The new-look DP World Tour schedule for 2023-24 consolidated the UAE’s place at the top table of world golf, with five events slated across the emirates, including a season-ending double-header.

Following the traditional early-campaign events in Australia and South Africa before the Christmas break, the Tour rolls into the UAE in January for three back-to-back tournaments — including a new arrival in the form of the Dubai Invitational at Dubai Creek Resort (January 11-14), before heading to Emirates Golf Club and the 35th Hero Dubai Desert Classic (January 18-21). The Ras Al Khaimah Championship at Al Hamra Golf Club rounds out the triple-header (January 25-28).

Both the Dubai Invitational and RAK event offer prize money of $2.5 million, with the Rolex Series Desert Classic having $9 million up for grabs.

In another revamp to the calendar, Bahrain will be joining the DP World Tour. From February 1-4, the Royal Golf Club will host some of the world’s top players to the resort, south of Manama, with a purse of $2.5 million.

Thomas Pieters thrived at a stormy Yas Links in 2022 to claim the Abu Dhabi Championship. Getty Images

In one of the most significant changes, the Abu Dhabi Championship has been moved from its traditional January spot to form a season finale play-off along with the DP World Tour Championship.

Running in November, these two two final Rolex Series events of the season with have a pool of $19 million in prize money. The Abu Dhabi Championship will welcome the leading 70 players on the Race to Dubai Rankings to Yas Links, before the top 50 head back to Dubai for the showdown at Jumeirah Golf Estates, where the DP World Tour’s Number One player will be crowned.

At the conclusion of the DP World Tour’s 2024 season, the leading 10 players will share a $6 million bonus pool. The top 10 DP World Tour members on the final 2024 Race to Dubai Rankings (not otherwise exempt) will earn PGA TOUR cards for the 2025 season.

“Our 2024 season will see our members come together to compete across a global schedule, with greater opportunities and rewards than ever before,” said Keith Pelley, the DP World Tour’s chief executive. “The many new and original enhancements we have introduced will guarantee drama and excitement for our fans, our broadcasters and all our stakeholders across the entire season and means, more than ever, that every week counts on the DP World Tour.”

Here is the full 2023-24 DP World Tour schedule

Opening Swing
November 23-26 2023 Fortinet Australian PGA Championship (Royal Queensland GC, Brisbane, Australia)
November 23-26 ​​​​​​Joburg Open (Houghton GC, Johannesburg, South Africa)
November 30-December 3 ISPS Handa Australian Open (The Australian GC & The Lakes GC, Sydney, Australia)
November 30-December 3 Investec South African Open Championship (Blair Atholl Golf & Equestrian Estate, Lanseria, Johannesburg, South Africa)
December 7-10 Alfred Dunhill Championship (Leopard Creek CC, Malelane, South Africa)
December 14-17 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open (Heritage La Réserve GC, Heritage Bel Ombre, Mauritius)
International Swing
January 11-14 2024 Dubai Invitational (Dubai Creek Resort, Dubai, UAE)
January 18-21 Hero Dubai Desert Classic (Emirates GC, Dubai, UAE)
January 25-28 Ras Al Khaimah Championship (Al Hamra GC, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE)
February 1-4 Bahrain Championship (Royal GC, Kingdom of Bahrain)
February 22-25 Magical Kenya Open (Muthaiga GC, Nairobi, Kenya)
February 29-March 3 SDC Championship (TBC, South Africa)
March 7-10 Jonsson Workwear Open (TBC, South Africa)
Asian Swing
March 21-24 Singapore Classic (Laguna National Golf Resort Club, Singapore)
March 28-31 Asian Event TBA (TBC)
April 11-14 The Masters (Augusta National GC, Augusta, Georgia, USA)
April 18-21 Korea Championship (Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, Incheon, South Korea)
April 25-28 ISPS Handa Championship (Taiheiyo Club, Gotemba Course, Gotemba City, Japan)
May 2-5 Volvo China Open (Hidden Grace GC, Shenzhen, China)
May 16-19 PGA Championship (Valhalla GC, Louisville, Kentucky, USA)
European Swing
May 23-26 Soudal Open (Rinkven International GC, Antwerp, Belgium)
May 30-June 2 European Open (Green Eagle Golf Courses, Hamburg, Germany)
June 6-9 Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed (TBC, Sweden)
June 13-16 US Open (Pinehurst Resort & CC, Pinehurst, North Carolina, USA)
June 20-23 KLM Open (The International, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
June 27-30 Italian Open (TBC, Italy)
July 4-7 BMW International Open (Golfclub München Eichenried, Munich, Germany)
Closing Swing
July 11-14 Genesis Scottish Open (The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland)
July 11-14 Event TBA (TBC, USA)
July 18-21 The 152nd Open (Royal Troon GC, Ayrshire, Scotland)
July 18-21 Barracuda Championship (Tahoe Mt Club, Truckee, California, USA)
August 1-4 Olympic Men’s Golf Competition (Le Golf National, Paris, France)
August 15-18 D+D Real Czech Masters (Albatross Golf Resort, Prague, Czech Republic)
August 22-25 Danish Golf Championship (Lübker Golf Resort, Aarhus, Denmark)
The Back 9
August 29-September 1 Betfred British Masters (The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield, England)
September 5-8 Omega European Masters (Crans-sur-Sierre GC, Crans Montana, Switzerland)
September 12-15 Horizon Irish Open (Royal County Down GC, Newcastle, Co Down, Northern Ireland)
September 19-22 BMW PGA Championship (Wentworth Club, Virginia Water, Surrey, England)
September 26-29 acciona Open de España presented by Madrid (Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, Madrid, Spain)
October 3-6 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (Old Course St Andrews, Carnoustie & Kingsbarns, Scotland)
October 10-13 Open de France (Le Golf National, Paris, France)
October 17-20 Andalucia Masters (Real Club de Golf Sotogrande, San Roque, Andalucia, Spain)
October 24-27 Event TBA (TBC)
DP World Tour Play-Offs
November 7-10 Abu Dhabi Championship (Yas Links, Abu Dhabi, UAE)
November 14-17 DP World Tour Championship (Jumeirah Golf Estates, Earth Course, Dubai, UAE)

