By Kent Gray
JB Hansen was playing to extend his season one final week but mostly he was playing for matters of the heart.

When the Dane won his maiden European Tour title at the Joburg Open a year ago, the world was in the midst of much stricter COVID-19 restrictions.

Mercifully, the $1.5 million AVIV Dubai Championship was played before fans on Fire and Hansen’s wife Elisabeth and children were on hand to see their 31-year-old husband and father triumph with a -23 aggregate.

A closing 68 got it done for Hansen by a stroke from Austrian Ryder Cupper Bernd Wiesberger and Italy’s Francesco Laporta.

Hansen needed a victory to secure his place in this week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship on the neighbouring Earth Course at JGE and has duly risen from 85th position to 43rd in the Race to Dubai rankings.

Teamwork ? @JoachimBHansen1 #AVIVDubaiChampionship pic.twitter.com/hgZQTCPfzL

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) November 14, 2021

He’s looking forward to one last push now the pressure if off but not before celebrating Denmark’s fourth win on tour this season after joining compatriots Rasmus Højgaard (Omega European Masters) Nicolai Højgaard (DS Automobiles Italian Open) and Jeff Winther (Mallorca Golf Open) in the winner’s circle.

“It means a lot, especially with family and friends here this time. There was no one there in Joburg,” said Hansen.

“When I saw Jeff Winther win in Mallorca, I was very jealous because he had the family and friends celebrating with him and I really wanted all of that so I’m really glad I get to experience that.”

Hansen opened the week with a 63 and never looked back. Just don’t be fooled by his outwardly calm demeanour.

“I’ve heard that before about me looking calm, but no way. I said to my caddie down the last Adam ‘I’m struggling here mate, we need to talk about something else’ because I was thinking too far ahead and that was hard.

“I didn’t expect it at all. I just wanted to have a nice week with the family with a good tournament and the lovely weather down here, it turns out with a good nine under start and stayed in contention all week and it’s nice to come out on top.

How it finished in Dubai ?#AVIVDubaiChampionship

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) November 14, 2021

“I spoke to my coach about it, when you don’t chase it or expect to win, you win. I think that’s what’s happened this week.

“I’m very proud of myself to get it done because I wasn’t playing great out there. The first two rounds were some of the best of my life. Yesterday wasn’t great, and I have really struggled to find the middle of the club on my woods. I didn’t drive it well, but my putter helped today, I putted a lot better than yesterday. That kept me in the game.”

Englishman Andy Sullivan produced a remarkable finish – picking up seven shots in his final six holes, including an eagle on the last – in a round of 65 to finish three back on 20 under par, which looked to have secured his spot in the all-important top 54 on the Race to Dubai and qualify for the DP World Tour Championship.

However, Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond also eagled the last for a round of 67 to join him on that mark, which meant Sullivan dropped to 55th position and missed out by one Race to Dubai point, and ultimately, by one place.

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By Kent Gray
Denmark’s Joachim B. Hansen is playing for his second European Tour title inside a year and to extend his season into the final week of the Race to Dubai.

Italy’s Francesco Laporta is already in the DP World Tour Championship but will tee it up in search of something even more precious, a maiden win.

France’s Antoine Rozner is likewise a lock for the season-ender next week and has a chance to pop over to Earth at Jumeirah Golf Estates after successfully defending the penultimate event of the year on Fire.

The final day of the AVIV Dubai Championship isn’t short of intriguing storylines, not with 13 players within five strokes of the -19 lead shared by Hansen and Laporta who will be joined in Sunday’s final threesome by Rozner who is just a shot adrift.

With six birdies and a bogey apiece, Hansen and Laporta both carded 67s on Saturday to go from one shot adrift to one short in front of overnight leader Rozner atop the leaderboard.

Finland’s Kalle Samooja is two shots back on -17 after a round of 68, with Rolex Series winners Min Woo Lee and Tommy Fleetwood sharing fifth position on 16 under par after rounds of 66 and 68 respectively. Lee posted six birdies and eagled the 13th hole to move into contention, while Fleetwood recovered from a two over par front nine with six birdies after the turn. Ryder Cuppers Martin Kaymer (65) and Bernd Wiesberger (68) share seventh place with Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond (63) on -15.

