By Scott Grayston

Master PGA Teaching Professional and coach to the stars, Pete Cowen, is now the face of the teaching academies at Emirates Golf Club and Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club. This is exciting news for golf in Dubai. Cowen’s world renowned unique and successful teaching philosophies will be incorporated at Dubai’s two most established golf clubs and taught to the teaching staff who will pass them on to the students.

Cowen’s success speaks for itself. He coaches Major champions Henrik Stenson and Padraig Harrington as well as the 2017 DP World Tour Championship winner Matt Fitzpatrick and Thomas Pieters, and many more. The Emirates Golf Club’s Teaching Academy has been associated with Cowen for close to a decade but this upgrade will see a renovation of the facilities and a change in the teaching methods. This invaluable Pyramid of Learning is great news for all concerned, particularly with Cowen making himself available in Dubai more often to overlook this golfing gem.

Worldwide Golf spoke exclusively to their columnist Pete Cowen at the launch of the Academy at Emirates Golf Club about the motivation behind the change and what golfers in Dubai can expect from the enhanced training facility that offers both beginners and established golfers alike the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the golfing greats and improve their game.

“The Peter Cowen Academy here will attract players to come and train from around the globe at Emirates Golf Club and Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club,” said Cowen. “I want to train the teaching professionals so they coach in a similar way that I do. The aim is to be able to produce a dozen great coaches who we can send all over the world. When my professional players like Thomas Pieters are on the way to Asia to compete they can come down and use the Pete Cowen Academy, so it will help them.”

The former European Tour winner-turned-golf-coach first opened an Academy in Rotherham in the North of England and spent nearly $2million in 13 years to keep it running and help the sport grow, without making a profit due to lack of funding. Players like former World Number One Lee Westwood and Masters Champion Danny Willett enjoyed using the facility and benefitted from his coaching methods. Now they won’t need to go to Yorkshire to learn from the golfing genius. Not only will this be a massive help for the European Tour players who are competing in the Middle East and Far East, but also golfers based in the UAE.

The @petecowengolf Academy has officially launched at @EmiratesGC

This will be the start of something special in Dubai with the Teaching Master revealing and sharing more of his tips for lucky golfers in the UAE #emiratesgc #uae pic.twitter.com/p7P5fwgmay

— Worldwide Golf (@WorldwideGolf) November 21, 2017

“I’m hoping this new Academy encourages more local UAE Nationals to take up the sport,” Cowen added. “If the coaches have a better structure that I implement, hopefully, we’ll produce a European Tour player like we did in Belgium with Pieters, which is a very small country, too. The coaches here at Emirates Golf Club are excited that they will learn some new things and progress in their profession.

“We’ve had quite a bit of success with my Academy in Rotherham with players like Willett, Fitzpatrick and Westwood coming through. I’ve bred a lot of good players at my facility before, so I’m hoping we can do the same with this one in the UAE.”

One man who is also a familiar face for Worldwide Golf readers is head teaching professional Stephen Deane, who is largely responsible for promoting this renovation and is delighted to work under such a highly-respected name in the sport.

“It’s absolutely fantastic that we are going to have a Peter Cowen Academy Dubai based here at the Emirates Golf Club and Dubai Creek & Yacht Club,” said Deane. “Pete’s coaching methods are Tour-proven so their quality and success speaks for itself. He’s had over 250 Tour wins with his players and his philosophies are fantastic. You’ll see a massive improvement for the teaching professionals at the Academy which will, in effect, benefit the students who are receiving lessons. It really is a win-win scenario. The knowledge Pete will pass on will be invaluable and just by having his name here, people acknowledge that they are getting top class teaching.”

The charismatic Northern Irishman started working at Emirates Golf Club in 2008 and has known Cowen ever since, sharing Pete’s knowledge and expertise with thousands of aspiring golfers over the years. Now he’s looking forward to learning even more from one of the greatest coaches to ever grace the game.

“I’ve learnt a lot from Pete over the years and have passed that on to my students. If you implement a lot of Pete’s ‘toothbrush’ drills (something you should practice every day), which we have gone through in previous editions of Worldwide Golf, there’s no doubt that you’ll see improvement.”

It will be intriguing to see how these two Pete Cowen facilities in Dubai compare with the state-of-the-art European Tour Performance Institute at Jumeirah Golf Estates but it’s a major positive for Dubai that the coaching capacities are maximised to create a larger influx of people taking up the sport.

Ryder Cup icon Ian Poulter on Pete Cowen

“I like Pete a lot. He is extremely simple to work with, if you’re on the range and your hitting the ball well he allows you to get on with it which is great. He is there to lend a second set of eyes really and to give you his opinion and that’s sometimes all players need. I think sometimes you can go to in depth and that leads to unnecessary practice. You always need to stay fresh and there’s no doubt that Pete has a great eye for golf.”