The post New-look landscape across the UAE and beyond after DP World Tour calendar shake-up appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

New deal between European Tour Group and Emirates Golf Federation will allow next generation of hopefuls in UAE achieve their dreams

By Matt Smith
We have had Seve. We have had Tiger. We have had Rory. 

Now is time for the UAE to nurture its own talent and let them blossom on the biggest stages. 

The recent announcement by the DP World Tour to continue to invest in the future of golf in the UAE comes with a guarantee the growth of the game is in safe hands for the forseeable future, and the UAE is ready to come out swinging. 

In April, the DP World Tour announced a long-term partnership with the Emirates Golf Federation until at least 2031, continuing the tour’s commitment to developing golf in the UAE from the grassroots up. And we are now ready to take the game to the top level. 

This is a relationship that goes all the way back to pretty much the beginning of golf in the UAE, and it continues to prosper. 

The Emirates and the European Tour Group, which incorporates the DP World Tour, Challenge Tour and Legends Tour, have had a long-standing relationship with the UAE, going all the way back to 1989, when the first Dubai Desert Classic was played at Emirates Golf Club (pictured below). 

Courtesy by Emirates Golf Club

The ball was rolling. Both the UAE and the game of golf in the region then went off to scale unfathomed heights, with more than 20 top-class golf courses helping transform the landscape of the nation in the years to come, offering green oases amid the skyscrapers. The sport itself exploded on to the global map as the best players came to town. 

We saw rapid expansion, with the arrival of the Abu Dhabi Championship in 2006, marquee players such as a certain Tiger Woods, and the inception for the Race to Dubai and Dubai World Championship in 2009.

Tiger Woods was the big draw at the 2012 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Getty Images

Since then, the European Tour group has enjoyed an enduring relationship with the UAE, which was underlined when DP World, the Dubai-based supply chain and logistics solutions provider, came in to sponsor the season-ending competition at Jumeirah Golf Estates and then in November last year as the title sponsor of the group’s main tour.

This season, the UAE will host at least five DP World Tour events, including the inaugural Ras Al Khaimah events that made up part of the historic four-week ‘UAE Swing’ in January and February.

This is a far cry from, not too long ago, the no-grass events that we used to associate with desert golf.

New Zealand’s Ryan Fox celebrates his win at the Ras Al Khaimah Classic in February. Getty Images

Going forward, we will now see a minimum of two Challenge Tour events in the UAE each year from next season, alongside at least five DP World Tour tournaments, with the focus on giving Emirati and locally based golfers. 