Hansen made par on the final hole after first finding the buggy track with his approach shot and then pitching into the greenside bunker. He managed to get up and down from there to stay on -19 and Laporta joined him with a birdie on the last.   

“It was very good from tee to green, the best I’ve ever played from tee to green,” Hansen said who is 85th in the current Race to Dubai rankings so needs to win or finish second to make the top-50 for next week’s DWTC.

“I missed a lot of good chances at the beginning and a few on the back nine. All in all five under is a good score but it could have been a lot better. The lie was alright with that third shot (at the last), but I got a bit too steep on it, but the fourth shot up to the pin was a nice one.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow, we’ll see how that’s going to go. Hopefully it will be another beautiful day and we’ll see what happens in the end. I just need to stay patient, I had a lot of chances out there today, so just stay patient and see what happens.”

Laporta is enjoying the tight fight.

“It’s obviously the third round, and we were all in contention so there was more pressure than the other two days, and it was more windy so it was the toughest day of the week,” the 31-year-old world No. 211 said.

“My game is pretty good actually. I didn’t hit the irons very solid like the other two days, so we’re going to work on that this afternoon on the range. But I’ll keep everything, my driver is in good shape and my putting is getting so I’ll try keep that going tomorrow.”

Rozner is happy to remain in the scrap after adding a 69 to his earlier rounds of 65-64.

“Today was tougher, definitely. I did not hit the ball as well as the other days. There were a few mistakes here and there and didn’t score on the easy holes. In the end it is not a disaster. It is three under and I am still in there in the mix and everything is up to tomorrow. I’m in there and that is what I wanted when I started this tournament and I have a chance.”

The post JB Hansen and Francesco Laporta lead as AVIV Dubai Championship set for tight Sunday finale appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Sometimes, a course just suits your eye. For Antoine Rozner, one such play thing is the Fire layout at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

The 28-year-old Parisian is making a decent fist of his AVIV Dubai Championship title defence after rounds of 65-64 to earn the halfway lead in the $1.5 million European Tour event. At -15, Rozner enjoys a one-stroke advantage over Italy’s Francesco Laporta, who also posted a bogey-free 64, and first-round leader Joachim B. Hansen of Denmark, who signed for a round of 67.

It also means the Frenchman is a whopping 40-under par through six circuits of Fire after he won last year’s Golf in Dubai Championship, his maiden European Tour title, with a -25 aggregate.

“My long game was perfect, I was striping it shot after shot.”– Antoine Rozner

“It was definitely one of my best ball-striking rounds out here between this year and last year,” said Rozner who closed with six birdies in the final eight holes of his second round.

“My long game was perfect, I was striping it shot after shot, I missed one green on 17 and that was the only hole I put myself in trouble but I got away with it with a good par. I’m just very pleased, it’s not that easy. You still have to play well, hit good shots, make some putts. I’m not the only one who’s playing well so you’ve got to keep grinding for the next two days.

After 36 holes in Dubai ?

Lowest cut of the season (-5)

#AVIVDubaiChampionship

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) November 12, 2021

The trick now, to Rozner’s way of thinking, is to keep chasing.  He’ll need to with Laporta and Hansen on his coattails, not to mention Finland’s Kalle Samooja who roared home in 29 strokes for a third-round 64 to lie solo fourth -13. Tommy Fleetwood is also lurking, overcoming an early bogey on the 2nd to fire a second successive 66 and join fellow Englishman Paul Waring in T-5 on -12.

“Stay aggressive is the mindset, you have o be aggressive over and over,” said Rozner.

“I did that really well last year, obviously I can use that experience from last year and that’s helping me. Last year I was so aggressive over four rounds and I think it’s paying off this week so if I keep doing what I’m doing over the next two days, hopefully there will be a good result in there.”

There will be plenty of support in the Fire galleries over the weekend for fan favourite Fleetwood who has a shot at his sixth European Tour win and third in the UAE after back-to-back Abu Dhabi HSBC Championships triumphs in 2017-18.

“It was a poor start. I missed a chance on the first and then missed a short putt. On such a low scoring course if you have a dry patch it feels so much worse,” Fleetwood said of his second round.

“I holed a putt on seven and played really, really well coming in and had plenty of chances. I felt like I did a good job of continuing to play and hitting good golf shots. I didn’t get panicked or frustrated that I hadn’t had the start I would like. And then it all came together, which doesn’t always happen. But it did and it was another good day.”

