Dubai Desert Classic

The final part of the desert swing takes place in Dubai this week. OWGR level is back to the pre-crisis 48, perhaps the world economy is back on track and has Dubai to show it?

As for the tournament: one of the older tournaments on the ET schedule nowadays. Nice to see the change of view if you follow this link: http://www.golf.nl/nieuws/detail/deze-week-in-golf-115/

Rory looks good for a win this week, and so are a number of other hot shots (RCB, Olesen, Luiten) and not to mention 9C and Henrik, although the latter two still have to find their way around this season so it seems.

Hopefully we are in for a good one!

That article is a year old.

...and written in Elvish

incontinentia wrote:...and written in Elvish

Google chrome translated for me.

Elvish has left the building.....

A lot of interesting players to watch:

Stars Woods, McIlroy, Stenson, Els, Bjorn, shooting star Manassero, Uihlein, supernova Olesen (?), stars and stripes O'Meara, Couples, Daly, burned out stars Monty, O'Meara, red dwarf Shane Lowry.

Plus of course 606 favorite Jimenez and "Europe's most influential golfer" (as per BBC) current RTD leader Bjorn.

Hard to predict who'll run away with this. But the spaniards are on a run. MAJ or RCB? Hard to look past McIlroy though and Els usually does well here. Woods did a misery out of himself last week so don't know about him, and Stenson and Bjorn seem a bit "fatigued".

GPB wrote:That article is a year old.

I know but I couldn't find any pictures from the 90's, and this article happened to have them. I did not even read the article

Gallacher paired with 9C and RMac
The Mechanic, Franny and Joost + TB, Henrik Stenson and Ernie the other flights to watch.

Nice line-up

  
Agreed mighty,
Another stalwart who's been struggling for fitness and form is Peter Hanson; he'll be desperate to get in to the WGC-Cadillac and Masters. As far as I can see he's not yet in either, tho' he will be at the MatchPlay.

Green Jacket tune up time Rory ... go get em in the desert!

Brilliant starts by Rory and Tiger, -4/-3 after 7

themightyone wrote:Brilliant starts by Rory and Tiger, -4/-3 after 7

Be nice to see nine pubes and chin head battle it out on Sunday.

Nice for who? I'd rather see someone more interesting and engaging

Joost Luiten vs The Mechanic (rematch KLM Open) would be nice

themightyone wrote:Joost Luiten vs The Mechanic (rematch KLM Open) would be nice

That's a division 3 relegation battle. Tiger vs Rory is the World Cup final.

Davie wrote:Nice for who? I'd rather see someone more interesting and engaging

for golf fans. the top 2 palyers of their respective generations duelling?? c'mon bro!

I'm waiting for the Vauxhall COnference final of Seve Benson v Shane Lowry.

super_realist wrote:I'm waiting for the Vauxhall COnference final of Seve Benson v Shane Lowry.

Those scales aren't very well balanced

Nice round from Rory (-9) with no dropped shots. Looking forward to watching the highlights this evening, but I'm guessing conditions must have been favorable as scoring in general looks low.

incontinentia wrote:

themightyone wrote:Joost Luiten vs The Mechanic (rematch KLM Open) would be nice

That's a division 3 relegation battle. Tiger vs Rory is the World Cup final.

Davie wrote:Nice for who? I'd rather see someone more interesting and engaging

for golf fans. the top 2 palyers of their respective generations duelling?? c'mon bro!

I'd hardly call a battle of No's 38 and 41 in the world (13 and 14 in Europe) a 3rd division relegation battle so I assume you are trying very hard to make your point that Rory vs Tiger is the one and only battle worth watching. Oh well, good for you

Good to see a lot of late starters come in with better scores than Nine Chins

Great to see Eddie Molinari getting back to his best . . . . .
But sad to see his compadre Matteo struggling badly.

Matteo needs eye surgery (seriously). He squints a lot to see distance and I can't imagine that's optimal.

Good to see TW have a reasonable score even though the long game was pretty bad.

Del_Boy wrote:Good to see TW have a reasonable score even though the long game was pretty bad.

All round a pretty good day for everyone in the group. It was odd a few weeks back when Rory failed to mount a back nine charge against Pablo, but at this rate he will be long clear by that stage anyway. I seem to remember he birdied the 10th or 11th and then just parred it in.

McLaren wrote:

Del_Boy wrote:Good to see TW have a reasonable score even though the long game was pretty bad.

All round a pretty good day for everyone in the group.  It was odd a few weeks back when Rory failed to mount a back nine charge against Pablo, but at this rate he will be long clear by that stage anyway.  I seem to remember he birdied the 10th or 11th and then just parred it in.

Yep they all scored well in that group. Gallagher did well after a dodgy put on his 2nd hole. Rory birdied his 11th and chucked in an eagle on his 12th then a few pars before a birdie on his 17th

We should really make the most of watching the dubai event as it is really the last half decent regular european tour event until the PGA in late may.  There are string of pretty poor events coming up (based on OWGR allocation) and even a months gap in the schedule due to the Eurasia cup and two TBC events.  The TBC events are presumably not happening?

Date	event	2013 OWGR
6–9 Feb	Joburg Open	22
13–16 Feb	Africa Open	20
19–23 Feb	WGC
27 Feb – 2 Mar	Tshwane Open	20
6–9 Mar	WGC
13–16 Mar	Trophée Hassan II	24
20–23 Mar	TBC	n/a
28–30 Mar	EurAsia Cup	n/a
3–6 Apr	TBC	n/a
10–13 Apr	Masters
17–20 Apr	Maybank Malaysian Open	38
24–27 Apr	Volvo China Open	28
1–4 May	The Championship	34
8–11 May	Madeira Islands Open	18
15–19 May	Open de España	24
22–25 May	BMW PGA Championship	64

If you are a non pga tour playing european tour player not already in the majors and WGC's it is unlikely that you are going to be able to promote your cause given the small number of points on offer for the next 5 months.