Not only will this give the nation more exposure as the go-to destination for golfers, it also presents opportunities for our homegrown best to play against some of the finest in the world and allow them to forge their own careers in the game.

Along with helping enhance the careers of top players such as Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy and Rafa Cabrera Bello, to name a few of the many players who have set up home here, the expansion has allowed our very own stars such as Toby Bishop, Josh Hill and Ahmad Skaik emerge as real hopes for the future. 

The Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic has become a mainstay of the UAE golf scene. Getty Images

One of the most refreshing aspects of last week’s announcement was the expansion of the Tour’s support of junior golf development in the UAE to enhance grassroots and player performance programmes, paving the way for future Bishops, Hills and Skaiks.

It is an exciting time and all involved are keen to see the results. 

“The DP World Tour committing to a 10-year partnership with the EGF is fantastic news for golf in the Middle East,” Daniel van Otterdijk, Chief Communications Officer of Group Communications at DP World, told Golf Digest Middle East. “It will assist in creating playing opportunities as well as a pathway towards the highest echelon of the sport for our Emirati golfers. 

“One of DP World’s key objectives in our partnership with the Tour is to help grow golf at grassroots level, and in doing so we are adding at least two UAE-based Challenge Tour tournaments per year, with 30 entries being granted for EGF members.

“The Challenge Tour has a spectacular history with the Middle East, with several of its previous season finale events being held in Dubai, Oman and Ras Al Khaimah in 2013, 2014 and 2015, so it is excellent news that the region will continue to be a hub for all of the best up and coming golfers that we can only hope are destined for the DP World Tour.

“While we toast the expansion of the game in the UAE, we are also seeing results on the practice greens as the likes of Josh Hill, Toby Bishop and Ahmad Skaik emerge as real contenders.

Dubai’s homegrown talent Toby Bishop.

“Everyone in this region is rooting for a UAE golfer to compete on the DP World Tour,” said Van Otterdijk. “The EGF has worked thanklessly over the years to help to develop the talents of Khalid Yousuf, Rayhan Thomas and the latest gems: Josh, Toby and Ahmad. We truly hope it won’t be too long before one of these talented young men are competing and winning on the DP World Tour. Opportunities to play on Challenge Tour events will be wonderful for their development, and allows us an opportunity to see how the best golfers in this region fare on the big stage.

Skaik himself, the UAE’s no.1 golfer and Englishman Hill have competed in numerous DP World Tour events such as the Slync.io Desert Classic and the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, impressing both local and international fans alike, so it will be intriguing to see them compete on other courses in the region on the Challenge Tour.

The UAE has helped forge careers from Ryder Cup Captain Henrik Stenson and former world No. 1 Rory McIlroy all the way through to Hill, Bishop and female pros Chiara Noja and Alison Muirhead. But it does not stop here. Van Otterdijk explains the vision for the future:

“Dubai has a rich history of golfing icons that have lived here from Henrik to Thomas Bjorn to Rafa and Rory to name a few. There is no better place in the world to live as a golfer — you are able to practise all year round on exceptional courses, whilst having access to world-class training facilities. With the addition of the two Challenge Tour events for 30 EGF members each season, the UAE has got to be one of the best places to grow and nurture a young golfer with the ambition to one day compete on the DP World Tour.”

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The post Play it forward: UAE golf in safe hands thanks to DP World Tour deal appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 29-year-old won the ACC back-to-back in 2010 and 2011 and has gone on to achieve reasonable things a decade later; a green jacket as reigning Masters champion and a seventh PGA Tour title as the freshly-minted Zozo Championship winner.

Invites to April’s Masters tournament at Augusta National and the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews next July will again be the huge lure for players hoping to emulate Matsuyama at the 12th edition of the ACC at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club this month.

A place in amateur folklore also beckons for Yuxin Lin who will attempt to defend the title he won in a playoff at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai in 2019 (the tournament was cancelled last year due to COVID-19). The 21-year-old Chinese player will attempt to distance himself from Matsuyama as the most successful player in AAC history after also winning the title at Royal Wellington in New Zealand in 2017.

“It would be a dream come true if I can win the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship for a third time,” said Lin, a University of Florida junior who is no stranger to UAE conditions having finished tied for 30th in the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi Championship last year.

“To already be placed in the same bracket as Hideki Matsuyama as a two-time champion is surreal so to get one ahead would be amazing.”

