Abu Dhabi Open by Arena Archives - Golf Digest Middle East https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/tag/abu-dhabi-open-by-arena/ Golf Instruction, Equipment, Courses, Travel, News Mon, 12 Dec 2022 10:37:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.2 https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/gd-favicon.ico Abu Dhabi Open by Arena Archives - Golf Digest Middle East https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/tag/abu-dhabi-open-by-arena/ 32 32 MENA Tour breakthrough a “massive confidence boost” for Allan https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/mena-tour-breakthrough-a-massive-confidence-boost-for-allan/ https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/mena-tour-breakthrough-a-massive-confidence-boost-for-allan/#respond Thu, 10 Oct 2019 04:37:58 +0000 https://golfdigestme.com/?p=29749 James Allan started the week celebrating a significant milestone but the party was clearly only getting started.

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]]> ABU DHABI (Oct. 9) — New Abu Dhabi Open by Arena champion James Allan en-route to victory at Las Links on Wednesday. Photo: Joy Chakravarty/MENA Tour. 

By Kent Gray
James Allan started the week celebrating a significant milestone but the party was clearly only getting started.

Two days after marking his 25th birthday with a windswept 66 around Yas Links, the English lefty claimed his maiden MENA Tour title with a runaway five-stroke victory at the Abu Dhabi Open by Arena on Sunday.

As one former amateur prodigy celebrated his pro breakthrough, another in the making continued his rise as 15-year-old Josh Hill won his second amateur title in the past three MENA Tour starts.

But this was Allan’s day. Or more accurately his week as he bookended 66s with a second-round 67 for 17 under-par, 199 total to claim the $13,500 winner’s cheque.

James Allan (left) with Francisco De Lancastre David, manager of the three Troon International Abu Dhabi clubs including Yas Links.

“By far the best birthday week I have ever had,” the Chelmsford professional said afterwards. “I have worked very hard for this and I owe my success to many people who believed in me, including my coach Ben Barham at the Robert Rock Academy.

“This is a massive confidence boost for me. I have had a couple of good rounds, but I somehow could not maintain it over three or four rounds. This is my best scores for a 54-hole tournament and it now gives me the belief that I can shoot numbers like this.”

Allan won the MENA Tour’s amateur Order of Merit (OOM) titles in 2014 and 2015 but has struggled to get over the line since entering the pay for your mortgage ranks. Thankfully Wednesday’s final round was relatively stress-free as he overcame Englishmen Robbie Busher and Harry Ellis and Swede Niclas Weiland, the latter impressively on debut, who shared third on -12.

Allan made an eagle on the par-5 7th for the second successive day but a fluffed his lines with a bogey at the ninth after failing to get up and down from a handy lie at the front of the green. Turning one-under for his round, the bogey spurred Allan into action, four successive birdie from the 10th making the closing holes less stressful.

“That bogey on the 9th really annoyed me. But when I reached the 10th tee, I had calmed down and I told myself that I was playing good golf. I made a couple of good putts on the 10th and 11th, and once I reached 16-under par after 13 holes, I just needed to play smart and not make any mistakes.”

Hill closed with a fine 66 to finish tied sixth overall at nine-under-par 20. It was the Trump Dubai teen’s best finish in just his second season on the MENA Tour, bettering the T-9 at the Ghala Open earlier this year. Hill’s other amateur triumph was a shared title with Curtis Knipes at the Troon Series – Royal Golf Bahrain Open before the circuit’s summer hiatus earlier this year.

England’s Robin ‘Tiger’ Williams (67) and Jack Floydd (68) were the next best amateurs at Yas Links on five-under-par 211. Williams has soared 28 places in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) to a career-high 72nd placing (his previous best was 75th) and retains top spot in the Journey to Jordan OOM standings with 18,918 points ahead of Englishmen Floydd (16,720), Knipes (11,922) and Hill (6,212).

After finishing T-9th at Yas Links on -8, Dubai-based South African MG Keyser has extended his lead atop the pro OOM from $5,235 to $6818 over Daniel Gaunt after the Australian missed the cut. Keyser has season earnings of $41,114 while Allan has moved up to fourth in the standings with $25, 712.

The MENA Tour takes a week-long breather before resuming at Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting & Golf Club for The Al Ain Open by Arena from October 21-23.

