Everton owner Dan Friedkin and his son Ryan are both in Scotland to take part in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
Everton owner Dan Friedkin still hasn't attended a game at Hill Dickinson Stadium
Everton owner Dan Friedkin still hasn't attended a game at Hill Dickinson Stadium
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Owner Dan Friedkin still hasn’t been to an Everton game since he completed his takeover last December. But almost 10 months on, he is in the UK to take part in a golf tournament ahead of David Moyes’ men taking on Crystal Palace.
Friedkin, who is currently placed at number 369 with an estimated fortune of $9.49billion (approximately £7.03billion) by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s richest people, completed his acquisition of the Blues from Farhad Moshiri on December 19.
But he never watched them play at Goodison Park and to date has not attended a fixture at Hill Dickinson Stadium. However, the avid golfer – who built the Congaree golf course in South Carolina and owns Diamond Creek Golf Club in North Carolina – is making what has become a regular trip for him in recent years to Scotland for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
The 60-year-old, who also holds the position of Everton chairman, is due to tee off at 11:12am on Thursday in Carnoustie, playing alongside Lucas Bjerregaard, who he also partnered in 2018 when the Dane defeated Southport’s Tommy Fleetwood, a lifelong Evertonian who was part of the Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup team on Sunday, and three-time tournament winner Tyrell Hatton by one stroke (Bjerregaard and Friedkin came 10th in the pro-am).
For round two on Friday, the pair are due to tee off at 10:28am on the Kingsbarns course and then for round three on Saturday they are due to tee off at 9:55am at St Andrews, although by that point, 50mph winds are forecast at the home of golf as the UK is battered by Storm Amy.
Friedkin’s son Ryan, 35, who has attended a game at Everton’s new home on the Mersey waterfront – the inaugural first-team match in front of fans when they played Roma, also owned by The Friedkin Group, on August 9 – is also taking part in the event north of the border.
Friedkin junior is partnering 25-year-old Mexican Luis Carrera and they are due to tee off their first round at St Andrews at 11:23am on Thursday before heading to Carnoustie for the second round on Friday where they tee off at 10:28am and then having round three at Kingsbarns on Saturday, teeing off at 9:44am.
Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark sits on the Swilcan Bridge with the trophy with his amateur partner Dan Friedkin after his one shot win in the final round of the 2018 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on The Old Course at St Andrews on October 7, 2018
Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark sits on the Swilcan Bridge with the trophy with his amateur partner Dan Friedkin after his one shot win in the final round of the 2018 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on The Old Course at St Andrews on October 7, 2018
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The owner and CEO of Gulf States Toyota, Houston-based Friedkin senior’s hands off approach with Everton so far has been quite contrasting to the way he has handled affairs at his other major European football club, Roma.
An accomplished aviator who won a Taurus Stunt Award for Best Specialty Stunt for his work in the film Dunkirk in which he piloted an authentic spitfire, he personally flew former Blues striker Romelu Lukaku and head coach Jose Mourinho into the Italian capital on separate occasions when they joined the club.
He has also attended several games at the Stadio Olimpico, paraded around the Eternal City in an open top bus tour with son Ryan when the team won the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2022 and was pictured laughing with caretaker boss Claudio Ranieri, who he’d travelled to London to hire the previous autumn, on a visit to the Serie A side’s Centro Sportivo Fulvio Bernardini training base in May.