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Friday, November 13, 2026Nov 13

Friedman: On a Par 5 in Dubai, good humor and a respite from all things Trump

Ryan Moore hits from the 18th tee during the first round of the Tournament of Champions golf event, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Ryan Moore hits from the 18th tee during the first round of the Tournament of Champions golf event, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York) Ryan Moore hits from the 18th tee during the first round of the Tournament of Champions golf event, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – President Donald Trump has already played an incredible amount of golf in his first 100 days. He says he needs the break. I sympathize. In fact, I need a break, too – from him, from writing about his relentless assault on truth and science. It’s toxic. So I break today to write about golf – in Dubai, where I recently participated in an education conference.

You run into the most unexpected characters here – especially on the golf course – which is where our story begins.

So a Hindu, a Muslim and a Jew are playing golf together in Dubai

Sounds like the first line of a joke, right? Actually, it’s the first line of one of those serendipitous stories that often happen when you play golf abroad. In my case, I was invited to play at the Emirates Club with a UAE education expert and the famed Indian mystic, poet and yogi Jaggi Vasudev, who goes by his reverential name, Sadhguru.

Sadhguru is the founder of Isha, an Indian-based humanitarian and environmental movement with millions of followers (and some critics, too) – several of whom I could tell were at the course.