There’s a reason Rory McIlroy would be likely to accept UAE citizenship if it were on the table. He can tell the story of his whole professional life by this place.
“I have never been offered but if I were to be offered, I probably would,” McIlroy said during a tearful end to his season at the DP World Tour Championship in November.
“I lived here for four years. I was a resident. I love this part of the world. I always have. I was lucky enough to receive an invite to the Dubai Desert Classic in 2006 as an amateur, and I've been coming back to this region every year since.
“It’s been 18 pretty cool years. There's been a lot of fond memories along the way, and as long as this region continues to be an important part of the world of golf, I’ll keep coming back.”
His 2024 campaign was bookended by glory in Dubai, when he took home three trophies from two tournaments.
Right at the very start of the year, the city also foretold another of the themes of his career, which was to rear its head again in high summer.
McIlroy and 72nd hole heartache are almost as intimately connected as he is with Dubai. Playing in the first Dubai Invitational at the Creek in January, the Northern Irishman lost to another Dubai fans’ favourite, Tommy Fleetwood, at the last.
That was not unique. He had blown the 2022 Desert Classic, which was eventually won by Viktor Hovland, with a rash approach from distance at the 18th on the Sunday at the Majlis.
In the benign climate of the Dubai Invitational, whose first three days were played as a pro-am, it did not feel like such a huge loss. But it turned out to be a portent for something that happened when the stakes were at their highest in the middle of the year.
At the US Open at Pinehurst in June, McIlroy held the solo lead at 8-under par with four holes left. He made three bogeys on the way in from there, including toe-curling missed putts from two feet on 16 and three feet at the last.
When Bryson DeChambeau got up and down from 50 yards out of a bunker on the final hole to save par, it meant he snatched the trophy from McIlroy.
At the end of the year, McIlroy reflected that it had been a productive campaign for him. How could it not have been, when he was sitting at the top table next to the Harry Vardon Trophy as Europe’s best golfer, as well the DP World Tour Championship mace.
He did accept, though, that others might remember his 2024 for the trophies he missed rather than those he won. Presumably he was mainly referencing that US Open, but he left more than just that one out there.
He also pointed out that being third in the world is no mean feat, given the standards set by Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler over the course of the season.
While the latter established himself as the pre-eminent golfer on the planet with an extraordinary haul of eight titles in the calendar year, the former actually trumped him on majors. Schauffele won the Open Championship and the US PGA, while Scheffler merely had to settle for the Masters, albeit supplemented by Olympic gold in Paris, as well as most other things that were on offer.
Domestically, the galleries had to get used to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship being a little warmer than before. The capital’s premier golf event returned at Yas Links in November, after around 21 months away.
It has been switched from its previous January window as part of a revamp of the DP World Tour that now sees the season culminate in a two-legged play-off in the UAE.
While McIlroy might have ended the season with the tour’s main prizes, there was no greater winner from the first DP World Tour Play-offs than Paul Waring.
The Liverpudlian started off on the Thursday at Yas Links in familiar obscurity. It took him four rounds to go from journeyman to superman.
By the end of the Sunday, he was carrying the Falcon Trophy back up the E11 home to Dubai. He had the biggest cheque of his career to bank, and would be changing all his travel plans for 2025 – including multiple entry passes to the United States. Maybe, even, for the Ryder Cup.
Not bad for someone who had driven down to Abu Dhabi from Dubai simply hoping to qualify to make it into the 50-player field for the finale at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
For the past year, that has been his home course. Waring said his move to Dubai had prompted the “monumental” change in his circumstances.
“Where better in the world is there to practise?" Waring said in November, after finally running out of puff when contending for the DP World Tour Championship title, which McIlroy eventually won.
“It was a no-brainer. It has meant a change of lifestyle, and I have met some great people out here as well. It has been the best thing I have ever done.”
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
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OTHER IPL BOWLING RECORDS
Best bowling figures: 6-14 – Sohail Tanvir (for Rajasthan Royals against Chennai Super Kings in 2008)
Best average: 16.36 – Andrew Tye
Best economy rate: 6.53 – Sunil Narine
Best strike-rate: 12.83 – Andrew Tye
Best strike-rate in an innings: 1.50 – Suresh Raina (for Chennai Super Kings against Rajasthan Royals in 2011)
Most runs conceded in an innings: 70 – Basil Thampi (for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2018)
Most hat-tricks: 3 – Amit Mishra
Most dot-balls: 1,128 – Harbhajan Singh
Most maiden overs bowled: 14 – Praveen Kumar
Most four-wicket hauls: 6 – Sunil Narine
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Angela Bassett, Tina Fey
Directed by: Pete Doctor
Rating: 4 stars
Company%20Profile
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BRIEF SCORES
England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)
Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
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THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