There was pride twinged with frustration for UAE No.1 Amhad Skaik whose wait to make a European Tour cut goes on. After an opening 68, the lefty had a great chance to build on the lowest score by an Emirati in European Tour play but a second round 73 saw the amateur miss the cut – set at -5 – by two strokes.

The post Antoine Rozner continues to play with Fire in spirited AVIV Dubai Championship defence appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Denmark’s Joachim B. Hansen earned the overnight lead, Dubai’s Ahmad Skaik the lasting admiration of a proud nation.

A nine-under 63 has “JB” Hansen two strokes clear of Englishman Andy Sullivan and Paul Waring, South African Dean Burmester and defending champion Antoine Rozner of France. Ryder Cupper Tommy Fleetwood is a further shot back on six under par but the main AVIV Dubai Championship headline, at least in the UAE, belonged to Skaik whose 68 was the lowest round on the European Tour by an Emirati golfer.

The lefty’s four-under circuit of Fire at Jumeirah Golf Estates easily eclipsed the one-under-par 71 carded by Emirati trailblazer Ahmed Al Musharrekh at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Championship.

“It’s hard to put it into words how it feels,” said Skaik who is battling almost head-to-toe niggles but is clearly better for his strong showing at last week’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club.

“I really could trust my game out there today which feels amazing, I think I hit 16 greens, so I felt in control of the ball.

“To see my Dad’s smile at the end there means everything. My goal coming into this week was to make the cut and that remains the same, I’ve made a good start, but I need to now keep my head down and do more of the same tomorrow.”

Hansen took full advantage of the favourable scoring conditions on Fire to post five birdies in six holes before the turn before adding four more on the way in.

The 31-year-old is out to add a second European Tour victory to his breakthrough Joburg Open win last year. He’ll need to win, or finish no worse than second, to advance from his current position of 85th in the Race to Dubai standings into next week’s season-ending top-50 DP World Tour Championship.

Getty Images JB Hansen.

“I loved it, no wind, perfect conditions and lovely to play in,’ said Hansen who has been in a solid run of form with four consecutive top 25 finishes.,

“I kept the ball in play, hit a lot of fairways in the first 14 holes but I holed the putts I needed, missed a few ones but you can’t hole them all.

“The greens are quite soft and they stop pretty quick when it’s not down grain so you’ve got a lot of opportunities when you’re hitting from fairway.”

All of the main first-round performers were rolled into the virtual media centre including Rozner who talked of cashing in on the “good vibes” of last year when he won with a -25 total.

But none of the interviewees was as illuminating as Waring who got to the crux of modern-day matters after explaining how he had his “ball under a lot of control.”

“… I’ll be honest with you, I struggled a lot mentally over the Covid period,” Waring offered.

“I think that’s been one of the major factors for me. With everything opening up a little more and having more freedom in our daily lives, I’ve definitely felt better for it. I started playing better around Wentworth [at the BMW PGA Championship in September] and I feel like I’ve been knocking on the door. Not fantastic results, but getting better.”

The post JB Hansen has the lead, Dubai’s Ahmad Skaik the main (local) headline after low scoring start to AVIV Dubai Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
On the subject of book-ending his season with Dubai wins, Paul Casey was hedging his bets. On the future of the European Tour, even though it won’t be known as such, the Englishman was unequivocal.

The 44-year-old world No.26 enjoys star billing at the penultimate event of this challenging Race to Dubai season alongside Tommy Fleetwood, 600-man Stephen Gallacher and defending champion Antoine Rozner.

After three weeks off, Casey feels “refreshed” for the $1.5 million AVIV Championship and would love to add a 16th European Tour victory at Jumeirah Golf Estates to his15th at the Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club in January.

RELATED: Stephen Gallacher happy to celebrate European Tour milestone in Dubai, the place that ‘put me on the map’

That said, as much as the Fire course has (finally) caught his eye in practice, Casey isn’t entirely sure it is a layout that suits his renowned ability to scrap when the going gets tough.

“I think if you look at stats I’m probably a guy who likes a seven, eight, nine under winning score, something that’s quite tough, where a really good round is something where you just break par. Those big, big birdie fests maybe not as much,” Casey said.

