David Cannon Archives - Golf Digest Middle East https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/tag/david-cannon/ Golf Instruction, Equipment, Courses, Travel, News Wed, 21 Dec 2022 07:55:45 +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 David Cannon Archives - Golf Digest Middle East https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/tag/david-cannon/ 32 32 Legendary golf photographer David Cannon receives Lifetime Achievement Award from PGA of America https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/legendary-golf-photographer-david-cannon-receives-lifetime-achievement-award-from-pga-of-america/ https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/legendary-golf-photographer-david-cannon-receives-lifetime-achievement-award-from-pga-of-america/#respond Wed, 09 Feb 2022 04:26:14 +0000 https://golfdigestme.com/?p=52485 The PGA of America announced on Tuesday legendary photographer David Cannon as the second recipient of their recently created Lifetime Achievement Award in Photojournalism.

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By Brendan Porath
The PGA of America announced on Tuesday legendary photographer David Cannon as the second recipient of their recently created Lifetime Achievement Award in Photojournalism. Cannon follows Leonard Kamsler, who was named the inaugural recipient of the award at the beginning of 2020.

Cannon, from Sussex, England, has been a fixture at the biggest events in professional golf for 40 years, working as a photojournalist for 121 men’s majors, 71 women’s majors, 17 Ryder Cups, 17 Walker Cups and 15 Solheim Cups.

“Over the last forty years, my ambition has been to leave an important legacy to the sport,” Cannon said. “And while I am not done just yet, I hope this award serves as an annual reminder that (photographers) put an awful lot into the game of golf.”

Cannon was a strong player as an amateur, competing against Sandy Lyle and Nick Faldo and earning a selection to the English youth squad training program in 1974. But in 1978, at the invitation of a friend to help photograph a rugby match, Cannon’s interest in professional photography would quickly supersede his golf pursuits. The Sunday Express prominently displayed one of his images from the rugby match in its sports section, and Cannon was hooked. “From that second onward, I basically stopped playing serious golf and every bit of spare cash I had went toward buying camera equipment,” he said.

In 1983, he began working for Allsport, which was purchased in 1998 by Getty Images, where he’s worked since, in addition to other roles with publications like Golf World UK Magazine. With his presence and acclaimed images captured at so many majors over the years, he also developed relationships with many of the subjects, most famously Seve Ballesteros. The two played golf together and his image of Ballesteros winning the 1984 Open is perhaps his most renowned photograph.

“In 1984, when (Ballesteros) won the Open (for the second time), I got what has become an iconic sequence of him holing that famous putt on 18, which I presented to him. He was really appreciative of those pictures and what they represented.”

David Cannon/Getty Images

Cannon was also on the spot to capture the putter raise of Jack Nicklaus at the 17th green in the 1986 Masters. If there’s been a historic moment in golf, Cannon was likely there to capture it over the past 40 years. He cites the Ryder Cup as his favourite golf event to shoot, given the emotion that cascades across the golf course in a three-day burst. He covered every Ryder Cup from 1985 to 2018, and served as the official European Team photographer from 1995 to 2018.

David Cannon
Cannon cited his 1991 shot of José María Olazábal jumping up and nearly over the back of Ballesteros ー his fellow Spaniard and playing partner ー as his all-time favourite Ryder Cup image.

In addition to that start at a rugby match in 1978, Cannon has photographed a wide range of sporting events beyond golf. His original work in the early 1980s with Allsport focused on soccer, which left his summers free and allowed him to dabble with shooting golf. Including golf, his events covered total exceeds 700 from around the world, with credits from the Olympics, World Cup, motor sports, cricket, and tennis, among others. Cannon estimated he’s taken over 3.4 million frames either on film or digitally, flown 2.6 million miles while visiting 115 countries, and walked 13,000-plus miles on golf’s greatest courses.

The PGA of America will commemorate his life’s work with this award and a celebration on May 18 ahead of this year’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills.

