Brian Harman, Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy all headline the field of the Dubai Desert Classic this week.
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DUBAI — What happens when an Aussie, an Ulsterman and an American walk into a press room?
They all say the same thing.
Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy and Brian Harman are those three gents this week, all in the field this at the Dubai Desert Classic, and all sat in front of the mic Wednesday afternoon. And, okay, they didn’t say exactly the same thing. But as different as they may be — McIlroy an emotional leader and European golf legend, Scott a calm, patient thinker, and Harman, understated and underrated prior to his Open win last summer — they’re all dealing with the same thing: the tedious nature of pro golf’s fractured agenda.
Pro golfers still have it quite good, of course. But this part of the job is probably more onerous than it used to be as we enter the third year of facing more questions about golf’s politics than queries about their own game.
McIlroy, who flew the flag for the PGA Tour the last two years, resigned from the Tour’s policy board last fall. The meetings take loads of time, he’s prepping for a move to England and he wanted to earn back some free time to work on his craft. Plus, it’s been a long few years for the 34-year-old. His opinions haven’t been shuttered, but there’s only so much more he feels he can say. After admitting that the biggest barrier moving forward is aligning interests within the game, particularly among players, fans and media, I asked if he spends any time campaigning to his colleagues these days.
“I’m done with that,” McIlroy said. He has certainly tried.
Unlike McIlroy, Scott has just begun his policy board term. For the next three years, he’ll sit in meetings that determine how the sport is governed at the highest level. He sat in a number of those meetings in 2023, out of pure interest, just to watch and learn before his term officially began. He has a lot of useful insights, his fellow pros say. He shares them when the moment feels right. But publicly, his shared opinions are more down the center, prioritizing stoicism over emotion, rarely tipping his hand.
Scott was asked 10 questions during his time with the press Wednesday afternoon; all 10 were about his new role on the board and the future of the sport. After practice I asked him about that gauntlet of weighty questions that never dared to veer off-topic.
“Yeah, I do play golf,” he said with a smile.
As for Harman? he’s happy as hell to be here in Dubai for the first time. And why wouldn’t he be? The jetlag from a commute from Hawaii hasn’t crushed him yet. (It will, in due time.) He says it’s pretty cool that the sport can bring you places you wouldn’t otherwise visit. He seems plenty content going about his business, working on the farm in the offseason, attending Georgia football games and making as many birdies as possible inside the ropes. But when asked about LIV Golf, and if the game would have reached this point without it, Harman didn’t have much to say.
“That’s a good question,” he said. “I don’t have any perspective because LIV is here, and I am here, so I don’t know. I’d have to think about that.”
There you have it. McIlroy: a bit exasperated. Scott: a bit reserved. Harman: still getting his bearings. None of them ultimately too declarative. As the sport trickles forward towards some unknown resolution, slow progress and uncertainty is going to wear its stars down, the biggest of whom are asked to speak in these gatherings before almost every event they play in. The locations change, but right now the questions remain the same. It’s hard to imagine anyone enjoys it at this point.
Sean Zak is a writer at GOLF Magazine and just published his first book, which follows his travels in Scotland during the most pivotal summer in the game’s history.
