Golf

The victor ... and 'villain'

Spare a thought for Stewart Cink as the dust settles on possibly the most dramatic of British Open championships.

William Johnson

July 21, 2009

TURNBERRY // Spare a thought for Stewart Cink as the dust settles on possibly the most dramatic of British Open championships. The inoffensive American will go down as one of the most unpopular recipients of the coveted Claret Jug for making the final decisive challenge which derailed Tom Watson's bid for a sixth title. "I know this will be regarded as the Open that Tom lost rather than the one I won," said an elated Cink after his play-off victory over an exhausted elder statesman of the game. "But I am just thrilled with pride and honour about what I have achieved here."

Cink, 36, realised he had become the villain of the piece after making a brilliant birdie on the 72nd hole to set a target which Watson could only match rather than surpass. But he could not afford to miss out on his own big moment by being overly sympathetic to his rival during the extra four holes. "To be honest I had mixed feelings going out at the end with Tom having watched him with such admiration all week," said Cink, a member of the last four US Ryder Cup teams. "But I felt I did a pretty good job in that play-off."

Cink confessed to having doubts about whether he would ever end a 12-year professional wait to win one of golf's four big prizes. "I'd been close a few times, but I never really heard my name tossed in there with the group of best ones not to have won a major. So I started to wonder whether I was good enough to win one." "But this week for some reason I just believed all week that I had something good going on. I never even felt nervous at all. In the past I would have felt extremely nervous in the situation I was in out there.

"Somebody at a major championship always has that calm peace about them, and on this occasion it was me." Cink, though feeling sorry for Watson as they came down the 18th for the second time with four shots between them - the final margin eventually became six - was grateful that his advantage enabled him to be acclaimed on his final strides to glory. "The crowd were understandably rooting for Tom and that was fine," Cink reflected. "But it changed after the 17th when they knew I was going to win. They finally jumped on to my bandwagon a bit which was nice."

Cink now has 13 professional titles. His biggest previous victory was five years ago in the WGC-NEC Invitational.

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Company profile

Name: Tharb

Started: December 2016

Founder: Eisa Alsubousi

Based: Abu Dhabi

Sector: Luxury leather goods

Initial investment: Dh150,000 from personal savings

 

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.”

Key facilities
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  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
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  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4