 

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]]> https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/legendary-golf-photographer-david-cannon-receives-lifetime-achievement-award-from-pga-of-america/feed/ 0 ‘Apart from the majors, the Desert Classic’s been the most important part of my photography life’ https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/apart-from-the-majors-the-desert-classics-been-the-most-important-part-of-my-photography-life/ https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/apart-from-the-majors-the-desert-classics-been-the-most-important-part-of-my-photography-life/#respond Sun, 26 Jan 2020 09:02:25 +0000 https://golfdigestme.com/?p=32456 The OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic's ever-present snapper shares memories from his 34 years capturing the birth of Emirates Golf Club and 31 years of the tournament that put the club, and an Emirate, on the global map.

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]]> Clarkwin Cruz/Motivate Media Group
Ever-present OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic photographer David Cannon holds up a copy of his feature in the Sunday edition of Daily News, produced by Golf Digest Middle East at the European Tour event.

By Kent Gray
David Cannon has dedicated the past 37 years of his life to capturing some of golf’s most iconic images for Getty Images. With his trademark Tilley hat and a career-long association with Canon cameras, the 64-year-old Sussex snapper has covered 120 men’s and 71 women’s majors, 19 Ryder Cups and all 16 Solheim Cups.

The life-long Leicester City supporter has also worked at nine FIFA World Cups, the football assignments contributing to another incredible stat; the Englishman has spent the equivalent of 15 years sleeping in hotel rooms, rising early after many of those 5,500 nights so as not to miss the best of the dawn light.

Cannon has witnessed the incredible transformation of Dubai as the futuristic city has grown up around golf. He first visited in 1986 as Emirates Golf Club was transformed from a barren desert landscape complete with wandering camels to the majesty that is today the Majlis layout, the No.1 course in the Middle East. He’s not missed a single edition of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic either and owns the definitive collection of still images from the ‘Major of the Middle East’, Ernie Els’ first win in 1994, Tiger Woods’ iconic shots atop the Burj Al Arab in 2004 and Rory McIlroy’s European Tour breakthrough in 2009 the most memorable among them.  There’s even a book commemorating the first 25 years, published in conjunction with author Rodney J. Bogg.

“Emirates Golf Club is obviously a very special place to me because I’ve seen it since it was a square kilometre of desert with a wire fence around it,” Cannon said.

“I’ve been coming here two, three, four times a year since 1987. Apart from the majors, I think it has been the most important part of my photography life, actually. I love this place.”

The European Tour released a video to commemorate Cannon’s contribution to the oldest tour event outside of continental European overnight. Check it out here:

“I’m extremely honoured, actually, to be involved with Dubai. It’s been a huge part of my life. It’s such a wonder of the world…30 years to go from the desert to what it is now,” he says.

“I just like recording split seconds of life, history.

“If I look back on my career, I think I’m hopefully going to leave a quite unique legacy to the game of golf. Hopefully, I can go on a load more years yet and leave something special.”

As a tribute to one of the ODDC’s enduring characters, we’ve dedicated a double-page spread in each issue of this week’s Daily News, a 24-page newspaper produced by the Golf Digest Middle East team and printed by official OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic publisher and partner Motivate Media Group, to ‘Cannon’s Shots’ of the day. Today we’ve extended the feature to allow the renowned photojournalist to share his favourite images from 34 years visiting Emirates Golf Club. Enjoy the trip down memory lane, shared here on golfdigestme.com.

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Sheikh Mohammed’s vision has been richly rewarded

Emirates Golf Club was a huge part of the vision Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, had for this special part of the world in the early 1980s. The Middle East’s first grass golf course did so much to help the development of Dubai. It has stood the test of time with very few changes to the course as the whole landscape of Dubai has been transformed around it.

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Dramatic transformation of Emirates Golf Club

Aerial view of the course under construction in 1987, a square kilometre of land with three rubber-lined lakes.

Emirates Golf Club in December 2014, shot from roughly the same point with the Marina and other construction underway.

