‘There were only a few brown faces growing up’: Aadam Syed hopes to become a role model for Pakistani golfers

Judged by his mellow on-course demeanor at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship, it would be easy to think Aadam Syed was a seasoned tour pro. Either that, or he was just mates with everyone at the course.

The Royal Golf Club in Riffa is unique in that many of the holes require players to get a lift. Between the 10th green and the 11th tee box, for example, volunteers in buggies are on hand to drive the players the sizeable distance, across terrain that includes pipelines which split the course in half.

When Syed took his place in the passenger seat at the start of his first round on a crisp and damp Thursday morning, it was as if he was meeting up with old pals. He enquired as to how the buggy drivers were doing, and what they made of the cold weather.

Seeing as he sealed entry to this event by winning the Bahrain Amateur Open around this same course, it might be assumed he knows the place well, and thus is on first-name terms with all the members.

Not so. The 24-year-old British Pakistani only dropped in to that tournament because it fitted in with his schedule and he wanted to stay sharp ahead of more pressing challenges to follow.

As it happens, he landed for his first visit to Bahrain and promptly won the tournament, the prize for which was being invited back to make his DP World Tour debut.

“I did know that was the prize, but I was going to Asian Tour Q School, and I just wanted to keep sharp and play tournaments,” Syed said.

“Logistically, this tournament was halfway between the UK and Thailand, so I signed up. It was my first time in Bahrain, luckily had a good week, and here I am today.

“It is playing a lot different this week because of the tournament. The rough is a lot bigger and it is a lot harder.”

Qualification for the Bahrain Championship has meant sharing a range and putting green with some of the stars of the DP World Tour.

“I was definitely nervous, but I know that I play my best golf when I keep it as relaxed as possible,” he said.

“Having my dad on the bag helped keep it that way. We just had fun out there, and tried to keep it as relaxed as possible.”

Another effect of winning that Bahrain Amateur Open has been to delay Syed’s move into the ranks of professional golf. That might have happened far sooner, were it not for an untimely injury.

He graduated from the University of Tampa in 2022, by which point he planned to go pro. His progress was stunted, though, by a broken wrist sustained in a scooter accident in his final year at college.

The best part of three years later, he feels he is finally fit and ready to make the leap. After this week on the DP World Tour, he is eyeing opportunities on the Asian Development Tour and the Clutch Pro Tour in England.

He is from Hayes in the UK, but represents Pakistan, where his family are from. His father, Syed Hussain, who has been on the bag in Bahrain, does live up to the Pakistani stereotype given that his first love was cricket. But it is he who is to thank for introducing his son to golf.

“When I was born, my dad had just started playing golf, having played cricket when he was growing up,” Syed said.

“Cricket is his sport, but when I was younger I was quite chubby, so he didn’t bother putting me into cricket. I went to the golf course and guess I had a talent for it. I have stuck with it.

“I played cricket at school. The problem with that was, because I played a lot of golf early [in my life] and was playing competitions at a national level and an early age. But batting is so bad for your golf swing.

“I was also pretty fat, so I wasn’t fast at bowling, so dad put me out of that.”

While some things don’t change – he retains an interest in cricket, but golf has remained his primary love – others are vastly different. Syed’s lithe frame bears no reminders of the chubbiness to which he refers.

He is treading a scarcely used path as a Pakistani golfer. Ahmed Baig, a 26-year-old from Lahore, is another tour player from there, but Syed acknowledges there have not been many.

“When I was growing up there was only a few brown faces,” Syed said. “There was Jeev Milkha Singh and a lot of good Indian players, but not many Arab players or Pakistani players.

“In a dream scenario I would be one of those role models for this generation.”

Given he is just at the start of his journey, he does not have any stated grand ambitions. But when the idea of perhaps one day representing Pakistan in golf at an Olympics is put to him, he likes the sound of it.

“It is every sportsperson’s dream to play in the Olympics. I have not thought that far ahead, but hopefully that could be on the cards if I continue to improve and get better at golf.

“Those appearances will come as long as you get better, that is how I look at it.”

More appearances among the household names of the tour might also serve to settle some of the nerves he has felt in Bahrain.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about whether you belong at this level,” Syed said.

“But throughout the week whenever I was on the range I was thinking to myself, ‘They are just human beings, too. They hit bad shots on the range, they hit bad shots on the course.’

“I never felt out of place, and I took confidence from that, and also, the guys I was playing with [China’s Zihao Jin and Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olesen] are the same age as me.

“Even though they are pros, I backed myself. I think you have to.”