Abu Dhabi Open by Arena – Selected FINAL SCORES
199 – James Allan (ENG) 66-67-66
204 – Robbie Busher (ENG) 70-69-65, Harry Ellis (ENG) 69-69-66, Niclas Weiland (SWE) 65-72-67
206 – Benjamin David (ENG) 70-67-69
207 – Josh Hill [Am-ENG] 69-72-66, Daniel Owen (ENG) 70-70-67, Clemens Prader (AUT)  71-68-68
208 – Tyler Hogarty (ENG) 72-69-67, MG Keyser (RSA) 68-70-70, Matt Killen (ENG) 68-67-73

 

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]]> https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/mena-tour-breakthrough-a-massive-confidence-boost-for-allan/feed/ 0 Consistent Keyser lurks as Swede enjoys dream debut and Allan the happiest of 25th birthdays https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/consistent-keyser-lurks-as-swede-enjoys-dream-debut-and-allan-the-happiest-of-25th-birthdays/ https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/consistent-keyser-lurks-as-swede-enjoys-dream-debut-and-allan-the-happiest-of-25th-birthdays/#respond Tue, 08 Oct 2019 03:51:24 +0000 https://golfdigestme.com/?p=29707 Consistency. It’s golf’s rarest commodity and MG Keyser seems to have unearthed a handy supply of the stuff just at the right time on the MENA Tour.

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]]> Photos: Joy Chakravarty/MENA Tour
MG Keyser in action on the opening day of the Abu Dhabi Open by Arena at Yas Links yesterday. 

By Kent Gray
Consistency. It’s golf’s rarest commodity and MG Keyser seems to have unearthed a handy supply of the stuff just at the right time on the MENA Tour.

With an utterly impressive seven-under 65 on his MENA Tour debut, Swede Niclas Weiland rightly stole the headlines on the opening day of the Abu Dhabi Open by Arena on Monday. There was also a birthday of all birthday’s 66 from England lefty James Allen who clearly won’t forget his 25th in a hurry, not to mention a trio of players – Mitchel Sarling (ENG), Alessandro Tadini (ITA) and Gabriel Axell (Swe) – on 67.

But lurking just three off the lead in a share of 6th place after an opening 68, Keyser is making all the right moves to protect his new lead atop the circuit’s season-long Journey to Jordan Order of Merit (OOM) race.

After winning twice last season – albeit 2017 – the Dubai-based South African collected his third MENA Tour by Arena title at the Troon Series Dubai Open at Dubai Hills in March. He then returned after the tour’s six-month summer hiatus with a tidy T-3 finish at last week’s Journey to Jordan-2 Championship to leapfrog two places – over now Challenge Tour focused Matthew Baldwin and Robin Roussel – to the summit of the OOM standings.

There’s still 36-holes to go this week and a long way yet before all the big European Tour invites are handed out to the professional Journey to Jordan champion at the end of the season come late November. But if Keyser can keep up his consistent run of scoring, it’s going to take something special to beat him.

The real beauty of his 68 on Monday was the fact he’s not overly enamoured with Kyle Phillips’ layout despite the Abu Dhabi course’s global respect. It was doubly impressive because he faced the full brunt of a windy day on the Arabian Gulf-fringed links.

MG Keyser

“I have never played well on this course. I tend to overthink here a bit, but it was so windy today that you just can’t do that,” Keyser revealed afterwards.

“I tried to play a little safe. And it also helped that we were in Ayla Golf Club last week, which was again very windy on all four days.”

Weiland, meanwhile, turned professional this year after finishing his college at Barry University in the US. The 24-year-old played a few events on the Nordic Golf League where his best finish was a T-6 in Landeryd Masters but when his mother took up a new job in Abu Dhabi recently, he made a beeline to the MENA Tour office.

On Monday, he made the most of his exemption, getting off to a hot start with three straight birdies and never let that momentum slip away. It even warranted a tweet from former Open champion and countryman Henrik Stenson.

“I played solid and made very few mistakes,” said Weiland.

“I made good putts on the first three holes. After that, I was able to recover well whenever I made any mistake. The conditions were pretty tough out there. The wind switched when we were on the back nine, so I think it was slightly tougher for us.”

James Allan (Photo: Joy Chakravarty/MENA Tour)

Allan, who qualified for the second stage of the European Tour Qualifying School last week, reached Abu Dhabi after a trek from Milan via London and was feeling the effects.

“I am very pleased with that,” the birthday boy said of his 66. “I started well with two birdies in the first two holes, but it was from the fourth hole to the 14th that we seemed to be playing continuously into the wind. I was feeling tired on the back nine, and that could be the reason why I made a bogey from the middle of the fairway on the 15th. But overall, I am chuffed with that round.

