by Cennydd Mills
The putter is the most used club in the bag and yet it’s the one that you probably practice with the least. Think about that for a minute.

The key to eliminating those dreaded card and confidence wrecking three putts is to get the pace of your lag putts right. It’s also essential to be good at holing out the tricky shorter putts. In order to practice both elements, I use a simple putting game called “Lag and Drag”.

You simply do what it says on the box: lag your first putt as close as possible to the hole, obviously trying to hole it, and then instead of putting it in from the spot where it finishes, you drag the ball back a putter length. This means you’re always left a testing putt to improve your hole-out ability.

Try playing 9 holes on the putting green using this game, keeping count so you have a target score next time. Trust me, when you get out on the course, putting will feel much easier.

Those pesky short putts are a real drag when you miss them. So drag your lagged putt back a putter length and learn to knock them in with confidence. You should be aiming to hole your lag putt but even if it settles on the lip of the cup, drag it back. Your scorecard will thank you.

The post VIDEO: Lag and drag appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The Emirates Golf Club pro edged Mills with a par in extra time on the 1st hole at Arabian Ranches after matching the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club teaching pro and serial UAE PGA Tour winner’s four-under-par 68.

“I’m delighted to pick up my first win on the UAE PGA Order of Merit, its been a long time coming and I’m looking forward to having a run at the Dubai Golf Trophy team this season [now],” said Craddock who is up to 13th on the order of merit.

Craddock rode a hot putter at Ranches, rolling in three successive birdies from the 8th before picking up further gains on the 13th  and 15th holes in regulation. Mills’ Creek colleague Joe Way was third with a 70, a shot clear of Dubai Golf Trophy captain Ryan Smith (The Montgomerie) and host club head pro Malcolm Young who shared fourth.

Al Zorah’s Stefan Wears Taylor, a two-time winner already this season, finished T-6 to extend his lead atop the OOM standings from Mike Bolt (Trump), Smith, Joe Way (Dubai Creek) and Welshman Mills whose OOM title defence is off to a good start despite the playoff disappointment.

Trump International Golf Club Dubai hosts the next event on December 4.

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By Kent Gray
Joe Way has holed a slippery downhill chip for birdie on his final hole to earn a share of the professional spoils at the Dubai Creek UAE PGA Pro-Am.

The 24-year-old Londoner found the cup with his 68th and final shot of the day from beyond the green on the tough par 4 second hole (he had started on the third in the shot-gun format) to tie fellow Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club teaching pro and serial UAE PGA Tour winner Cennydd Mills.

Way, who has graduated to the academy teaching team after joining the Creek 18 months ago in a operations role, started Monday’s tournament birdie-birdie and added further gains on the 13th and 2nd to buff over his only dropped shot on the par 5 3rd.

Mills, the reigning UAE PGA order-of-merit champion, went one better than his runner-up finish at the Al Hamra European Challenge Tour qualifier last week with a three-under card that also included four birdies and a solitary dropped shot at the par 3 8th.

Related: Montgomerie pro David Laing earns Al Hamra return for dream European Challenge Tour start

Meanwhile, Emirates Golf Club professional Dong Lee led his team of Hyo Choong Kim, Kyung Soon Kang and Jung Rye Kim to the Pro-Am title with a -15 total of 127. The best two of four scores counted on each hole and the Emirates GC team’s total included a sizzling 13 under run on the back nine.

The winning team with UAE PGA CEO Luke Plumb (left).

Stefan Wears-Taylor (Al Zorah GC) teamed with Geoff Oswald, Adrian Valvona and John Fahy on to claim second place in the teams event with a -14 aggregate of 128 while Abu Dhabi GC pro Callum Nicoll guided Stathis Stathis and Gurbax and Sandeep Singh to third, a shot further back.

Related: Al Zorah’s Wears-Taylor captures fifth title in fast start to UAE PGA season

The UAE PGA Tour’s next stop is the Al Ain PGA Open on Oct. 30.

Gurbax Singh lets one rip on the 1st tee at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club.

The post What a Way to finish the Dubai Creek UAE PGA Pro-Am appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Dubai-based Scottish teaching professional David Laing captured his maiden UAE PGA Tour title on Tuesday and couldn’t have timed the feat any better.