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1990: Eamonn Darcy and a new era for sports photography

This was the first year that I became involved in live transmission of pictures. It was still film in those days with a local runner needed to get to the nearest photo lab to get the rolls of film processed. At Allsport (now Getty Images) we had one of the first digital transmission machines. This changed the world of transmitting colour images from a minimum of 21 minutes per picture to under seven. We had so many pictures used, mainly because the story was so good – a European Tour event in the desert on grass with a totally magnificent course and especially the iconic clubhouse. Pictures sold the story. Eamonn Darcy, with maybe the strangest swing in professional golf ever, beat a stellar field using an Emirates Airlines pilot as his caddie!

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Another survivor of the first 30 Dubai Desert Classics – former Tournament Director Mike Stewart

David Cannon

Mike Stewart (right) engaged in a difficult conversation with Seve Ballesteros in 1992 as Mike Tait and Seve’s caddie look on. A penny for your thoughts Seve? No drop… it’s wasteland and just bad luck my old friend.

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Amateur Rory McIlroy played his first OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic when Ernie Els won in 2007

David Cannon

This picture is very special in many ways. I have been lucky enough to photograph Ernie Els from when he was an amateur in 1989 and we have become good friends. The same has happened with Rory, whom I first photographed in 2004 in the Junior Open Championship at Kilmarnock Barassie. To see him look straight at me with his award sitting beside Ernie and Michael Schumacher makes this a very special moment.

I guess we should have known that just two years later Rory would claim his first European Tour title in Dubai on that same green where he had sat with two sporting greats two years previously.

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The 25th OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic Anniversary photograph

I was honoured to be asked to take this photograph in 2014. I cannot recall or in fact imagine a similar picture being arranged let alone taken at any other regular tour event. Only the Open Championship champions dinner at St Andrews every five years, and the Masters past Champions dinner at Augusta each April, manage to get their past winners together. Those are major Championships whereas the ODDC is a regular European Tour event, as storied a history as it now owns. This picture is certainly unique, a testament to Dubai, that all these past champions recognised the importance of the tournament to the region and the European Tour. The only tinge of sadness was that we were missing the incomparable Severiano Ballesteros, though to have Javier his son there was a lovely tribute to the great champion. The logistics of gathering them all at the same time was another story!

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The iconic 8th hole on the Majlis course at Emirates G.C.

The photograph above, taken in 1988 at the official opening of Emirates Golf Club, is almost unrecognisable today as you can see by the image below, shot from the tee in January 2019, 30 years later. There is no doubt this is one of the most photographed holes in golf.

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Tiger Woods Burj Al Arab shoot

In 2004 an idea we had two years earlier came to pass. What would it be like if we could manage to get Tiger Woods to hit a golf ball off the helipad of the recently constructed Burj Al Arab hotel? Pretty epic as it turned out.

Tiger first played the Desert Classic in 2001 and elevated the event around the globe. But this photoshoot in 2004 became the greatest global PR success of the year with over 300 newspaper publications printing photos, let alone a huge worldwide television audience seeing the incredible footage. The world’s most iconic sportsman of that era had announced Dubai to the world through golf and the Desert Classic. It was exposure money, and certainly no amount of travel advertising could buy.

For Getty Images and myself as the photographer, it was a sensational day and one I will never forget, especially as Tiger announced later that afternoon that all he had been trying to do was to land one of his drives into the helicopter!

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Tiger in the Woods… A dream finally captured in 2001 and that fantastic moment of victory in 2008

I had been waiting for the ultimate ‘Tiger in the Woods’ image ever since Woods burst on the scene. In 2001, when he first played in Dubai and in the midst of a great tussle with Thomas Bjorn, Woods drove through the fairway into some trees on the dog-leg 18th hole and I had my chance. Technically this was a tough picture to capture in the shade but I managed it in the last year we used film!

In 2008 Tiger won for the second time holing one of his amazing final green clutch putts to give us a fabulous trademark fist pump! What a player!

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Emirates Golf Club – a course with so many photographers ‘studios’…

David Cannon

Danny Willett on his way to victory in 2016 at one of favourite spots for covering the ODDC, the dogleg on the par-5 13th hole. I always tell people that Emirates Golf Club is the very best of the year for photography. The 3rd, 8th, 10th and13th holes in the morning, with the 5th, 9th, 14th, 16th and 18th in the afternoons, all provide brilliant light conditions and backdrops. It is almost as if the designers were thinking of us all those years ago.

