By Kent Gray
David Horsey briefly had us on 59 watch, should really have shot 60 but was more than happy to sign for a course record-equalling 61 and the opening-round lead at the 3rd Saudi International.

The Englishman’s brilliant nine-under circuit of Royal Greens Golf & Country Club shocked no one more than the 35-year-old Englishman himself after he missed the cut in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai leading into the third leg of the Desert Swing.

“It’s a shock actually,” said Horsey who will take a one-stroke buffer over double Dubai champion Stephen Gallacher into Friday’s second round in King Abdullah Economic City.

No 59, but you’d take a 61

What a round @DaveHorsey!#SaudiIntlGolf | @Workday pic.twitter.com/yTXZI08ZNa

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) February 4, 2021

“I’ve been playing rubbish the last couple weeks. Didn’t feel like I controlled my ball the first two events. Yeah, sort of had a conversation with a pal back home last night, talking a few things through and [he] suggested something that I work on away from the tournament.

“Knowing me, I thought, well, can’t get any worse, so I may as well try it and here we are.”

Can you give us a hint?

“Really just how my body is moving, quite sort of technical really. It’s nice to have a feel you can sort of wake up and pick up straight away. Yeah, I didn’t really feel like I missed many shots. I holed a couple of nice, lengthy putts as well and it all adds up to 61.”

Sounds like a fascinating chat. Who is this friend? Your coach?

“Jacob Calum. Weirdly enough, he’s only 22, and he’s someone that I’ve helped out sort of as an amateur at my golf club. He’s turned pro now.” said Horsey who has four European Tour titles to his name, the last of them at the 2015 Made in Demark.

“So yeah, I tried to sort of help him as much as I can and he’s now returning the favour. He’s really knowledgeable. I’ve not got a coach now for about, well, pretty much a year, doing a lot of stuff on my own and yeah, lockdown last year, just chatting about stuff really. He sort of makes a few good points and knows the golf swing really well and it’s nice to bounce a few ideas off someone who plays as well.

“Coaches sometimes find it difficult to relate to what we feel out there and maybe there’s quite a lot of them have played but the guys who haven’t, it’s quite tough to sort of get that point across. Yeah, because he [Calum] can relate to playing at the same time, yeah, it’s constructive conversations.”

It’s a good thing because there was no chance of easing into the $3.5 million European Tour event with clumps of red numbers dotted all over the leaderboard. Horsey provided the highlight with five successive birdies from the turn and seven in total in a homeward nine negotiated in just 28 strokes.

Horsey came home in just 28 shots today.

His iron shots into 16 and 17 were sublime ?#SaudiIntlGolf pic.twitter.com/1fGHZtBj4c

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) February 4, 2021

He had to hole a wedge shot on the 18th for 59 but was slightly fortunate his pulled approach didn’t end up wet and eventually signed for a par and a 61 which matched Johnson’s second round en-route to victory in the inaugural Saudi International in 2019.

“I had a little conversation with myself going down 16. I wanted to make birdie there. Sort of added it up and realised [I] can’t really reach 18 in two. So yeah, I think realistically, two good birdie chances, managed to birdie 17 and made a bit of a hash at the last. Got a par there.”

A total of 71 players dipped under par including Jordan’s Shergo Al Kurdi, the 17-year-old MENA Tour amateur order of merit leader who shares 49th place with freshly minted OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic champion Paul Casey on one under.

Bernd Wiesberger will start the second round third on six-under, a shot ahead of a six players including the best of this week’s strong PGA Tour contingent, Bryson DeChambeau. World No.1 Dustin Johnson is handily placed at three-under alongside, among others, the English trio of Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Danny Willett.

??????? -9 Horsey
??????? -8 Gallacher
?? -6 Wiesberger
?? -5 DeChambeau
?? -5 Fox
??????? -5 Hill
?? -5 Pieters
?? -5 Haotong
?? -5 Kinhult

After 18 holes at the #SaudiIntlGolf.

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) February 4, 2021

Reigning U.S. Open champion DeChambeau used his significant length and putting to good use at the 7010-yard layout surrounded by the pristine coastline of the Red Sed.

