I just picked up a decent sized umbrella for my wife while visiting the Buddha on my way through HKG. I had lost the same umbrella in the Seattle airport when we landed in January after visiting HKG and she wouldn't let me live it down. So I planned a 8 hour stopover in HKG on a business trip and went up and bought another one for her ;-) Granted it was not quite as large as a golf umbrella, it was pretty big and had a very hard metal point. I had no problem getting it through security in HKG, none in DXB, but then almost lost the thing in RUH when I was going through security to head home at the end of the week. I had to "reason" with the security guy to let me take it through, noting it had made it through in other airports and he finally let me take it through. I was on separate tickets so couldn't have dealt with any checked luggage.