David Cannon

 

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]]> https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/apart-from-the-majors-the-desert-classics-been-the-most-important-part-of-my-photography-life/feed/ 0 Welcome to the ‘Sand Trap’, a social media take on all things Middle East golf https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/welcome-to-the-sand-trap-a-social-media-take-on-all-things-middle-east-golf/ https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/welcome-to-the-sand-trap-a-social-media-take-on-all-things-middle-east-golf/#respond Mon, 06 Aug 2018 05:27:02 +0000 http://golfdigestme.com/?p=18754 Escape (Monday with) the Sand Trap, your guide to the best golf, on and off the course, in the Middle East. 

The post Welcome to the ‘Sand Trap’, a social media take on all things Middle East golf appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

]]> Escape (Monday with) the Sand Trap, your guide to the best golf, on and off the course, in the Middle East. 

By Kent Gray
Welcome to the first edition of The Sand Trap, where we scour the worldwide inter-web for the Middle East’s best golf news before expertly splashing it out with absolutely no (okay, sometimes a little) spin. Call it old school polishing (reporting) of today’s social media overload, a light-hearted take on everything that is great about golf in the game’s hottest destination.

We’re unapologetically Middle East centric – our colleagues at Golf Digest H.Q. in New York will continue to update you on the best global goings on via ‘The Grind’ and the ‘Dew Sweeper’ – so if it has even a tenuous link to the game here, we’ll be all over it.

If you win a title and your club does the needful online, check in here – you might just feature (remember to smile and share!) alongside the region’s more high profile players. Don’t be shy to share that viral worthy post either. A trick shot or a laughter educing whiff from one of your golfing pals perhaps? Simply tag us @GolfDigestME and we’ll do the rest. Who knows, you really could go global with the assistance of Golf Digest.

With that, enjoy this, your first escape from with the Sand Trap, which we coincidently launch just as the year’s final major is about to take the starter’s orders in St. Louis. Enjoy.

THIS WEEK IN THE INCREDIBLE RISE AND RISE OF JUNIOR PHENOM JOSH HILL

Before we head to Bellerive Country Club for the 100th staging of the U.S. PGA Championship, divert your attention, Dear Sand Trappers, to Royal Dornoch where they’ve apparently been golfing since 1616. That’s 402 years ago according the abacus at Media One Towers, or 388 years since Josh Hill was born right here in Dubai. The drawn out connection here is that Hill is set to tee it up at Dornoch on Tuesday as England opens the defence of its Boys Home Internationals title. And that’s as stunning as the fabled Scottish highlands links land hosting the matchplay event where each team faces the other over three days in five morning foursomes and 10 afternoon singles matches each day.

Hill’s selection to the U-18 England team – remember he’s 14! – continues a meteoric rise. It wasn’t that long ago he was posing with Ryder Cuppers Andy Sullivan and Rory McIlroy as a wide-eyed 12-year-old having just played the DP World Tour Championship Pro-Am at JGE, coinsidently where he trains.

That was late 2016. Fast-forward to early 2018 and Hill marked himself as the hottest prospect in UAE golf since the emergence of Rayhan Thomas, courtesy of eight wins in a magical three month stretch to April. It will be fascinating to see how Hill fares in the pressure-filled matches against Scotland, Wales and Ireland as England aim for a title three-peat. Whatever happens at Dornach, Dubai looks to have unearthed a genuine gem. Best wishes to Josh and kudos to his supportive parents Russell and Jo and Butch Harmon School of Golf Dubai instructor Joe Marshall. All can be justifiably proud of the unexpected international call-up.