With a three-under 69 at Al Hamra G.C., the Address Montgomerie Dubai academy instructor scored himself a start in the European Challenge Tour’s penultimate event of 2017, the Ras Al Khaimah 2017 Golf Challenge from Oct. 25-28.

Related: Muscat event added to 2018 European Tour schedule as Desert Swing split in two

Laing won the dual UAE PGA Order-of-Merit (OOM) event-RAK Golf Challenge qualifier by two strokes from Jumeirah Golf Estates’ (JGE) Gavin Sutherland, Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Cennydd Mills and Mikeal Gartner (CV Sports Group) who shared second place with 71s.

Mills earned the RAK Golf Challenge spot last year and went on to finish 100th in the 105-strong field with rounds of 77-74. Englishman Jordan Smith was eventually crowned RAK champion to seal the Challenge Tour OOM title and has gone on to win his maiden European Tour title, the Porche European Open in July, to be a lock for next month’s Race to Dubai decider, the DP World Tour Championship at JGE.

Related: Jordan Smith tries his hand at ‘PaddleGolf’ ahead of 2017 RAK Golf Challenge

Laing, who hails from Craigielaw Golf Club, one of a collection of gems on Scotland’s “Golf Coast” of East Lothian, will be hoping to better Mills’ effort by making the cut at Al Hamra later this month.

Before then he has the UAE PGA Tour’s next event to look forward to, the Dubai Creek UAE PGA Pro-Am next Monday. Amateurs have until tomorrow to enter the tour’s answer to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Related: It’s Dubai’s answer to the Alfred Dunhill Links and you can play!

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Amateurs have just four days left to enter the UAE PGA Pro-Am, again being hosted by Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club on Monday, October 16.

Click here to play the UAE PGA Pro-Am – Entries close Oct. 12

Admittedly, you won’t get the chance to tee it up with the likes of Rory McIlroy or Tyrrell Hatton who repeated as Dunhill Links champion at the home of golf on Sunday.

RELATED: Ross Fisher fires a course record 61 on the old course at St. Andrews

But UAE PGA chief Steven Munro promises amateurs a fun afternoon at The Creek – and maybe a tip or two to help your game from the region’s leading teaching professionals.

The UAE Pro-Am is a 4-person team strokeplay event where the best two scores count on each hole. Amateurs compete with full course handicap allowance (Maximum course handicap 28).

“The Creek always put on an excellent event for the UAE PGA Pro-am and it is always popular with pros and amateurs alike,” said Munro.

”As professionals we really enjoy getting our friends and members together to make up Pro-Am teams and it is a break from the normal Order-of-Merit events played as individuals. This event is still an OOM event for us, but with the added fun of playing it in a pro-am format.”

Entries fees are:
Dubai Creek Member – AED 250
Emirates Golf Club Member – AED 350
EGF Member – AED 550
Individual non-member – AED 650

The fee includes buffet dinner after play, complimentary use of DCGYC’s swimming pool and gym facilities on the morning of the event. To register and for more information please contact Creek Golf Office on +971 4 295 6000 or cgolfoffice@dubaigolf.com 

Meanwhile, the second event of the 2017-18 UAE PGA Tour season will be held at Al Hamra on Tuesday and doubles as a qualifier for the European Challenge Tour’s penultimate event, the Oct.25-28 Ras Al Khaimah 2017 Golf Challenge.

Related: European Tour hopeful Joel Sjöholm determined to let his game do the talking in RAK and Muscat

“The winner qualifies for the RAK challenge tour event, in which [reigning UAE PGA champion and DCGYC teaching pro} Cennydd Mills played last year. It’s a great opportunity for us to challenge the best up and coming golfers from Europe’s feeder tour,” said Munro.

Related: Meet UAE PGA champion Cennydd Mills

The post It’s Dubai’s answer to <br> the Alfred Dunhill Links <br> Championship and you can play! appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

As well as the chance to win some amazing prizes, we’ve marked the milestone by taking a contemporary spin on many of the features that appeared in our launch issue back in November 2008.

Related: Take our 2017 Reader Survey and win BIG!

The most obvious replication starts right up front where Dubai amateur sensation Rayhan Thomas steps out of the shadows of U.S. singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake to deservedly earn his second Golf Digest ME cover within a year.