All of which is problematic when you consider Rozner won the inaugural Golf in Dubai Championship on Fire with a 25-under total last December. Still, Casey is hoping this week’s relatively unfamiliar surroundings will help spark a strong finish to 2021.

RELATED: European Tour to become DP World Tour from 2022 with record total prize fund in excess of $140m

“I like the Fire Course. For all the years I’ve been here I’ve walked right next to it and never paid any attention – it’s a very good golf course. Visually for me it’s very appealing, I played it well today in the pro-am, I’m looking forward to getting stuck in,” said Casey who is off at 7.40am in the first round alongside Fleetwood and Aussie Min Woo Lee.

“…Any time I turn up I’m turning up to try and give it my best and try and win the tournament. I’ve had one victory in Dubai earlier this year and I’d love to add another one to that.”

Casey also added his voice to a chorus of approval after the European Tour announced Tuesday that it will be rebadged to the DP World Tour from 2022 with 47 events in 27 countries, all with minimum prize funds of $2 million.

“It is exciting stuff,” Casey said.

“I was disappointed it wasn’t called a world tour about 20 years ago. I always thought we should be the world tour, we play pretty much everywhere.

“It’s about time so I congratulate DP World and the European Tour on this announcement. It benefits the players but it benefits everybody that is out here on Tour. It’s not just the players making money that trickles down into caddies and support staff and media and everybody – the whole family benefits from this so fantastic news.

“This is massive and I think it shows the strength, considering that technically we’re still in a pandemic as well, that shows the strength of the Tour, the strength of golf globally.

“There’s a positive trajectory in the environment that we’re currently in. Imagine if travel becomes easier and sporting events without restrictions become the norm again, the trajectory could be even steeper than we’ve currently got.”

But that is for next year and beyond. Right now, the focus is on the final fortnight of a long year. After the AVIV Championship, there is the $9 million DP World Tour Championship on neighbouring Earth at JGE before then a much-needed break.

Casey admits “the form coming in is probably not great” for his return to Dubai.

“You’ve only got so much fuel in the tank and maybe it’s just been slowly leaking out. I’ve given it so much this year and there’s been some great moments but there are the big things that take the energy out – Ryder Cup, Olympics and things like that and all the majors.

“Sometimes you just need to sort of hit the reset button, I think the three weeks off puts me into a good position going into these last two. I feel energised, I feel ready to go. I’ve just had three weeks off and this will be my final two events of this season so I’m really excited.”

The post Casey excited by strangely unfamiliar Fire and the Race to Dubai’s suddenly brighter future appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
After a year of unexpected twists and unavoidable turns, the 2021 Race to Dubai has finally reached its home straight. Just two tournaments remain following 38 events in 19 countries – a schedule complete with numerous cancellations and just about as many hastily-arranged replacements.  To understand what happens next – over the remaining 11 day, 144 hole sprint at Jumeirah Golf Estates and, even more crucially over the next season or three –  an abacus in the first instance and a crystal ball thereafter are required.

RELATED: European Tour to become DP World Tour from 2022 with record total prize fund in excess of $140m

Let’s dust off the virtual old-school calculator first. As the cliché has reminded us since 2009, the European Tour’s season-long marathon again ends here but, like last year, there’s a COVID-19 asterisk attached to the JGE finale.

Courtesy of yet another 11th-hour scheduling reshuffle that is South Africa’s loss and the UAE’s gain, we’re again being treated to a forerunner on Fire to the DP World Tour Championship (DPWTC), the traditional, season-deciding four-day circumnavigation of Earth.

The apparently stop-gap Golf in Dubai Championship of 2020 has become the evidently stop-gap AVIV Dubai Championship of 2021 and for that, and continually plugging pandemic-enforced gaps in their calendar, the European Tour deserve genuine kudos.

For the second successive year, Greg Norman’s Fire layout at JGE will play host to the penultimate event of the Race to Dubai season.

Still, a mildly irritating and historic truism about the $9 million DPWTC persists – exactly which of the season’s drawcard players will show up for the richest and supposedly most important event outside of the majors and WGCs. If the superstars do play, that they leave it so late to publicly confirm their appearance at JGE hardly encourages the pre-tournament PR upsurge envisaged when the Race to Dubai was imagined into life.