JP ON THE ROAD (AGAIN) TO THE 100th PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

Talking of the BHSG Dubai, the stock of the Els Club Dubai-based academy’s Director of Instruction, Justin Parsons, continues to rise. ‘JP’ has been criss-crossing the globe recently working with former major champions Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen who are now firmly ensconced in a stable that also includes Peter Uihlein, Frenchman Mike Lorenzo-Vera and the aforementioned Rayhan Thomas. The Northern Irishman was in Akron last week and departed for the PGA Championship thoroughly encouraged by Schwartzel’s storming finish to the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, a 63 at Firestone Country Club propelling the former Masters champion up to a share of 31st with, among others, Tiger Woods.

Here’s more of JP’s recent handiwork (scroll through the Insta post to see Oosty and Schwartzel in practice at Firestone).

Great to be in Akron for the WGC!!

A post shared by Justin Parsons (@jparsonsgolf) on

Parsons was headed to Bellerive (Schwartzel, Oosthuizen, Uihlein and Lorenzo-Vera are all in the field) overnight via a road trip with International Sport Management (think Chubby Chandler’s company) player manager Louis Martin in an RV.  (FYI, Oosthuizen and Uihlein are ISM clients).

It’s a pretty epic sounding trip – all 900km of it – and we do hope JP shares some footage as promised. What we can guarantee, cough, cough, splutter, splutter, is that it’s not the final destination for the UAE’s best known coach. Again, watch this space.

Related: Woods, Rory and WGC-Bridgestone champion Thomas paired for PGA

TALKING OF GLOBE-TROTTING UAE PROS

With the mercury at sizzling point and the UAE’s driving ranges relatively empty as a result, it’s an ideal time for the UAE’s hard working PGA teaching professionals to grab some well-deserved R&R. And some, like Trump International Dubai head pro Sven Nielsen, are doing it better than most as these epic pictures from Scotland highlands illustrate.

The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle is a private club “offering limited tee times to non-residents”. As a former pro at Trump Turnberry, we’re guessing Nielsen didn’t have too much trouble getting on. He certainly had little trouble playing his Tiger-esque stinger:

Nice shot, Sven. But perhaps not quite as flush as your recent ace at Trump.

We’re genuinely happy for the hard-working South African but won’t be so generous if the Springboks show as much class in the upcoming Rugby Championship. Did we mention the team behind the Sand Trap are ardent supporters of the All Blacks?

LUKE’S PRO V1 JOY

Just like the mighty All Blacks, we love golf swag at the Sand Trap, especially swag of the, well, you know, free kind. Check out the booty MENA Tour player Luke Joy has just recieved from a couple of well-known sponsors.

Nice. We’re guessing these shiny new spheres will travel a little further than the tee shot of Joy’s brother Ollie during a recent social round.

Rules are rules but enough of those shenanigans. The Yas Links-attached Englishman is just back from a steady 12th place finish in last week’s Sunshine Tour stop in Kenya, an encouraging bounce-back after playing like a complete plonker – his words, not ours – in Open Championship qualifying. 

Joy still has designs on a European Tour card via Q-School ahead of a series of starts on the Sunshine and Asian Tours towards the end of 2018 “with the end goal of punching a ticket to secure European Tour status or at least have some events with a full playing category on the Challenge Tour”.

“I’m working hard with Matt Parker down at Yas so all seems to be working towards the ET for the coming years.”

Here’s hoping, although don’t be surprised if you see more off the course action on JoyBoy59’s twitter feed in the coming weeks; the 30-year-old Dorset pro is getting married at the end of the month. We’re sure fiancée Lauren-Leanne Bellows wouldn’t mind a prolonged honeymoon following hubby to some of the European Tour’s more exotic locales.

To be fair, Joy will need to keep winning to continue to afford experiences like this watching his beloved England in the World Cup.

JoyBoy indeed!

FRIENDLY REMINDER #1

It’s not long now until the climax of the European Tour season at JGE. In fact, it’s 99-days until the DP World Tour Championship. Follow the prompt for free tickets, Sand Trappers.


DUBAI TROPHY BLAST FROM THE PAST

Former head pro Malcolm Young is clearly in a nostalgic space as he packs up after 10½ years at Arabian Ranches to take up a new posting in Hong Kong. Or perhaps he just found this picture as he was clearing out some clutter.

