ATLANTA // The world's top-ranked player faced more empty seats than actual people when he met with media before the US PGA Championship.
And the golfer who won last weekend has been overshadowed by the guy who carries his bag.
The last 11 majors have produced 11 winners. Nine of those were first-time major champions.
This is what golf has come to without Tiger Woods dominating the game. Some might say that is a good thing - no one wants to see the same champion week after week, year after year.
Then again, this parity thing does not seem to be working out quite as well for golf as it does for, say, the NFL.
Transcendent stars such as Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer are the ones who lure fans through the gates and pump up the television ratings.
"You can't say that when Tiger was winning lots of major championships, it was boring or dull," Lee Westwood said. "It was exciting to watch and see what he would do next."
Rory McIlroy notwithstanding, golf seems to be looking desperately for the next big thing.
Those 11 different winners in recent majors includes six in a row who won a major for the first time — Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen, Martin Kaymer, Charl Schwartzel, McIlroy and Darren Clarke.
Maybe that shows the depth of the game. That does not mean it is good for the game.
Woods has captured 14 major titles, but none since he hobbled to a remarkable victory at the 2008 US Open on a knee that needed major surgery. The following year, his marriage fell apart amid allegations of philandering.
This year, another leg injury kept him from playing in either the US Open or the British Open.
After a three-month layoff, Woods returned last week at Firestone but was not a factor, finishing 18 strokes behind winner Adam Scott. His next shot at winning that 15th major comes in the US PGA Championship, which begins Thursday. Woods is no longer the world's No 1 player. In fact, he's 30th in the rankings and getting more attention for dumping his longtime caddie, Stevie Williams, than anything he has done lately on the course.
Clarke, for one, misses the good old days.
"Tiger was the best player for a very long time and he raised the bar in terms of what everybody else did and everybody else's preparation," said Clarke, who became one of golf's oldest first-time major champions when he captured the British Open at age 42. "Tiger has been wonderful for the game. He really has."
No one has more potential star power than McIlroy, who captured his first major title in June with a record-breaking romp at the US Open, but it is still a bit early in the game to declare him the next Tiger Woods. And there are other potential stars, from the 22-year-old American, Rickie Fowler, to 19-year-old Japanese phenom, Ryo Ishikawa.
But, without Woods at his peak, there is just not the same buzz, much as it was for the NBA after Michael Jordan faded away.
"The fans always enjoy the hero, the one player who does dominate that they can cheer for," said Luke Donald, the current No 1, to a mostly empty room with 20 reporters, during a media day prior to the US PGA Championship. "Tiger was that person, obviously."
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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.”
