LIV Golf will be in Hong Kong this week for the third event of their season, but a number of players’ status for this week was uncertain amid travel issues for those that live in the Middle East due to the escalating war in Iran.
Flights out of Dubai, which has become home base for a number of LIV golfers, became exceedingly difficult to come by due to the ongoing conflict and suggestions from the United States and other countries for those living in 14 Middle East nations to evacuate after the beginning of Operation Epic Fury from U.S. and Israeli forces.
Eight players in the field this week in Hong Kong were reportedly scrambling to find a way out of Dubai to make it on time for the start of the event on Thursday. On Tuesday, according to Golf.com’s Alan Bastable, seven of those players — Thomas Detry, Lee Westwood, Anirban Lahiri, Sam Horsfield, Tom McKibbin, Adrian Meronk and Caleb Surratt — plus one caddie went on quite the journey to get on a private jet commissioned by LIV star Jon Rahm out of neighboring Oman in order to make it to Hong Kong.
While LIV had presented an option to fly from Dubai to London and then on to Hong Kong, Rahm sent a plane to Oman that provided a more direct route. However, it did involve the players, per Bastable, take ground transport from Dubai to the Oman border late at night, then change to a different shuttle that took them to the airstrip where the jet was waiting and took off just after midnight local.
The players arrived in Hong Kong at 11:22 a.m. local time, just over 24 hours from the start of the first round at Hong Kong Golf Club.