Either way, it’s a cool rewind to the 2010 Dubai Golf Trophy which the professionals snuck by a solitary point. The Pros will miss Young’s talents next winter as they try to avert a fourth straight loss to the EGF’s best amateurs, but not half as much as the quietly spoken Scot’s old clientele at Ranches. Dubai’s loss is the Jack Nicklaus Academy of Golf’s gain. Yup, that’s how highly rated Young is.

ANOTHER SAD FOND FAREWELL

There are leaving dos and then there’s the way Sharjah Golf and Shooting Club do the leaving do. Stick with us here.

How about honouring New Zealand-bound course superintendent Marty Brown with his own golf tournament.

A classy move from a club that is making a habit of doing classy things and best of all, there’s still time to farewell Brown by entering the event.  The Kiwi leaves huge steel-capped boots to fill after presenting SGSC in pristine condition for the last two Staysure Tour (formerly European Senior Tour) Sharjah Senior Golf Masters events. Go well Marty. Oh, and I’m sure you’ll join us in wishing the Mighty All Blacks all the best as well. We did warn you!

TODAY’S TEAR-JERKER

Okay, here’s the Sand Trap’s first tenuous Middle East link. Sure Justin Thomas hasn’t played in the Desert Swing yet – perhaps the American will be the star draw at January’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship or even the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic? – but we just couldn’t ignore his win in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational overnight. More to the point, we loved that JT’s grandparents were on hand to see his third win of the season at Firestone.

What a day for the family ❤

A post shared by Justin Thomas (@justinthomas34) on

What a keepsake that pic will be. And now on to Bellerive with Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy set to push Thomas all the way in his defence of the Wanamaker Trophy. Golf is deep. Really, really deep as this 72nd hole drive from JT shows. And to think McIlroy hit a 400+ yarder in the final round at Firestone.

GEORGIA ON OUR MINDS

The newly-minted Ricoh Women’s British Open champion has been a perennial contender at the OMEGA Dubai Ladies Classic is recent years so there’s a genuine Middle East link to this snippet.

And these stunning pictures are from our favourite golf photographer too, UAE regular David Cannon. Enjoy.

David Cannon

David Cannon

David Cannon

David Cannon

THE GULF CLUB

How about the play of David Baldwin and Leighton Johnson in capturing the EGF’s Summer Pairs Open sponsored by Golf Superstore. Check out all the action in his post from Al Ain Equestrian Shooting and Golf Club:

Looks like they were having fun in the sun (okay, blistering heat) at Abu Dhabi and Saadiyat Beach Golf Club too in annual Troon Executive Card Summer Series.

The winners were grinners in the fourth round of the Summer BMW X5 Series Open Social at Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club too.

WE. CAN’T. STOP. WATCHING.

Finally, if you’re not already following us on Instagram, here’s a couple of recent posts that should entice you to sign-up at golfdigestme:

Father and son weekend goals. ⛳?‍?

A post shared by Golf Digest Middle East (@golfdigestme) on

Talk about father-son goals.

And then there is this in the latest installment of Phil Being Phil, just in case you missed it (quite how that is possible is beyond us).

In My Philings ???

A post shared by Golf Digest Middle East (@golfdigestme) on

We don’t know what Lefty’s Dad dance is so weirdly alluring. But… We. Can’t. Stop. Watching. At least it was better than his running putt in the U.S. Open. But lets move on, maybe by watching again. Until next time…Wow Phil. Just wow.

 

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]]> https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/welcome-to-the-sand-trap-a-social-media-take-on-all-things-middle-east-golf/feed/ 0 Cannon in focus as MENA Tour melds into Sunshine Big Easy Tour https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/cannon-focus-mena-tour-melds-sunshine-big-easy-tour/ https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/cannon-focus-mena-tour-melds-sunshine-big-easy-tour/#respond Tue, 06 Jun 2017 13:20:06 +0000 http://golfdigestme.com/?p=6054 By Kent Gray As golf tournaments go, this week’s South to East Challenge near Johannesburg is hardly what you’d call big game. The $30,000 (ZAR 400,000) event is a stop on the Big Easy Tour, a mid-season, garden variety event on the feeder circuit to South Africa’s celebrated but ultimately still developmental Sunshine Tour. It […]

The post Cannon in focus as <br> MENA Tour melds into <br> Sunshine Big Easy Tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

]]> By Kent Gray

As golf tournaments go, this week’s South to East Challenge near Johannesburg is hardly what you’d call big game.