“Definitely very pleased,” DeChambeau said afterwards.

“I was driving it a bit all over the place for the most part out there. Hit some good drives to 6 and 7. But was definitely struggling with the driver and a little bit of the irons, and I have to clean that up.

“I know I’m putting well. I know that I can hit it far out here. I’m disappointed it’s not as far as I would like it but once I got out there and was hitting some wayward shots I tried to try to rein it in and control it better.”

The post England’s David Horsey equals Royal Greens course record en-route to shock Saudi lead appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Jamie Donaldson went to bed with the lead in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic but Rory McIlroy will wake early poised to relieve the Welshman of pole position.

A near three-hour delay for fog Friday means moving day at the $3 million European Tour event has become make up day. McIlroy, -10 when play was suspended due to darkness, will be into work early Saturday for the 7.30am resumption to round two (along with half the field – 66 players) and has seven holes, including two par 5s, with which to haul in Donaldson’s -13 mark.

“Yeah, two par 5s and obviously 17 is drivable so I’ve got some chances coming in but I just have to stay patient,” said the 28-year-old Northern Irishman.

“There’s some tough holes, as well, coming in. The first hole of the day tomorrow will be 12, which will be playing quite long. Hopefully I’ll take advantage of the par 5s and get myself in one of the last couple of groups tomorrow afternoon.”

The way he’s played the first 29 holes, it will be no surprise. McIlroy is three under for his second round after opening with a bogey-free 65.

“I’m in a good position. It was hard waiting all day to go out there. Got off to a really good start, three-under through five, and then made my first bogey of the week on the 8th, which was a bad tee shot. I nearly got away with a par but dropped a shot.

McIlroy escapes the sand on 8 en-route to his only bogey thus far. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

“But it was nice to get a shot back there on 10 at the end of the day. Hopefully I can come out in the morning and make a few more birdies and get closer to the lead.”

Would you rather be in this scenario or have your second round signed off?

“I don’t mind. It will probably be a good test for me to play 26 holes tomorrow. See how the body sort of responds to it.”

The third round will begin no earlier than 10.45am after the cut, projected at -4, is made. But with more fog forecast, the race could be on to find a winner come Sunday evening.

Donaldson will resume happy regardless of what McIlroy or any of the other front-runners still to finish do; Swede Alexander Bjork is at -11 with six to play while David Horsey (11 holes to play), Chris Paisley and Lasse Jensen (both five holes left) are all at -9.

Donaldson hits his tee shot on the 8th hole during round two. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

The Gleneagles Ryder Cup hero couldn’t keep up his scintillating first round form on Friday but a three-under 69 to back up the 62 has him well placed to kick on to a fourth European Tour title and his first since capturing the D+D Real Czech Masters in 2014.

“I don’t know where it [-13] will be at the end of the day, but I’m just concentrating on me and concentrating on putting that ball in those small fairways and taking my chances from there,” said the 42-year-old.

“It’s a tricky golf course that you’ve got to manage your way around well. I did that well today again, as I did yesterday.”

Donaldson slept on a one stroke lead over Haotong Li after the Chinese star repeated his opening 66 on Friday while Branden Grace is in the clubhouse a shot further back at -11 after a best of the day 65. It was a happy 32nd birthday for Australian Andrew Dodt who signed for a 69 to but the gifts belonged to another player on -8, Matthew Southgate, who was presented with a timepiece from the title sponsor after acing the par 3 7th en-route to a 68.

English amateur Todd Clements (69-70) looks set to play the weekend at -5 and while fellow MENA Tour players Luke Joy (71-71) and Jamie Elson (68-74) will have the weekend off after finishing at -2, there was no disgrace in their performances. Dubai-based Indian teen Rayhan Thomas resumes his second round at -1 and has 11 holes to produce something magical to make his second successive Desert Classic cut.

The post Rory the (fog permitting) morning story appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Jamie Donaldson flirted with 59, frittered away his chance at the course record, finished with a 62 and at the end of it all felt, well, just fine.

The magical 10-under loop has the Welshman atop an Omega Dubai Desert Classic leaderboard plastered in deep red numbers after a breathless day of scoring reminded amateurs everywhere that the pros really do play a different game.