“It is the biggest tournament in our part of the world and I know how much the players will be eager to get their hands on the trophy. It is an incredible opportunity to gain an invitation to the Masters and a place in The 150th Open at St Andrews next year. It will be a tough task but I will give it my best shot.”

MORE: Cambodian golfer represents big dreams of competitors in the Asia-Pacific Amateur

The Beijing left-hander won’t have it easy at The Creek.

Japan’s Keita Nakajima is the world amateur No.1 and has been an unstoppable force in his home country. In his last three starts, he has won the Japan Amateur Championship, followed by triumph at the Panasonic Open against a quality field of professionals on the Japan Golf Tour.

“I want to be with Hideki san when he defends his Masters title next year so this is my best chance to fulfil that dream.”
– Japan’s World No.1 Keita Nakajima

Nakajima, who came close to winning the AAC in 2018 in Singapore when he was a co-leader going into the final round but his fine 67 was upstaged by compatriot and best friend Takumi Kanaya (65), won the Mark McCormack Medal in August for being the top-ranked amateur in the world. He took over the number one position from Kanaya after the latter turned professional in 2020.

With most amateur tournaments in the Asia-Pacific region cancelled due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, the 21-year-old Nippon Sport Science University student has relied on playing against professionals in the last couple of years. Apart from his recent Panasonic Open win, he also finished second in the Token Homemate Cup in April (finishing one stroke behind Kanaya) and third in last year’s Mitsui Sumitomo Taiheiyo Masters.

Nakajima, who said he cried on the day Kanaya decided to turn professional, added: “I’m an amateur who is at college, so it is an honour that I get the chance to play against the professionals. I feel it provides me with a great challenge to compete against them and that it has helped me become a better player.

“Of course, my confidence is high because of the win but I know I will still have to play at my best in Dubai to be in contention on the final day. I want to be with Hideki san when he defends his Masters title next year so this is my best chance to fulfil that dream and get to play alongside him at Augusta National Golf Club,” added Nakajima who is already assured of a place at The Open next year and the U.S. Open as a result of winning the McCormack Medal.

UAE No.1 Ahmad Skaik has secured a spot in the field along with compatriots Khalid Yousuf, Khalifa Al Masaood and Rashid Al Emadi, while Arkesh Bhatia, another big name on the UAE scene, will be representing India.

[divider] [/divider]

What: 12th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (ACC)
Where: Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club
When: Nov. 3-6

The post Hideki’s Legacy inspires as 12th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship begins at Dubai Creek appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

In the run-up to this week’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, few members of the elite field will generate more attention. Which is understandable. Playing in his home town of Southport naturally makes Tommy Fleetwood a person of interest entering the year’s third men’s major. That he’ll arrive at the course many regard as the best in England amid a run of stunning form—having risen more than 170 places in the World Rankings since last autumn—makes his story all the more intriguing.

This year alone, as well as claiming the Abu Dhabi Championship and the recent Open de France, Fleetwood has posted a string of high finishes. Most notably, the former English Amateur champion was runner-up behind World No. 1 Dustin Johnson in the WGC-Mexico Championship, second again in China’s Shenzhen International and fourth in last month’s U.S. Open, where he played alongside eventual champion Brooks Koepka in the last round. In such company, a T-6 at last month’s BMW International in Germany seems merely routine.

All of which has come about in the wake of a return to his boyhood swing coach, Alan Thompson, after a switch in March 2015 to Pete Cowen, who works with, among others, current Open champion Henrik Stenson, proved unproductive.

“I played a few practice rounds with Henrik, and I wanted to hit it like him. So I asked Pete if he could help,” Fleetwood says. “We had success early on, but I struggled with one or two moves, which affected my confidence. For whatever reason, my body wouldn’t allow me to swing the way we wanted, and we couldn’t figure out the answer.

“I changed for the right reasons though. I wanted to be a world-class player, and I went to Pete because he is arguably the best coach in the world. It just didn’t work out, but I still gained a lot from the experience. Since I went back to Alan, we’ve been able to do stuff with my swing we couldn’t do before. I used to play with a draw, but my ball flight is a lot straighter now and my swing path a lot more neutral.”

That detour in the Fleetwood career path wasn’t his first. Nor his second. To get to this point, the 26-year-old former No. 1 amateur on the planet has had to overcome a handful of obstacles put in his way.