The 17-year-old Indian, now up to a career-high 23rd place in the latest Amateur World Golf Rankings (WAGR), also stars in our bumper 30-page “9 for 9” feature which celebrates nine pivotal contributions to the local game during the nine years we’ve been in print.

Inside, we explore what’s next for Thomas, both from a swing and career progression standpoint, while reflecting on his world record-tying birdie blitz during last month’s MENA Tour event at Dubai Creek and his unforgettable Jnr Presidents Cup debut.

Timberlake might have taken the most prominent piece of real estate in our first issue but the key story inside was the impending launch of the Race to Dubai. Ninety nine issues later we sit down for a fascinating one-on-one with a needle-shifting powerbroker from the first issue. The chat with David Spencer is as illuminating as those purple socks he rocked in the subsequent photoshoot.

We’ve also given Thomas’ coach, Justin Parsons, the full treatment. The Northern Irishman is Dubai’s coach to the stars – and not all of them golfers with some neat pictures of cricket demigod Sachin Tendulkar and Hollywood A-lister Will Smith included.

Former Open champion Darren Clarke makes a plea for greater support of the MENA Tour and we meet the character behind the kandura that is Mohamed Juma Buamaim. You also won’t want to miss the fascinating interview with Peter Harradine as the always outspoken Dubai-based Swiss architect opens up on the curse of the contemporary “Championship course” designs.

One of our favourite reflections is a before and after equipment test with Jumeriah Golf Estates 3.8-handicapper Philip Sharpe. We won’t give too much away but you won’t believe the results the Cobra Golf tragic achieved when we got him on the X-Golf simulator at eGolf Megastore.

With a swing tip from UAE PGA champion Cennydd Mills and previews ahead of the Ras Al Khaimah 2017 Golf Challenge and European Challenge Tour’s season-deciding NBO Golf Classic Grand Fina in Muscat, plus the LET’s Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open at Saadiyat Beach, you’ll go a long way to find more in-depth local coverage.

Throw in tips from Butch and Claude Harmon, tuition features penned by newly crowned PGA Tour Player-of-the-Year Justin Thomas and world No. 5 Jon Rahm and an amazing “Shots I can’t explain” piece from Jack Nicklaus, and our 100th issue is, well, one in a hundred.

Grab your copy today and get winning!

The post Happy Anniversary to us! <br> appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

While the MENA Tour is primarily made up of fledgling young touring professionals and promising amateurs aspiring to a career in the paid ranks, the developmental circuit also offers a start to one teaching pro from the host club at each stop throughout the season.

As the reigning UAE PGA champion, Mills justifiably got the nod from his employers at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club and repaid them in kind with a two-under 69 on Monday to do the region’s teaching fraternity proud. His round included two birdies, as many bogeys and a rare eagle two on the 11th courtesy of a holed lob wedge.

Related: Meet UAE PGA champion Cen Mills

But after impressing a small gallery that included (for a few holes at least) the club’s Director of Golf Operations, Stephen Hubner, and lauded superintendent Matthew Perry, it was back to reality. Mills was needed to help run a clinic for members featuring the tour’s patron Darren Clarke and the tournament’s defending champion, home club hero Rayhan Thomas. There’s no rest for the wickedly good teaching pro, it seems.

Darren Clarke and Rayhan Thomas with lucky DCGYC juniors at Monday’s MENA Tour clinic.

For the record, Mills is only a shot shy of Clarke and a shot better than Thomas heading into Tuesday’s second round.

“I’m happy with a round under par after a break in any competitive play since [the UAE PGA Tour] April,” said the Welshman afterwards.

“Anything again in the red tomorrow would be a great result and it would be nice to play the last round and have a chance of a decent finish.”

Mills will start moving day eight shots behind pace-setter MG Keyser after the Dubai-based South African’s course record 61.

Related: Keyser On Fire With Creek Course Record As MENA Tour Storylines abound

As a home course-pro, there was perhaps no one better placed to put Keyser’s round into context even if Clarke previously jointly held the record and Thomas has likely looped the course more than anyone in the field.

“The 61 today was a great score. The course is in fantastic condition so if you’re on your game then you can shoot a number. The greens are rolling pure and at a nice pace.