Donaldson would normally enjoy a bit of breathing space on the first page but this was no ordinary day as benign conditions made golf seem like darts as players fired arrows at accessible pins and cashed in on the Majlis’ impossibly pure greens. Englishmen David Horsey and Anthony Wall trail by a mere shot, Tyrrell Hatton is just two back, while Rory McIlroy headlines a swag of five lurking ominously after 65s.

Donaldson hasn’t featured so prominently since securing the winning Ryder Cup point for Europe at Gleneagles in 2014 and gave little hint of what was to come Thursday after missing the cut in Abu Dhabi last week.

But as Wall later tweeted: “Not lost it JD. Like riding a bike.” Perhaps driving a Ferrari was a better analogy after the 41-year-old’s fast start from the 10th tee, two birdies and an eagle at 13 getting him to four under in a whirr. Further gains followed at 17 and 18 in an outward 31 and when Donaldson, down to a lowly 292 in the world rankings, birdied the 3rd and added four more in successive holes from the 4th, the 59 siren was blaring.

He needed to birdie the testing 8th and notoriously tricky 9th to create European Tour history, only to ditch his drive on the beach at the penultimate hole and then watch his birdie chip burn the cup. The 59 was as gone but Donaldson still had Ernie Els’s 1994 course record 61 in his crosshairs, at least until he found a fairway bunker and thereafter a tough lie in the rough guarding the right hand side of the water-guarded green. His chip slid by and so too did his par attempt and a share of history.

But Donaldson minded not.

“Yeah, I mean, you can never be disappointed with 10-under, can you?”

“I knew what was on the cards out there, and you know, I think I had five holes to go, started thinking about 59. I thought, well, okay, just birdie every hole coming in and you’ve done it.

“I started thinking about it coming down the fifth. Birdied 5, 6, 7. Great chip on 8 after a poor tee shot, and then obviously you knew your chance had gone then.

“I didn’t know the course record. I was only thinking of 59, really. Probably shouldn’t really be thinking that. Should be concentrating on, you know, hitting fairways and hitting greens, giving myself chances. I fancied it. Wasn’t to be. I knew I had to chip that one in on 8. It was close. Didn’t go in and that was it then.

“But yeah, I’m very happy with how I’ve played. 59 is only a bonus, isn’t it. It’s icing on the cake. Everybody wants to shoot 59, but it’s something that is only if you’re playing really good golf, and that’s gone now, so it’s just a case of more of the same moving on.”

The way the venerable Majlis was brought to her knees on Thursday, it looks like more of the same will be needed to merely contend in the $3 million Desert Swing event. Of the 132 starters, 104 broke par, 13 matched it and only 15 were in the black, 2016 champion Danny Willett miserably the worst of them with a 77. The players in red numbers signed for a collective 358 under par and with the 15 strugglers included, it was still -327. Combined the field averaged 69.52 on the 7300 yard layout, not that you needed an abacus to know the scoring was ridiculously and captivatingly low.

Thankfully recent work with putting guru Phil Kenyon has Donaldson confident of remaining in the mix, a new big stick too.

“Drove it as well as I’ve driven it in a long time. New driver in the bag today, TaylorMade driver, new one, so that was really good. Very happy with all my gear and everything. Just got to keep playing like that and keep concentrating on shooting low scores for the rest of the week.”

The post Donaldson dominates a red number day in Dubai appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 32-year-old Englishman instead toiled away on the range to top up extensive winter work with coach Peter Cowen, confident a return on the painstaking investment wasn’t far off.

It duly arrived Thursday as Horsey fired a nine-under 63 for the early clubhouse lead at the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic before settling into a share of second with countryman Anthony Wall, a shot shy of Jamie Donaldson after the Welshman’s stunning 62.

“Yeah, very pleased,” was Horsey’s understated assessment of his round as he made a positive start to his quest for a fifth European Tour title, two years removed from his last win at the 2015 Made in Denmark.

