How next-generation Australians of migrant parents are spreading golf to nationalities and communities where the game was previously foreign.
Like many Aussie kids, Arthur Barakat’s introduction to golf came through his father. After watching his dad head off to Cumberland Country Golf Club with his friends after taking up the sport later in life, eight-year-old Arthur soon began to tag along. He was almost instantly besotted by a sport his grandparents knew nothing about.
That is the reality of second and third-generation Australians of migrant parents whose direct family members come from countries where golf is traditionally played by only a select few.
There is only one golf course in Lebanon – the Golf Club of Lebanon in Beirut – but Barakat is one of a handful of Lebanese golfers around the world who have been chosen to help grow the game within the Lebanese community. By flying the flag of Lebanon in top amateur and professional tournaments, Barakat hopes to open the game up to a whole generation of golfers from many communities who might never have had the opportunity to play.
“We’re trying to grow the game of golf for kids of all different backgrounds,” said Barakat, who is in the third year of the PGA of Australia’s Membership Pathway Program at Cumberland in western Sydney.
“When I first started playing junior golf and pennants, there wasn’t really many people from the Middle East playing. I see now with a lot of the kids that I coach, there’s a lot more kids from different backgrounds and different nationalities.”
Featured in the Daily Telegraph as a 15-year-old with aspirations of playing on the PGA Tour, Barakat’s amateur results caught the eye of the Lebanese Golf Federation. In truth, they were simply looking for golfers of Lebanese background with handicaps.
In Lebanon, the federation tries to spread the game through visits to schools, but they recognised that assisting Lebanese golfers to reach the highest level of the sport would be an inspiration.
When the likes of Min Woo Lee, David Micheluzzi, Zach Murray, Blake Windred and Dylan Perry were representing Australia at the 2018 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, Barakat was also on the leaderboard, the Lebanese flag displayed proudly beside his name. At the DGC Open in Delhi in March, Barakat and American Peter Badawy created history as the first Lebanese players to tee it up in an Asian Tour event.
His ultimate aspiration remains to play on the PGA Tour, but Barakat knows that any exposure to high-level professional golf will trickle down to an increase in people of Lebanese descent taking up
the game.
“There might be some Lebanese kids in Sydney or America who never really thought about taking up the game,” Barakat reasons. “I know with my grandparents, some of them don’t even know what golf is. Us being there flying the flag is motivating for these kids.
“I couldn’t have done it without the support of the members at Cumberland. They raised the money for me to be able to go. To be honest, I think they might have been even more excited than I was!”
Two paths into professional golf
When Barakat made an admittedly nervy start to the opening round of the DGC Open, he had a steadying influence right by his side. In something of a reversal of their regular routine, Barakat had Cumberland PGA professional Joanne Bannerman on the bag.
As Barakat tossed up whether to pursue a university degree or chase his dream of becoming a professional golfer, it was Bannerman who opened his eyes to opportunities offered by the Membership Pathway Program (MPP). COVID-19 may have delayed his start date by a year, but Barakat began the MPP in 2021 and has never looked back. Not only has he received awards for his academic performance, Barakat has won several open matches, crediting Bannerman for the support she has provided every step of the way.
“Jo has been a massive influence on me,” Barakat added. “She is the perfect PGA role mode. I feel very fortunate to have a supervising PGA professional such as Jo. She goes above and beyond what is required and expected.
“She was on annual leave the week before my first PGA Associate match. She came back from her holiday to give me a lesson and help me out before my first tournament. I’ll never forget that. I don’t know how many supervising pros who would do that.
“Jo is always learning and improving, and it was great to see her win the 2020 PGA National Club Professional of the Year. She really deserved that.”
Barakat, too, is having a positive influence on the membership at Cumberland. By representing his heritage so proudly, he shows junior golfers that there is a place within golf for everyone, no matter their background. He estimates that there are now more than 10 Cumberland members of Lebanese background and is regularly encouraging them to bring friends to play at the club.
Just as he hopes to provide inspiration by his own performances on the golf course on the global stage, Barakat acknowledges that as a PGA professional he can have a significant impact at a local level.
“There’s only one golf club in Lebanon at the moment, which I visited back in 2019,” Barakat said. “Their goal is to bring joy and a refuge for kids to go and play the sport and just bring joy to people.
“In Lebanon at the moment, it’s still pretty tough in terms of living circumstances. It’s still a third-world country, especially with the explosion they had there in 2020, which wasn’t good and set the country back a fair bit.
“They’re trying to find role models around the world who come from a Lebanese background and try to inspire kids to take up the sport, not only in Lebanon but around the world. If I can be a role model for some of those kids to look up to as a PGA Professional, that’s a massive achievement.”
Now that he has had a taste of life on tour, Barakat has been inspired himself to continue to chase his dreams. Once he completes the MPP at the end of this year he will seek further playing opportunities internationally, the prospect of representing Lebanon at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles an enticing one.
“We talked about having an Olympic team coming up in the next Olympics after Paris. That would be massive for the game of golf in Lebanon,” Barakat said.
“I’d love to be a touring professional. Having a taste of the Asian Tour a couple of weeks ago, that experience was great. It was a nervous start. The first five holes were not good but after that, once I was relaxed, I actually played pretty well. I was making birdies and keeping up with the other boys.
“It was definitely a very different experience. You can prepare for it as much as you like but until you’re there, until you experience it once or twice, it’s like the first time riding a bike. You’re going to fall over until you’ve done it.
“The last two rounds I walked around with the Aussie boys – Kevin Yuan and Jack Thompson – and just learned what they did and take on their learning experiences and try to put them into my own game and improve.”