Traces of blame can be found clinging to pandemic-enforced travel challenges that have become a reoccurring headache for administrators and a chore for players at the end of a very long year, stretched in 2021 by the Olympics and Ryder Cup.

But the truth is more deep-rooted and now, in tandem with the challenging times in which we live, highlight a sobering series of question marks hanging over the future direction of the Old World circuit.

Money and the interconnected Race to Dubai points system, one contrived for the majors and WGC events that the superstars play and convoluted by the smaller purse events they don’t, is the obvious elephant in the room.

Outside of the majors and WGCs, Open champion and R2D leader Collin Morikawa played two regular season events: Dubai and Scotland for T-68 and T-71 finishes.

In this part of the world, it’s comfortable to simply get on with supporting and reporting the Race to Dubai, pontificating on the promised ‘last Sunday in the season’ excitement and enjoying the excellent social content that will inevitably be produced by the circuit’s media gurus.

Trained optimists – an army of marketers and PR peddlers among them – will trumpet another season going down to the wire. All’s well that ends well and all that. They’ll also point to the open courtship with the PGA Tour as a further reason not to fret the future, especially with the anticipation that this pesky plague can’t go on forever.

Others with an equal stake in the European Tour’s ability to thrive in an increasingly tough sports and business landscape are less optimistic. The natural pessimists are the owners of many of the unanswered questions too.

Like whether the powerbrokers at Wentworth lose sleep over the fact that their season-decider doesn’t guarantee the appearance of the tour’s biggest names, much less entice the game’s biggest headliners to be involved all year long? Unfair? Take the word of R2D title contender Billy Horschel: “I’ll be honest, at the beginning of the year, the Race to Dubai wasn’t one of my goals.” 

How about the growing number of $1.5 million or lower events spread throughout recent seasons. Is this a pandemic amplified blip or a pointer to a longer-term issue? Rolex Series events such as the Abu Dhabi Championship and now the Dubai Desert Classic notwithstanding, how can the European Tour compete with the riches, media focus and resulting fan engagement of the PGA Tour? And perhaps, if the whispers prove correct, the new-look Asia Tour and/or its offshoots in coming seasons?

That’s perhaps the most fascinating poser of all; what exactly do the European Tour make of the tug of war underway on the game’s traditional global boundaries, a scrap that has already seen the loss of the geographically and fiscally important Saudi, Malaysian and Hong Kong Opens to the Asian Tour? Isn’t the power-shift, with neon signs (and truckloads of Saudi Riyal) pointed towards South East Asia, troubling?

The caveat to all this, of course, is that COVID-19 continues to change everything on a cough here and a sneeze there. The much-heralded strategic alliance with the PGA Tour is also in its embryonic stages so perhaps a brighter path beyond 2022 will emerge, full of co-sanctioned events and a European Tour that essentially serves as a feeder to an upgraded PGA Tour incorporating tournaments like Dubai/Wentworth/Scotland/Ireland etc? Perhaps Keith Pelley and co have another master, Euro (and Middle East)-centric plan and will hold a ‘State of the Nation’ presser at JGE like the good old days to update the media, and by extension, the fans? It sure would be nice to have a clearer picture of the long-term strategy.

It ends here 

Back to the now teenage and troublesome Race to Dubai format. Concocting a playoff series that leads to a meaningful climax at the end of a season with so many moving parts was never going to be easy.

Nor was it ever going to be a first concept, all problems solved forever solution. The fact players who rarely grace “regular season” events can win the overall title must grate with the relative journeyman who battle to pay the mortgage and compile enough points to crack the next level as a consequence. Sure, players that repeatedly perform at the elite events need to be proportionally rewarded but it is also a self-perpetuating scenario of the rich getting richer. In Europe, the fear is that it becomes a black hole for some very tidy players as the best increasingly chase the big money in the US, and perhaps soon Asia. That fans want to see the best competing together week-in and week-out is indisputable and that only threatens to hasten the vacuum of top-notch players and sponsorship opportunities. All the spin and cracking social media in the world can’t camouflage your event’s strength of field rating and the conspicuous lack of headliners.

Of the top three in the R2D standings, third-placed reigning U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm has played the most regular season events; the Scottish Open (7th), Open de España (T-17) and Andalucia Masters (MC).

