Rayan Ahmed is targeting success in his own backyard, just as he gets set to embark on a pioneering journey to the other side of the world.
The 19-year-old golfer this week became the first UAE national to be recruited to a NCAA Division 1 university in the United States.
The UAE’s No 1 amateur player will be joining the University of California, Irvine for the 2026/27 academic year, where he will dovetail studying for a business degree with learning what is required for a pro career in golf.
The university has produced a number of PGA Tour players in the past, which is the path Rayan is hoping to follow.
He also hopes it will help him in his pursuit of one long-held ambition closer to home: his dream is to become the first UAE winner of the Dubai Desert Classic.
“That is the ambition,” Rayan said of the idea of one day claiming the longest established of the UAE’s tour championships.
“The UAE gives me the opportunity to play Challenge Tour events, DP World Tour events. The platform is there; it's all about your performance.
“If I perform really well in a Challenge Tour event, they might give me a spot to play in the Desert Classic, or I might win a collegiate event in the US, and they could say, ‘OK, we're going to give you the spot’.
“And if I get the opportunity, I'm going to aim the highest. Why not try and win it if I have the opportunity?
“Having a positive mindset only helps, and I feel like I have to give back to the UAE. Winning it would definitely do that.
“It would be great for them, great for me, and I would feel really good having to pay the favour back to them.”
The Karachi-born teenager has been brought up in Dubai. He became a UAE citizen in 2023, which was the same year he joined the national team for the World Amateur Team Championships in Abu Dhabi.
It is scarcely six years since he started to pursue a game so beloved by his father and grandfather.
“My parents saw a spark in my game, and we moved to the Montgomerie Golf Club, almost literally on the [driving] range,” Rayan said.
“I was essentially living on the golf club, and I would just walk out, play, come back, eat. It was just golf all day.”
Aged 14, within one year at the Montgomerie he had cut his 24 handicap to scratch.
He estimates that he missed around 50 per cent of school time in his senior years at Raffles World Academy because of his commitment to golf.
He started to consider a future in the sport when mixing with the likes of Gordon Sargent, Nick Dunlap and David Ford, who have become PGA Tour pros, at the 2023 World Amateur Team Championships in Abu Dhabi.
He hopes studying in California will help him reach the same destination.
“At least 75 per cent of PGA Tour players have gone through the Division 1 program,” he said.
“It is the highest level of competitiveness you'll get around the world. If you really want to train yourself and prepare yourself for professional golf, the US Division 1 is the place to go.
“I feel like I've competed on a high level before. I've been to the US, I've played with these high-quality college players. And I feel like I thrive under pressure.
“It just makes me focus more, so when I go to college, I feel like I'm just going to play a bit better.”
General Abdullah Al Hashmi, the president of the Emirates Golf Federation, said he is confident the young UAE amateur will thrive Stateside.
“Rayan is very dedicated, committed, and disciplined, and I think he is unique in his way of thinking,” Al Hashmi said.
“Each player has got his own character and identity, and I think Rayan’s have made him what he is today. He fights to get where he wants, he’s tested himself, and I like that in a player.”
