This month\u2019s issue of Golf Digest Middle East arrives with perfect timing \u2013 The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale as our backdrop, and a magazine built around the biggest questions in the game right now.<\/p>\n
We lead with Scottie Scheffler, and rightly so. The cover feature is one of the most thoughtful pieces of golf writing you will read this year \u2013 a genuine attempt to place Scheffler in his proper historical context, drawing on the voices of Lee Trevino, Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo to ask whether we are watching the most complete player the game has ever seen. The answer, as Trevino himself puts it, is that Scheffler may have quietly retired everything he ever said on the subject. It is essential reading ahead of Birkdale.<\/p>\n
Speaking of which, our Where to Play section offers a hole-by-hole guide to Royal Birkdale itself \u2013 a course that\u2019s rightly described as the most even-handed test in the Open rota, and one that will reward straight driving and total command this July. If you are making the trip, read it before you pack your waterproofs.<\/p>\n
We also mark a remarkable centennial with an account of Bobby Jones and the immortal shot at Royal Lytham & St Annes that not only won the 1926 Open, but arguably made the Grand Slam of 1930 possible. I will admit this was my personal highlight of the issue \u2013 a reminder that golf\u2019s greatest moments are often separated from failure by the thinnest of margins. One hundred years on, the story loses none of its drama, and I suspect the golf buffs among you will enjoy the history lesson as much as I did.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, there\u2019s a fascinating examination of how much real estate value is locked inside golf\u2019s greatest courses \u2013 a thought-provoking read that reframes what these places actually mean beyond the ropes. There\u2019s also an analysis of the swing adjustments helping Jeeno Thitikul chase LPGA history, and our Fringe feature catches up with Train frontman Pat Monahan on the unlikely parallels between life on tour and life on the road.<\/p>\n
Finally, we spotlight one of the most exciting young golfers this region has produced \u2013 Emirati amateur Rayan Ahmed, whose journey from a Covid lockdown obsession to NCAA Division I scholarship is exactly the kind of story that reminds you why this game gets under your skin and never quite lets go.<\/p>\n
All this and plenty more in the July\/August 2026 edition of Golf Digest Middle East<\/a>.<\/p>\n