On the golf course in Dubai, taking a break from Trump

Thomas L. Friedman 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. So I break today to write about ... golf — in Dubai, where I participated in an education conference.

The UAE has made Dubai into the counter-ISIS, a place where young Arabs can live local and act global. It’s the most interesting crossroad city in the Arab world today. You run into the most unexpected characters here — especially on the golf course — which is where our story begins.

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.

When I got to the first tee, I realized this was not going to be a normal round. Sadhguru is the founder of Isha, a humanitarian and environmental movement with millions of followers — several of whom I could tell were at the course, because cad- dies and staff members kept coming over for selfies.

Sadhguru was in a gray Under Armour golf shirt, golf slacks and a floppy golf hat. The only giveaways to his day job were an ankle bracelet peeking out above a golf shoe and the longest white beard I’ve ever seen on anyone trying to swing a club.

Sadhguru got addicted to golf while visiting followers in America. With about a 15 handicap now, he can hit a drive 220 yards. As a yogi, it was not surprising that he had probed the deeper meaning of the game. Golf was just like life (and yoga), he added: People mess up at both when their “interior is not settled.”

I offered my favorite Jewish golf joke: This threesome is at a public course and the starter comes over and says, “Do you mind if this rabbi plays with you?” They say, “No problem.” The rabbi proceeds to shoot a 69.

One of the other players asks, “Rabbi, how did you get so good?”

“You have to convert to Judaism,” he answers. So, a year goes by and the three guys arrange to play with the rabbi again. He shoots 69, but they all still shoot in the 90s. One says: “Rabbi, I don’t get it. We all converted like you said, but we all still shot in the 90s. What’s wrong?”

“What synagogue did you get converted at?” the rabbi asks earnestly.

“Temple Beth Shalom,” they answer.

“Oh no,” says the rabbi. “Temple Beth Shalom? That’s for tennis!”

For the rest of the round, when Sadghuru missed a shot he would look over to me and say, “Wrong temple!”

Two days later, I ran into Jeby Cherian, who used to run IBM’s Global Business Services unit in India but quit in 2015 to build Sadhguru’s Leadership Academy. I asked him what the yogi’s message was to young leaders.

Sadhguru sees “leadership as serious sacrifice — not as power to dominate,” Cherian said. The best leaders “first work on themselves to achieve the necessary inner capabilities, because their actions impact millions of people. If you are personally transformed then you will conduct yourself in a manner that is inclusive. If you are inclusive, then you will transform the communities you live in and thereby the world.”

Hmm, I thought, I know a golfer-leader who should meditate on that message, but I’m not writing about Trump today.