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THE MENA TOUR’S ‘THREE AMIGOS’ AREN’T ABOUT TO LET A PANDEMIC DERAIL THEIR CAREFULLY PLOTTED PATHS TO GOLF'S BIG TIME

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WE’RE NOT SURE IF Josh Hill, Toby Bishop or Arjun Gupta have ever studied the deeds of Winston Churchill in history class but the Dubai schoolboys have, at least unwittingly, heeded one of the former British Prime Minister’s famed quotes. • While topflight professional golf is back, sans spectators, the world’s elite amateur events are only slowly creaking back into life courtesy of the coronavirus pandemic. But channeling Churchill’s circa 1940 “Never let a good crisis go to waste” war cry, the MENA Tour teens are working harder than ever. Indeed, they haven’t really stopped, escaping into the desert for socially-distanced practice sessions even before lockdown when courses were deemed out of bounds to teens for health and safety reasons. • There’s no need to suddenly try salvaging something from what is essentially a lost year when you don’t see it that way. Rather all three have kept on keeping on with carefully plotted progression plans. • Hill is working with a new coach, Bishop is invigorated after committing to the University of Florida and Gupta has refreshed by hitting his school books – knowing the sooner he sorts his education the sooner he can get on with chasing his pro golf dream.• If you’ve been following along, you’ll know the teen trio were dubbed the ‘Three Amigos’ by the MENA Tour in a nod to the 1986 American comedy-western starring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short. You need to draw a longbow to connect Hill, Bishop and Gupta to the Hollywood stars in a golf context, perhaps other than giving this period a movie moniker, something like 2020 global-horror.