“Still, the back nine of 28 is very impressive. That’s a very good eagle on 13 and a strong birdie on 18 to close out the round.”

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Check out the latest tip from Mills who is a Golf Digest Middle East teaching editor here:

The post Mills does UAE PGA brethren proud with opening 69 at Dubai Creek Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Cennydd Mills may carry the business card of a teaching professional nowadays rather than the touring pro equivalent he once coveted but he’s more than happy with his lot at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club.

And why not? Home will always be the Glamorgan township of Llantrisant (pop. 15,000), a good 20 minute drive west of the Welsh capital Cardiff, but what’s not to love about a job in year-round desert sunshine, the warmth of club members just as happy to escape chillier climes and an office manicured to tour standard?

“The Creek for me, it’s the best members club in the UAE and the best place to work at because everybody gets on. As far as facilities and climate, it’s just perfect,” said Mills, 35 this month, says.  “It’s just a nice environment to work in.”

As happy as his two years in Dubai have been, don’t confuse professional contentment with any dimming of the competitive fire that earned the former Welsh international the scalps of Shane Lowry, Ross Fisher and Gary Wolsterholme during Home Internationals duty in the early to mid 2000s.

Put a scorecard in his back pocket and you can almost guarantee the former European Challenge and EuroPro Tour player will split more fairways than not and rarely ruin a score with poor decision-making.

Five victories en-route to the 2016-17 UAE PGA order-of-merit (OOM) title are proof of just that with winning scores of 71-68-71-68 and 70 at Al Hamra, Al Badia, The Faldo, Sharjah and Tower Links illuminating his ability.

Still, he was made to sweat on the OOM win. Back in the U.K. for his brother Owain’s stag-do and wedding, Mills could have been piped to the title by Steven Munro had the UAE PGA chief finished fourth or better in decisive UAE PGA Championship. But after a solid start at Al Zorah in the season-finale, Munro faded to a share of 6th and Mills had redemption for narrowly missing out on the crown to Callum Nicoll (ADGC) the previous season.

“Teaching is my main goal now but I still enjoy competing. I don’t think I’ll ever stop playing tournaments because I enjoy it and I think it’s good from a coaching perspective to stay in touch with the game, to stay competitive.

“Even if I’m going for a [causal] knock I’m keeping count of what I am to par. I think that’s just always the competitive nature that I’ve had.

“There’s a good few guys [teaching pros] that can play out here so it was really satisfying to win it because it’s always nice to be OOM champion of your PGA. It’s something I’m proud of. “

Mills will defend the title over winter but not before teeing it up in this week’s Dubai Creek Open. As the world’s 50th ranked amateur, the club’s favourite son and the event’s defending champion, Rayhan Thomas will have his name up in lights at the September 11-13 MENA Tour event. But Mills is sure of strong support from Creek members, many his day-to-day clients.

Related content: Thomas a “very special talent” but ease up on the pressure, says Darren Clarke

“The last time I played MENA Tour was 2014 and the last event I played I finished second [to Moroccan Ahmed Marjan at the RAK Classic] so if I can try and get a bit of practice in and sharpen up the game a bit…,” said Mills before reining in the expectations by saying he would just look to enjoy the experience.

After the competitive scratch is itched, Mills (in the fourth group out at 7.30am on Monday) will be back on the range honing the amateur swings like he once did for former Ryder Cupper Phillip Price and Rhys Davies who earned his European Tour card back under the Welshman’s tutelage. So how about a top tip for free?

“Most amateurs, you give them drills to work on and then what you see them doing it going straight to the range and going into what I like to call machine gun mode and just rattling off shot after shot. It goes back to the old saying, practice makes permanent in golf, not perfect. I’d rather see them hit 20 balls with real purpose, practicing moves, rather than rattling off 80 balls without thinking about it reconfirming old habits.”

Related content: Clarke hopes his golf will do the talking but ready to share a good yarn either way

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Making the most of his home club knowledge and some sublime ball striking on the Ajman layout’s par 5s, Wears-Taylor added a three-under 69 to his opening 70 to finish the UAE PGA Championship on five-under 139, three shots clear of Arabian Ranches’ Malcolm Young.

Tom Buchanan (Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting & Golf Club) produced a closing 71, one of just four sub-par rounds (from a possible 46) over the two days, to finish solo third on 146.

