Click here to take the 2017 Golf Digest Middle East Reader Survey here and win BIG!

All completed entries received before next Thursday will go in the draw to win a spot in the Pro-Am ahead of the $3 million European Tour event as well as a hospitality pass for two people to the Sunday of the January 18-21 tournament.

It means you could very well tee it up with the likes of world No.1 Dustin Johnson, defending champion and newly crowned Race to Dubai winner Tommy Fleetwood and former European No.1s Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose. In the worst case, you’ll have a front-row seat to witness the big names as well as  return of two-time Falcon Trophy winner Paul Casey and the Middle East debut of Johnson’s U.S. Ryder Cup team-mate Matt Kuchar.

Related: World No.1 Johnson headlines ‘Magnificent Seven’ for 13th Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship

The latest winners in our 100k Reader Survey giveaway are (each win a complimentary fourball at the club mentioned in brackets):

RAJA SOMASUNDARAM (Abu Dhabi Golf Club)
ANIL CUTINHA (Abu Dhabi City Golf Club)
GUY BAYLEY (The Track, Meydan Golf)
EUAN GLEN (Trump International Golf Club, Dubai)

There’s still oodles of great prizes to be won – including Pro-Am spots and hospitality passes to the Omega Dubai Desert and Dubai Ladies Classics, fourball vouchers to leading UAE courses and a 10k AED Callaway voucher – so be sure to enter today. We’ll be announcing winners every Thursday.

Entries close December 31, 2017 but enter today to increase your chances of winning.

The post WIN a spot in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship Pro-Am + hospitality passes appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

To celebrate Golf Digest Middle East’s 100th issue, we’re lined up a AED 100,000 giveaway with some priceless prizes to thank you for your loyal support of the region’s No.1 golf title, in print and online. How about Pro-Am spots and hospitality packages to Abu Dhabi and Dubai’s four European and Ladies European Tour events, or a 10k gift voucher from Callaway?

To be eligible, simply complete our 2017 Reader Survey to help us refine and deliver even more of the content you love to read, watch, engage with and share.

Take the 2017 Golf Digest Middle East Reader Survey here and win BIG! 

The survey will take no more than 7 minutes to complete and to show our appreciation of your precious time, all completed surveys will be entered into the draw for the following prizes:

The post AED 100k GIVEAWAY! appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

[gravityform id=”12″ title=”false” description=”false”]

The post Competition: Win golf and dinner at Abu Dhabi City Golf Club appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Looking for more driving distance? My ball sleeve tip will provide it
By David Taylor

Our desire to hit the driver as far as possible is often counterproductive. Most golfers I teach have a tendency to make a big shoulder turn and then launch into the downswing with maximum effort. The upper body gets ahead of the ball, resulting in two things: shoulders that are far too open at impact and a steeply descending blow to the ball, which decreases loft.

The tell-tale shot patterns for this move are low pulls to the left, or by way of compensation, an open clubface at impact that results in the weak slice shot that starts left and curves dramatically right. Here’s how to fix it using the following drill.

You’ll have read this before but set-up is key. We need to get the ball forward in our stance to allow us to strike it on the upswing. Conversely, we need to feel that our body is behind the ball, with the spine tilting slightly to the right. By doing this, you’re pre-setting the angles that form a powerful impact position.

An empty ball sleeve is all you need for this range drill.

If you watch all the top players on tour, you’ll notice that with a driver they aggressively unwind with the lower body, while making sure their upper body stays behind the ball. It’s important to remember that weight shift doesn’t mean moving everything laterally towards the target. To work on your driver downswing, take an empty golf ball sleeve and lie it flat on the ground about 9-12 inches away from your tee. Quite simply, you want to make sure that the club travels up and over the empty sleeve without touching it as you swing through. Don’t worry too much about the downswing; just keep that goal as your sole focus and you’ll find that instinctively you’ll start to hit up on the ball and watch your carry distance increase.

David Taylor is a PGA Teaching Professional at Abu Dhabi City Golf Club. For more information visit adcitygolf.com or call +971 2 445 9600

Photograph by Kristina Nabieva

The post The drill you can practice to launch your drives higher and farther appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.