In the European Tour’s defence, the FedEx Cup playoff series, where the leaders start the deciding PGA Tour Championship with a descending stroke advantage over their rivals, is not perfect. But at least you now know the winner of their Tour Championship is the champion of the entire season.  

European fans get nuance – the fact that the DPWTC winner isn’t necessarily the Race to Dubai champion. Still, how many times have we seen the cameras zoom in on finishers in the scorers’ hut at JGE munching on fingernails, hoping the final few decimal points fall their way as the late finishers negotiate Earth’s closing holes. If they can’t easily crunch the numbers when it is their day job, what chance the fans? It’s either unpredictable, thrilling theatre or just plain confusing. Perhaps both.

It seems the current Race to Dubai format, if not entirely broken, needs seriously tinkering, an overhaul only triggered by a massive cash injection. Or are we stuck with the status quo until the PGA Tour partnership truly takes hold? Fans await the blueprint with baited breath.

In the meantime, what will the 13th edition of the DPWTC guarantee? For starters, recent history suggests that the eventual winner of the AVIV Championship is unlikely to be one of the serious contenders for the Race to Dubai title as the point leaders remain on ice until the final 72 holes of the season.

Presuming (and hoping) most of the Race to Dubai top-10 touch down at DXB, the key plot will be whether defending Open champion Collin Morikawa or second-placed Billy Horschel can become the first American winner of the Harry Vardon Trophy, doing what Patrick Reed has narrowly been unable to achieve in recent seasons. Or will Jon Rahm embellish his standing as world No.1 by becoming European No.1 for a third time in five years?

Perhaps reigning Abu Dhabi champion Tyrrell Hatton can finish the calendar year like he started it – with victory in the UAE – and snare enough of the 12,000 R2D points on offer at the DPWTC to pip the Americans and Rahm at the tape? Will Hatton and Matthew Fitzpatrick, fourth and fifth in the standings respectively as we went to press, tee it up in the AVIV Dubai Championship in the hope of making the DPWTC finale more than a three-horse race? 

Billy Horschel is second in the R2D standings courtesy of winning the flagship BMW PGA Championship and the WGC Match-Play. He also teed it up in the Scottish and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship this season.

Will Victor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre and Rory McIlroy (who confirmed he was Dubai-bound, not via official channels, but at the recent U.S. F1 Grand Prix of all places) play one or both events despite having no chance of finishing top of the season standings? So many potentially interesting permutations, so many unknowns.   

All is well that ends well but how much better could the season finale be with more certainty. Sadly this isn’t a perfect world because of another C word, the one that still has us social distancing. But the pandemic isn’t the only curve ball in the European Tour’s court as we draw the curtain on 2021. 

What happens next is not only fascinating but potentially (and literally) game-changing too, for the European Tour and the global game. 

The immediate race may end at JGE but the decision-makers at Wentworth are on a never ending treadmill, one seemingly getting faster and faster by minute. The hope is that everyone else associated with the circuit, all those with livelihoods that swing on missed or made 10-footers even if they aren’t actually holding the putter, can cling on until the new norm is finally established.

The post What happens behind the scenes at JGE over the next fortnight is arguably more important than the action inside the ropes appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

In the November edition of Golf Digest Middle East, we preview the European Tour’s season-ending Dubai doubleheader and ask what happens next for the Old World circuit after the seemingly stop-gap AVIV Dubai Championship and the traditional DP World Tour Championship climax. Especially now Greg Norman’s ambitious global plans with Asian Tour links have officially emerged.

In addition to the excitement and question marks at Jumeirah Golf Estates, we meet Claude Harmon III at The Els Club, Dubai to understand the takeaway move that makes Billy Horschel not only a leading R2D contender but one of the best ball strikers in the modern game.

Emily Kristine Pedersen helps us preview Saudi’s LET doubleheader and who better; the great Dane scooped all the silverware available in King Abdullah Economic City last year.

Join us at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club and Abu Dhabi Golf Club to preview this month’s Asia Pacific Amateur Championship and the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific respectively.

Conquer the rough with Joaquin Neimann, find out if you have been using the wrong shaft (and how to find the right one) for your game and how technology at Dubai Creek’s Peter Cowen Academy can rid your game of those frustrating little fats and thins around the green.