Wow that's a pretty barren run. Unless you are a Saffa there are no interesting ET events until the Spanish Open in mid-may. Viewing figures (and discussion on here) will be non-existant.

I wonder where Uihlein and Koepka will play during the E.T's downtime?
Only sponsors' invites will get them in to PGA Tour events unless they can clamber in to the WGC's.
Koepka on fire right now, Uihlein struggling to reach the cut-line.

Tiger using the grandstands behind the green on 9 to his advantage. Never sure what to make of players doing that.

Anyone else read this odd article from golf digest

Stats show Rory is playing about as well as at this time last year, and only a win in Dubai can change that

Not sure what point they are trying to make?

McLaren wrote:Anyone else read this odd article from golf digest

Stats show Rory is playing about as well as at this time last year, and only a win in Dubai can change that

Not sure what point they are trying to make?

Just read the article. Shredder material.

Tiger Woods flew half way around the world to play in the desert, and that's where he was most of the time. He was hardly ever on the grass.

lorus59 wrote:Tiger Woods flew half way around the world to play in the desert, and that's where he was most of the time. He was hardly ever on the grass.

He should just do a Stenson on it and retire his Driver.

Inco, I cannot see Rory and Tiger battling it out on Sunday. As you rightly point out: Tiger is erratic at driving...

kwinigolfer wrote:I wonder where Uihlein and Koepka will play during the E.T's downtime?
Only sponsors' invites will get them in to PGA Tour events unless they can clamber in to the WGC's.
Koepka on fire right now, Uihlein struggling to reach the cut-line.

Monday Qualifying is an option.

Koepka has a Sponsors invite for Honda and Uihlein played Puerto Rice last year.

kwinigolfer wrote:I wonder where Uihlein and Koepka will play during the E.T's downtime?
Only sponsors' invites will get them in to PGA Tour events unless they can clamber in to the WGC's.
Koepka on fire right now, Uihlein struggling to reach the cut-line.

Monday Qualifying is an option.

Koepka has a Sponsors invite for Honda and Uihlein played Puerto Rice last year.

Re: Koepka and Uihlein:
I hope they get a chance with the sponsors (sure Uihlein will!), also hope one or two of the other Americans in Europe prosper. A win win.

Wonder if Couples has sold his SuperBowl tickets yet? See he's playing with Alvaro Quiros tomorrow - that's a pairing I'd love to follow!

McLaren wrote:Tiger using the grandstands behind the green on 9 to his advantage.  Never sure what to make of players doing that.

Jean vande Velde 1999

I'd say that happens on a weekly basis on the PGA Tour - one instance where it was the difference between winning and losing was Nathan Green's win at Glen Abbey in 2009. He hit his second shot over water to his 72nd hole into the grandstand, got up and down for birdie, and did the exact same against Retief in the play-off. Total rip off.


On a happier note, and especially for "themightyone", Dubuisson, Luiten and Frannie Molinari have received sponsors' exemptions in to Riviera's Northern Trust Open in a fortnight.
Good news, and Thanks! to Northern Trust.

To follow up on the mention of the poor run of tournaments to come on the european tour, here are the players in the top 100 OWGR who play exclusively on the European tour. The 8 in the top 50 presumably have the WGC's at least to soften the blow, and also the masters in some cases.

But what about those looking in on the top 50 and therefore major and WGC invites, is it likely many of them can improve their position based on the low point events they have to play in for the next 4/5 months?

24 - Bjorn
25 - Donaldson
31 - Dubusisson3
37 - GFC
38 - MAJ
41 - Luiten
43 - F. Molinari
47 - Manassero


54 - Larrazabal
60 - Olesen
61 - Wiesberger
62 -ilonen
66 -  u-line
67 - Gallacher
80 - wood
86 - RCB
89 - Lowrey
90 - Fleetwood
93 - Koepka
96 - Howell
97 - siem

Back nine 28 from Gallacher. How good is that?

He read your posts, Mac, knew it was this week or never. Olesen in the same boat.

But so many of these guys keep playing themselves in to good positions and squandering them. And you could add Willett to that list. Hopefully they'll play these second tier tournaments and play well - wins and podium finishes will still be valuable. Anything else and only themselves to blame.

Kwini

Maybe he did. Do you think I am right in saying it will be difficult for exclusively european tour players to better their position, or are there actually plenty of points if you finish at the top?

Both!

But the loss of those good early spring tournaments in Spain is a big shame.
Then you get the double-edged sword of having to play really well in the MatchPlay; good for you if you do, but then you'll be tempted to go for Special Membership of the PGA Tour, a la Aphibarnrat.

Are you watching the golf kwini?

It seems like McIlroy has got himself a pretty handy short game at the moment.

Haven't seen Sauron Hansen on a leaderboard for a while.

Why would Dubai's Hole In One Jackpot bonus on hole 17 be measured in US dollars?

GPB wrote:Why would Dubai's Hole In One Jackpot bonus on hole 17 be measured in US dollars?

I can't remember what happened exactly, but anyway, the middle east is a little scared of the US. So the middle east do all they can to make it look like they are fans.

McLaren wrote:

GPB wrote:Why would Dubai's Hole In One Jackpot bonus on hole 17 be measured in US dollars?

I can't remember what happened exactly, but anyway, the middle east is a little scared of the US.  So the middle east do all they can to make it look like they are fans.

Oil is priced in US$.

After 36 holes front 9 played +101 to par and back 9 -251?
Is that poor course design, or something else?
Anyone come across other courses with that sort of discrepancy between the 9s?