“I will spend the evening with some friends and celebrate, but I have a late tee time tomorrow, so I should be fresh. There will be no excuse about my round tomorrow.”

After missing the cut in Aqaba last week, Dubai-based 15-year-old Josh Hill finally found a little co-operation from his driver Monday en-route to 69 that sees him lead the amateur race by a shot from Englishman Jack Floydd.

Last week’s Journey To Jordan-2 champion Robin ‘Tiger’ Williams started his campaign with a 73.

 

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]]> https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/consistent-keyser-lurks-as-swede-enjoys-dream-debut-and-allan-the-happiest-of-25th-birthdays/feed/ 0 Red hot Robin Williams ready for test of ‘soft’ Yas Links https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/red-hot-robin-williams-ready-for-test-of-soft-yas-links/ https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/red-hot-robin-williams-ready-for-test-of-soft-yas-links/#respond Mon, 07 Oct 2019 02:54:46 +0000 https://golfdigestme.com/?p=29648 After winning his debut MENA Tour start by a record-equalling eight strokes last week, it’s hardly breaking news that  Robin ‘Tiger’ Williams has ridden into this week’s Abu Dhabi Open by Arena with oodles of confidence.

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]]> FILE:  Robin Williams of Team Europe tees off during the fourballs on day one of the 2018 Junior Ryder Cup at Disneyland Paris on September 24, 2018, in Paris, France. (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)

By Kent Gray
After winning his debut MENA Tour start by a record-equalling eight strokes last week, it’s hardly breaking news that  Robin ‘Tiger’ Williams has ridden into this week’s Abu Dhabi Open by Arena with oodles of confidence.

But surely Yas Links, one of the toughest tests in the Middle East and especially so when the wind puffs up off the Arabian Gulf, has given the 18-year-old English amateur pause for thought? Apparently not.

“I think the wind will play a very big factor, the same as in Jordan [but] the course is not necessarily a difficult links course in that it’s quite wide fairways, the greens are very big and undulating and it’s very soft,” Williams said.

RELATED: Arena become umbrella sponsor of MENA Tour

“You can land the ball right at the flag and the drives are not really rolling anywhere. So it plays a little differently as a links course but we are right next to the coast so the wind is going to play like a links course so …you’re going to have to control your ball flight.”

The field for this week’s $US75,000 event, which was scheduled to start at 7am today with Austria’s Karl Ableidinger having the honour on the 1st tee, can’t say they haven’t been warned.

It’s not like Williams doesn’t know links golf. After growing up in South Africa, he moved to Scotland when he was eight and joined Royal Aberdeen, as he revealed to MENA Tour media manager Joy Chakravarty in this interesting tweet about how he was given the middle name Tiger. The teen also reveals his one-on-one with Woods at last year’s Ryder Cup where he teed it up for the European Juniors. Check it out:

Just in case Williams does need some strategic advice before his 9am tee time in the company of Englishmen James Allan and Craig Hinton, he need only seek out Luke Joy who has the penultimate 12.30pm tee time.

The Englishman, a two-time winner on tour, knows the test of the Kyle Phillips layout better than most as a Yas Links-attached player.

After his Senior Open heroics at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, the performance of Steven Kelbrick will also be closely followed this week. The Trump Dubai amateur is off at 8.20am in the opening round of the 54-holer, 70 minutes after Journey to Jordan leader MG Keyser who will be hoping for benign early morning conditions in his 7.20am three-ball including amateur contender Curtis Knipes.

Steven Kelbrick made the cut at the Senior Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
Getty Images

Like Joy, Daniel Gaunt, second to Keyser in the OOM race and the tour’s new anti-plastic bottle poster boy, will face the afternoon conditions when he tees off at noon with Englishman Max Smith and Eliott Bradley.

After missing the cut at Ayla G.C. last week, 15-year-old Josh Hill will be hoping for better things this week. The Trump Dubai member certainly seemed to be swinging it well in practice, a day that looked super busy for his father Russell, a Studio City-based osteopath now helping out on tour. Make sure to scroll to the ‘injury’ shot in Russell Hill’s Instagram post…ooch! 

Zane Scotland, the tour’s most successful player and this month’s Golf Digest Middle East cover star, is out at 11.10am in the company of Americans Nicolas Wade and Ben Schlottman.

 

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