The $30,000 (ZAR 400,000) event is a stop on the Big Easy Tour, a mid-season, garden variety event on the feeder circuit to South Africa’s celebrated but ultimately still developmental Sunshine Tour. It means only the players, their friends and family and serious golf anoraks elsewhere are likely to stay abreast of developments during the 54-holer.

With the U.S. Open to prepare for at Erin Hills in Wisconsin next week, it’s a fair bet the renowned golf photographer David Cannon won’t be clicking away inside the ropes at Ebotse Links in Benoni. But rest assured, the Englishman will have the South to East Challenge in sharp focus.

Cannon’s 30-year-old son, Chris, is one of the players to watch this week as the MENA Tour goes on its annual safari, co-sanctioning three events as part of its South African swing.

After years of graft and a tough start to the season, Chris finally broke through to win the Big Easy Sunshine Tour’s recent Kempton Park title, carding rounds of 67-65 and firing up Dad along the way.

David Cannon has previously told GolfDigestMe.com that his ultimate dream is to photograph Chris playing the Open Championship one day, though we wonder how he’d manage to focus through the inevitable tears of joy.

Chris is still a way off lining up in a major but the sometimes MENA Tour starter can at least see light as he toils away in golf’s lower leagues hoping for that big time break.

“I feel like I have been moving in the right direction and my play is getting better and better,” he told the Sunshine Big Easy Tour.

“I think everything has been improving. I mean, I have certainly been putting well and my wedge shots have been much better as well this week. So, it’s just a general overall improvement and also mentally, I have been very focused.”

Fredrik From, meanwhile, will also take that rare winning feeling into this week having captured the MENA Tour’s most recent event, the rain-shortened Pattana Golf Championship in Thailand.

Fredrik Form

The 27-year-old Swede has set his sights on the MENA Tour order of merit title after signing for a sizzling 63 in the final round and has every reason to set such lofty goals after his breakthrough. The eventual MENA Tour champion earns starts in the PGA Tour’s 2018 DEAN & DELUCA Invitational at Colonial Country Club as well as European Tour starts in Dubai, Morocco, Malaysia and The Netherlands among other incentives.

Cannon and From will have their work cut out with defending champion Bryandrew Roelofsz and current Big Easy Tour money leader and countryman Etienne Bond headlining the South to East Challenge field.

England’s Luke Joy, who will be looking to make amends after missing the cut at the Zambia Open on the Sunshine Tour last week, is one of 37 MENA Tour professionals and five amateurs in the field. He is joined by fellow MENA Tour winners Tyler Hogarty (South Africa), Antonio Costa (Chile) and Cyril Suk (Czech Republic) while Dubai-based Brazilian Tiago Lobo, who is currently second to Switzerland’s Michael Harradine in the amateur order of merit standings, will be watched closely. The 100-strong field will be cut to the leading 50 professionals and ties after 36-holes.

Designed by Matkovich and Hayes Golf Course Architects, Ebotse Links has been described as South Africa’s only “inland links”. It was built to US PGA specifications with a 6,372-metre par 72-rating, features seven holes on the water and is currently ranked the 32nd best course by Golf Digest South Africa.

“We are very excited with our association with the Sunshine Big Easy Tour, which will benefit members of both the tours and help further stimulate the growth of golf. South Africa boasts some of the best and most beautiful golf courses in the world. I am confident our members will have fun playing there,” said Mohamed Juma Buamaim, chairman of the MENA Tour.

The MENA Tour is also co-sanctioning the Jo’burg City Masters at the Country Club from June 13-15 and The Roar at Waterkloof Golf Club in Pretoria from June 20-22.

 

 

The post Cannon in focus as <br> MENA Tour melds into <br> Sunshine Big Easy Tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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