All this and much more in the Nov. 2021 edition of Golf Digest Middle East.

The issue is again free to our loyal audience. You can scroll through the ISSUU link provided or download the bumper November 2021 issue FREE to your favourite device for later. Alternatively, pick up a copy at your favourite club. Whatever option you take, we hope you enjoy the read.

The post Get the November 2021 issue of Golf Digest Middle East FREE today! appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By GolfDigestme.com
Tickets to the penultimate event of the 2021 Race to Dubai season have been released by the European Tour.

Free general admission tickets to the US$1.5 million AVIV Dubai Championship, to be staged on the Fire course at Jumeirah Golf Estates from November 11-14, were released on Wednesday. Pre-registration is required and can be accessed here. 

The newly named AVIV Dubai Championship precedes the final Rolex Series event of 2021, the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, which will bring the curtain down on this year’s Race to Dubai on the neighbouring Earth course.

“We’re thrilled to offer a second event in Dubai that is free for spectators to enjoy and take in the world-class golf,” said Tom Phillips, European Tour Head of Middle East. “We have two incredible weeks at Jumeriah Golf Estates with golfers vying to make it to the season-ending DP World Tour Championship and ultimately be named European Number One.”

The European Tour has two remaining stops in Spain and Portugal before the tour reaches Dubai for a US$10.5 million double-header.

The post Pre-registration for (free) Aviv Dubai Championship tickets opens appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The European Tour season will again climax with a Dubai double-header as the Emirate increasingly becomes a safe COVID-19 bolthole for the professional and amateur game.

The AVIV Dubai Championship was announced as the Race to Dubai’s penultimate 2021 event on Tuesday. Scheduled for Nov. 11-14 on the Fire course at Jumeirah Golf Estates, the US$1.5 million event is a direct replacement for the Golf in Dubai Championship which was supposedly a stop-gap measure when the pandemic decimated last season’s schedule.

It will be played the week before the season-deciding DP World Tour Championship on Earth and replaces the cancelled Nedbank Golf Challenge Hosted by Gary Player on an ever-moving European Tour calendar. The South African event will now return for its 40th anniversary in 2022.

Dubai Golf has become something of an 11th-hour saviour for the game as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc around the globe.

In addition to the Race to Dubai double-header, another of Dubai Golf’s properties, Dubai Creek & Golf Club, has stepped in to host the 12th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) from November 3-6 after it was originally scheduled for Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore this month.

Abu Dhabi Golf Club, meanwhile, will host the 3rd Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) championship. The event, to be staged from November 10-13, was originally scheduled for Siam Country Club in Pattaya, Thailand. With JGE set to host the World Amateur Teams Championships in 2023 with the 32nd Eisenhower Trophy (men) and 31st Espirito Santo Trophy (women) to be played on JGE’s Fire course, the UAE will be the epicentre of world amateur golf for two years.

The AVIV Dubai Championship-DPWTC double-header forms a new-look end to the European Tour’s 2021 season following the recent additions of the Mallorca Golf Open (October 21-24) and Portugal Masters (November 4-7). Players in those two events and the AVIV Dubai Championship will be aiming to secure their spot in the US$9 million DP World Tour Championship which will comprise the leading 50 available players on the Race to Dubai.

Frenchman Antoine Rozner (pictured below) won the Golf in Dubai Championship – by two strokes from compatriot Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Italian Francesco Laporta and English pair Andy Sullivan and Matt Wallace – last December.

Antoine Rozner

“Last year’s tournament on the Fire course, created to complete our 2020 schedule, was a great success and we are delighted to bring the AVIV Dubai Championship to our schedule as the final piece in our jigsaw this season,” said European Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley.

“It means we will have two strong ‘Swings’ to end our 2021 campaign – the Iberian Swing in Spain and Portugal and now this Dubai double-header at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

“Once again, I would like to thank the leaders of Dubai, DP World, AVIV Clinics and Jumeirah Golf Estates for helping us to play this event and we look forward to a terrific fortnight as we conclude another Race to Dubai on the Fire and Earth courses.”

AVIV Clinics, the healthcare partner of DP World, provides unique, personalised medical programmes to enhance the ageing process by improving cognitive and physical performance in healthy ageing adults.

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