Defending UAE PGA champion Steven Munro needed to finish fourth to overhaul Mills (Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club) in the order of merit race where a player’s top-10 results across the season counted towards the final points standings. He was well placed in a share of fourth overnight following an opening 74 but the Abu Dhabi-based UAE PGA chief executive signed for 77 Tuesday to finish tied sixth, confirming Mills, on leave back in the UK, as the 2016-17 champion. Wears-Taylor climbed to third place overall behind Munro after capturing his fourth title in a mainly topsy, topsy-turvy campaign.

For the second day running, Wears-Taylor started his round with a bogey on Al Zorah’s par 4 1^st before settling his nerves with back-to-back pars on the far more menacing, water-guarded 2^nd and 3^rd holes.

The 20-year-old South African, a year through his PGA apprenticeship, then got into gear when he drained a long putt for eagle on the par 5 4^th before birdieing the 6^th, another par 5, to make the turn at -2.

Young remained his closest challenger throughout but the lanky South African’s length again paid dividends on a par 5 when he stuck a six iron to four feet on the 11^th and duly rolled in the eagle putt.

Stefan Wears-Taylor. Photo courtesy Darren King/Al Zorah GC

Another birdie saw him dip to -5 through 12 before a double on 13 and another dropped shot on 17 hinted at a last gasp wobble. But Wears-Taylor held his nerve and birdied the last to win in style – and for the second time in as many weeks after edging Gavin Sutherland in a playoff at Trump Dubai.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet but it’s a nice way to finish a weird season,” said Wears-Taylor.

“I started well [winning October’s Patrons Pro Am at DCGYC and at The Track, Meydan Golf the following month], in the middle I lost my way as my mind ran away a little bit thinking about what I could achieve, and then I’ve ended brilliantly. It’s the perfect way to finish before summer.”

Young kept it classy after a second successive near-run thing in a tournament he won in 2012.

“Always a great two days to end the tournament season in the UAE and my favourite event of the season. Sadly the bridesmaid poition for the second year running but delighted to finish runner-up to a very worthy winner in Stefan Wears-Taylor…great scoring today on the par 5s and impressive total -5 for the event,” Young said.

The post Wears-Taylor captures UAE PGA Championship at Al Zorah appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Wears-Taylor looped the Troon Golf-managed, Nicklaus Design in Ajman in two-under 70 Monday, two strokes clear of Arabian Ranches’ Malcolm Young on a day when only two of the 23 starters could match or better par. Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting & Golf Club’s Shane Peacock was solo third on 73.

Munro, the UAE PGA’s Abu-Dhabi-based chief executive, started his title defence with a 74, a +2 score matched by Jumeirah Golf Estates’ Matthew Allanson.

It left Munro, who won the UAE PGA Matchplay title at Trump Dubai last week, in pole-position to capture the association’s season-long OOM race with leader Cennydd Mills (Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club) holidaying back in the UK and powerless in the final say.

Munro needs to finish fourth or better to overhaul Mills while JGE’s big-hitting Gavin Sutherland, who opened with a 75 for a share of sixth place, can overhaul Munro for second place on the OOM but only with victory and a dramatic reverse from Munro.

“I should have scored better but struggled to hole any putts of any significance today,” said Munro who mixed birdies on 4 and 6 with bogeys on the 2nd, 9th,14th and 15^th.

“I had lots of pars but I had a couple of disappointing late bogeys on 14 and 15 and then missed three really good opportunities on last three holes for birdies.

“Realistically I need to shoot no worse than par tomorrow to have a strong chance of winning the OOM. The course is fantastic and a good score is possible for sure.”

Munro predicts he’ll need at least a 68 Tuesday for a shot at repeat titles: “My aim is to still to retain the PGA Champs trophy tomorrow obviously”. But while he still has designs on a perfect finish to the OOM race, Wears-Taylor will take some beating if his recent form is any indication.

The tall 20-year-old South African, a pro shop assistant and trainee PGA Professional at Al Zorah, won his third event of the UAE PGA season at Trump Dubai late last month in a playoff over Sutherland and clearly knows how to navigate Al Zorah. It promises a fitting finale to the OOM race where a players top-10 placings count towards the points championship.

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