When I started playing well all I wanted to do was win. Which was a problem. When it became clear I wasn’t going to win, I would get fed up. I played poorly on a few Sundays, finishing 50th because I wasn’t interested in finishing 30th.

On the road to Birkdale, Fleetwood had to pass—literally and figuratively—Southport’s Municipal course. It measures only 6,253 yards and plays to a standard scratch of 69, and it’s where it all began for the now 14th-ranked player in the world. “There’s a hump in the first fairway, maybe 50 yards off the tee,” he says with a smile. “I couldn’t get over it for the longest time.”

He exaggerates. Having started his love affair with the game at age 6, Fleetwood was regularly shooting in the 80s just two years later, and giving his brother, Joe, himself a former professional, a run for his decade-older money. (“One of us was an accident—not sure which,” Tommy jokes). His first handicap was 27, but he was playing off a one-handicap as a 13-year-old and plus-one a year later.

“I was a big kid who could putt well,” he says. “And I had a naturally good swing, better than it is now.”

Fleetwood’s amateur days included playing for Great Britain & Ireland in the 2009 Walker Cup at Merion and a No. 1 world ranking. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

That may well be true. For long enough, Fleetwood’s rise through golf’s ranks was all but seamless. Runner-up in the British Amateur in 2008, a Walker Cup player for Great Britain & Ireland in 2009, second in a Challenge Tour event as an amateur in 2010 and No. 1 on the Challenge Tour money list in 2011, his gift for golf was obvious.

Then came 2012. Fleetwood arrived at the South African Open, his final event of the season, in 124th place on the Order of Merit. In other words, something special had to happen. And it did. Shooting a 69 in the last round, Fleetwood finished T-6 and hauled himself up a card-saving 14 places on the money list.

That week, however, was not the most important of that gloomy 2012 season, one on which he missed as many as 15 cuts.

“Everyone talks about South Africa, but for me it wasn’t the turning point of a very frustrating year,” Fleetwood says. “That came in Holland back in September. In the second round of the KLM Open, I got down in two shots from 160 yards on the 16th, then did the same from 115 yards at each of the last two holes. I made the cut on the number, then played really well on the weekend, finished T-17 and won €22,860. Without that, I would have lost my card.”

Perhaps more importantly, Fleetwood learned much about himself during those many weekends off.

“I spent a lot of time sulking,” he admits. “I wasn’t playing great. I just wasn’t ready. My short game was bad. It was the first time I had really lost form. And I didn’t know how to cope with it. So I would go home and sit in my chair and think about what I was doing wrong. I should have been out trying to fix those things. It was mostly short game. I was hitting it OK. But I had lost confidence and the ability to score. And it’s hard to get out of that rut. I would start with three birdies and still shoot two over. I couldn’t do anything right. And as you do when things are not going your way, I missed a bunch of cuts by a shot.”

Still, having glimpsed golf’s dark side for the first time, it didn’t take Fleetwood long to make the most of his narrow escape from a return to the Challenge Tour. His maiden European Tour victory came in August 2013, when he claimed the Johnnie Walker Classic at Gleneagles after a playoff with Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher and Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez. It was a huge boost.

Besides his two victories in 2017, Fleetwood has been in the hunt at several big tournaments, including last month’s U.S. Open where he played alongside winner Brooks Koepka and finished T-4. (Photo by Jamie Squire)

“Winning was a real breakthrough,” Fleetwood says. “Once I kept my card, that was a target. Every round I have three little targets. Maybe it is just ‘talk to myself properly’ or ‘stand up straight on the greens.’ One day I might say, ‘Don’t talk to anyone.’ On another I’ll be a lot chattier. Or I might say, ‘smile all the way round.’ Little things. But little things turn into bigger things.

“When I started playing well all I wanted to do was win. Which was a problem. When it became clear I wasn’t going to win, I would get fed up. I played poorly on a few Sundays, finishing 50th because I wasn’t interested in finishing 30th. But I’ve learned not to do that.

“It was such a relief to win. You tell yourself you can do it, but until you do you don’t know for sure. And I found out I can do it by doing what I do, not what others do. The pressure I felt trying to keep my card was actually far greater.”

These days, of course, Fleetwood has loftier goals. A Ryder Cup place in France next year is high on his priority list. But becoming the first Englishman in nearly half a century to lift the claret jug on home soil—Tony Jacklin at Royal Lytham in 1969 was last to do so—would represent the loftiest of them all.

Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

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