was another world away, and of course it is, it's a lifetime almost.

01:54How did the golf commentary and Dubai come together for you?

01:59My first commentary was at the Emirates, in strange fashion.

02:06A phone call came on Sunday lunchtime from Andrew Miller, who was I think the executive director of the Emirates.

02:14And they'd only been running a year or so, they'd only had one Desert Classic.

02:18And he was looking for Brian Barnes to do the commentary.

02:22But Brian had had a liquid lunch, that wasn't strange for Brian.

02:27So I said, listen Andrew, I'll do that.

02:30And he said, oh that's great, he says we'll send you an airline ticket, and we'll pay you £500 for the week.

02:36I said that'll be absolutely fine.

02:38And I came over, and Channel 33 were the people who were covering the live golf.

02:45They'd never covered golf before.

02:48And Richard Coram, who was a disc jockey, a radio host in Dubai, became the presenter.

02:57I became the commentator.

03:00Channel 33 were doing golf for the first time.

03:03So that wasn't a recipe, I don't think, for great success.

03:08They were used to doing camel racing, they were used to doing the Dakar rally.

03:13And after an hour, the director, Hamid Mubarak, said to me, he says, are we doing OK?

03:20I said, well we kind of need to see the ball.

03:23And he actually had his cameraman on the other side of the spectators, out of manner, out of respect.

03:30But of course, they needed to be on the other side.

03:33Come Saturday afternoon, the ball never left the centre of the screen.

03:38It was like they'd done it all their life.

03:41And Hamid Mubarak became a great friend, a really close friend.

03:46And we finished it, and I was on my own, just one commentator.

03:52I quite enjoyed it.

03:54And when I got home, Sky were just beginning.

03:58And they had brought the Desert Classic highlights with the commentary on it.

04:03And 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.

04:11Which I did. And that was it. That was the start of me doing commentary.

04:17What do you find is the gift to be successful at Golf Commentary?

04:22In the beginning, there was a lot of rough edges, obviously, if you're doing something for the first time.

04:27But I had the same producer for the first two years of working for several different channels.

04:34Eurosport, which was Sky Sports as we know it now, just before Sky Sports started.

04:40Screensport was another, and that was the European Sports Network.

04:45And I did some work in South Africa, but I had the same producer.

04:49And he knocked some of the rough edges off me, or as many as he could afford to knock off me.

04:56And each evening, we'd sit down and he'd say, look, I like what you did there, keep that.

05:01But you have to get rid of this.

05:03So, bit by bit, I was very well trained.

05:07I was what they call produced, which doesn't happen so much nowadays.

05:12But I was ever so grateful to him by having these two years and learning the trade.

05:17It was like an apprenticeship.

05:19I think you must understand, well, you certainly need the knowledge, but I had that as a player.

05:25And the people I was commentating on, I had just finished playing with.

05:30So, that wasn't difficult.

05:32But then you have to learn how television works.

05:35I'd say the most important thing for golf commentary is realising that silence is probably your most effective weapon.

05:44Like, OK, it's easy to know when to talk.

05:47It's maybe not so easy to know when not to talk.

05:51So, I think that makes a good commentator.

05:54I also think you have to think of the fellow who's sitting on his sofa watching it on television.

05:59If you were in his position, would you like to be listening to what you're delivering?

06:04So, that was a big part as well.

06:06I was very fortunate because Sky Sports started in 1992 at the beginning of the era of the Dubai Desert Classic,

06:14just before Abu Dhabi got involved in.

06:18And they were a company that came in and were going to be here for quite some time.

06:24So, they were patient and they built themselves up nicely.

06:28The Premier League came at the same time, 1992.

06:32So, I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

06:36I think when you look back in your life, you may have done some good things.

06:40We definitely have done some bad things.

06:43But to be in the right place at the right time is either fate or luck.

06:47Maybe a bit of both.

06:49And obviously we're here for the final event on the DP World Tour season.

06:54This is the one that all the players want to win, isn't it?

06:57And how's this event grown since 2009?

07:00Quite enormously.

07:03It's a season-ending event and a reward for those who make it here,

07:08for the way they've played over not just a couple of good tournaments, but they've played over 12 months.

07:14So, as a player, this is what your goal is.

07:18Once you get here, your goal is to finish as high up as you can.

07:22But you look around, the Earth Coast wasn't even built in these days.

07:27It was maybe on a blueprint somewhere, but it wasn't built.

07:30But you look at it now, and that's quite a short space of time.

07:34You're looking at 14, 15 years.

07:36And you look at the show they have here, the way it's set up,

07:41the way everything is looked after.

07:44They consider everything carefully so that it's a spectacle that goes around the world that they're proud of.

07:50So, it's not just the players.

07:53It's not just the reward at the end of the season.

07:55It's the DPU World Tour.

07:57And based here in Dubai, DPU World Tour.

08:00They're coming home to their place.

08:02The best golfers in the world.

08:04The number one golfers at the top of the list.

08:06I think if you'd said that in 2008, they maybe would have questioned you.

08:11But that's how much it has grown.

08:14And it's a wonderful spectacle.

08:16And people look at Dubai now.

08:18If you take a wide shot of the marina, for instance, everyone knows that's Dubai.

08:23It's become recognisable all over the world.

08:26They've got the biggest building in the Khalifa time.

08:29All these things weren't there.

08:31So, the tour has grown with them in their field.

08:34And we're very fortunate.

08:37Very fortunate that we've had the support of everyone in this part of the world.

08:41And I include Abu Dhabi and I include Qatar in that.

08:44They were in it at the beginning as well.

08:46And year by year, it gets bigger and better.

08:53Explore.VA.gov

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