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BRAVE Aaron Holton has given up a chance to climb the corporate ladder in Bahrain to try and carve out a career playing golf.
He is now the envy and hero of every office worker who has ever dreamed of becoming a professional sportsman by competing in The MENA Golf Tour.
Ironically, the career switch has brought the 30-year-old American from Dallas, Texas, back to the region.
Former management consultant Holton said: “It was a scary decision, but I decided to leave my ‘comfort zone’ and chase my dream. It was the best decision I ever made. It is kind of funny how the puzzle pieces of life seemed to fall into place once I made that decision.
“My message to my friends in Bahrain would be to say ‘thank you’ for the memories. I fully embraced the experience of being in a foreign country with a completely different culture and I learned a lot about the world and myself during my three years in the kingdom.
“I think it was in Bahrain that I developed the confidence and self-belief that I have today and that ultimately gave me the courage to chase my dream. Every person whose path I crossed played a role in giving me that courage and self-belief. I will always look back on that time fondly and hope to see many of them again in the near future.”
When he calls into Bahrain during a short break from the tour he’ll be making a special trip to the Royal Golf Club. “The staff never ceases to make me feel welcome, which is not as common as you would think in other parts of the world, especially when you are a struggling golf pro! I love coming back here,” added Holton.
He gave up a comfortable career in the business world to chase his dream and to compete in the highly-competitive MENA Golf Tour.
Holton, who plays off a handicap of +3, said: “I worked as a management consultant before pursuing golf. I worked for one year in the US before I was lucky enough to be offered a job within my company. The offer would take me to Bahrain and the GCC, where we would work on a variety of projects in the manufacturing, real estate, higher education, petrochemical and public sectors.
“It was not something that I looked at as my life’s passion, but it was an extremely challenging career. The best part was that I was able to experience new cultures and parts of the world and make friends for a lifetime.
“I chose to move to Bahrain because I knew it would be a good opportunity to further my career at the time.”
Holton stayed at the Novotel Hotel for the first few weeks in Bahrain before moving to Seef, where he lived at the Elite Grande for nearly two years. He also stayed in Rasafa Towers in Seef for around six months before moving back to the US.
He said: “I decided to leave around the time I realised that I wanted to play golf for the rest of my life. I wanted to be close to my coaches and family while I embarked on this journey, so leaving Bahrain was the first step on that journey.
“I was fortunate enough to meet so many wonderful people while in the kingdom. Our office was a great mix of young professionals from all over the world, including Bahrain. We worked at Almoayyed Tower so I remember the days of walking across to Seef Mall for lunch with my friends.
“The food and restaurants in Bahrain are very underrated so I always enjoyed going out for dinner in Adliya or dining at one of the many great restaurants at the Ritz-Carlton. I was also on a big Subway kick for a while so I probably ate at every Subway in the kingdom. I also found Costa Coffee, which we do not have here in the US. I watched the sun rise many times while working away with co-workers from the Costa in Saar!
“My love affair with golf was a slow moving process. Now, I live and breathe the game. I haven’t needed an alarm clock since I decided to pursue my passion. My journey has followed a different path than a ‘typical’ tour pro.
“I love working for a dream that most people do not think is possible. I relish the challenge of trying to continuously improve and excel at such a difficult, imperfect game. I absolutely love competing. That is my favourite part about the game. The feelings of pressure, adrenaline and excitement that you feel when someone announces your name and country are indescribable. I love it!”
Holton only started playing golf in his teens after his parents gave him a $20 half set of clubs and entered him into a competition.
Whilst studying at the University of Texas he found success during his free time on the golf course and he was bitten by the bug. “I started to win amateur events regularly and for the first time, began to envision myself playing golf for a living,” he explained.
“I was in a highly-ranked finance programme where top students went on to jobs in investment banking, private equity, consulting, corporate finance etc.
“But I remember writing a paper about where we wanted to be in five years’ time. The funny thing is when the paper was written, I already had a contract signed to work for a consultancy company upon graduation.
“I wrote the paper about my future as a professional golfer. My peers were writing about big finance, private equity and consulting careers. I was writing about chasing a little white ball around a field!
“I ended up in that consulting career but the coolest part of my story is that my professor saved the letters and emailed them to us three years after graduation. I was already working in Bahrain at that time but was home for a few weeks during winter holiday when I noticed an envelope from my university in the mail.
“The letter contained the paper. My former professor included a note in that envelope that said something along the lines of: ‘This was your five-year plan. How are you doing?’
“I had an overwhelming feeling that I was letting myself down. I realised that I was not happy in my career. I was working for a pay cheque not because I loved my work.
“I always believed that I was put on this earth to be extraordinary. I never wanted to live life with regrets. By not pursuing my dream, I had become very ordinary and knew I would always look back and think ‘what if?’ I did not want that to be me.”
He shared his thoughts with his family, a few close friends and work colleagues and his golf coach and mentor Hal Underwood.
“Everyone that I spoke to encouraged me to pursue my passion. My coach and mentor was an extremely talented golfer that played and competed against the greats of the game. His ‘golf opinion’ was the deciding factor for me. He told me that he always believed I had everything it took to succeed at the highest level.
“I always look forward to coming back to my old home. I have a lot of memories in the region from my three years here. I will always see the GCC as the place where one career ended and another began.
“My goal this year is to put myself in contention more often. I have struggled to be consistent the last couple of years. I am a much different golfer and person now than when I played the first season. I really want all the nerves and pressure that comes with being in the mix on the back 9 of the final round.”
The MENA Golf Tour was launched by the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation in 2011. The Tour features 10 stops this season in Morocco, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman. The Tour is backed by Omega and Mercedes-Benz and boasts a prize fund of $525,000.
The tournaments carry World Ranking points and coveted invitations to European Tour events for leading professionals and the top amateur at the end of the season.
The players kicked off the autumn swing last week in Dubai. Holton said: “I won quite a few times as an amateur. I am only in my second year as a professional and have only managed a handful of top 20 finishes with one top 10. I am hoping to close out the season here in the GCC by improving on that mark and the goal is to obviously win!
“I would say that my confidence is at an all-time high. I have posted some of the best scores of my career in recent months.
“I am playing the best golf of my life now so I am excited to see what the rest of this year and the future holds. My long-term goal is probably very similar to the rest of the guys out here. I want to play and win on the biggest stage in the world – the PGA Tour. I feel like I have all the tools necessary to make it happen. The important thing for me is to continue working hard and allow good things to come my way.”