“I’ve been doing a lot of work the last four or five days since missing last week in Abu Dhabi and it felt a little bit better on the back nine [he started on the 10th], a little bit hit and miss on front, but holed quite a lot of nice putts, sort of lengthy ones, as well. Yeah, the golf course is immaculate, so if you’re playing well with no wind this morning, scoring is on.”

Horsey is not renowned for being the fastest of New Year starters. It was March last year before he broke into the top-20 for the first time at the Hero Indian Open while his best finish in Dubai was T-11 back in 2010. He missed the cut with a 77-80 last January but hopes more hours of game improvement work will be converted into less shots on the course.

“I felt something had to change because obviously not coming out of the blocks very fast in previous years.

“I’ve done a bit more work. I wouldn’t necessarily say that that’s the reason, but yeah, just if you can hit the ball on your target line, more often than not, you’re going to play well especially on golf courses like this in conditions like this.”

The hours spent with Cowen, who has recently opened the Peter Cowen Golf Academy at Emirates Golf Club, are obviously paying off.

“It’s just a small swing key, really. Not so much something I could think about on the golf course. Just trying to get the shaft a bit shallower on the downswing and it’s just tidied up my strike a little bit. Still hit a few right today so a little bit more work this afternoon, and hopefully get it better and better as time goes on.”

“It’s one thing seeing it visually swing-wise on the video, but it’s another thing feeling it and having it function. Now I feel like I understand how it’s going to function going forward and yeah, it’s just a matter of time now to hopefully get better and better.”

The post No More Horsing Around  appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan

He’s a bit different, is Julian Suri. The 26-year-old New Yorker knows his history—and is, despite Edmund Burke’s long ago admonition, well on his way to repeating it. Following in the footsteps of former U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein and current U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka, Suri became the third American to win on both the Challenge Tour and the European Tour with his victory Sunday in the Made in Denmark tournament.

Starting the final round at the Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort two shots behind the overnight leader, Englishman David Horsey, Suri wiped out the deficit early, three birdies in succession from the second sending him into a lead he never fully relinquished. Horsey made a fight of it though. By the 12th the pair were tied, a state of affairs Suri changed at the 15th when his seventh birdie of the day took him to 19-under par for the week.

Still one ahead on the 18th tee, Suri made a safe par as Horsey—by then the only serious challenger—stumbled to a closing triple bogey that made the final margin of victory four shots. Three more Englishmen, Steve Webster, Chris Paisley and Ben Evans, tied for third on 13 under.

Former Open and PGA champion John Daly’s bid to become the oldest-ever winner on the European Tour ended in failure. The 51-year-old closed with an even-par 71, two birdies and two bogeys after a thrilling Saturday 65, that left him a tie for 10th place.

Flawless. Suri’s final round 64 in under 3 minutes ? #MiDGolf pic.twitter.com/3pZUWDnjBx

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) August 27, 2017

“To have seven birdies and be bogey-free in the final round was really solid,” said Suri, who played his college golf at Duke and was competing in only his seventh European Tour event. “I’m pretty proud of that. It was a blast out there. Especially in that atmosphere with the fans. It was really cool. Everybody is so enthusiastic out there, with such genuine appreciation for the game and spectacle. I just wanted to soak it up as much as I could.

“I feel like my game belongs at the top of the game. This is definitely something I’ve worked for and kind of expected for a long time. But to finally come out and do it, especially after the string of good finishes this summer, is really special.”

It was a memorable week, too, for Thomas Bjorn, even if Denmark’s most famous golfer finished no better than T-44. In what was his 500th European Tour event, Europe’s Ryder Cup skipper was greeted on Day 1 by a sea of spectators wearing “Thomas Bjorn” masks as he approached the green at the short 16th. The avid Liverpool fan was then treated to a rendition of the football club’s anthem, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (from the musical Carousel). Hey, you had to be there.

Julian Suri is now 60th in the Race to Dubai rankings and will be eager to stay in the top 60 to feature in the DP World Tour Championship at JGE in November.

It was Suri’s week though, a fact that will come as no surprise to the man himself. Not lacking in confidence, the former All-American has lofty ambitions that extend beyond victory in what is hardly the biggest event on the European Tour. Speaking before the Scottish Hydro Challenge in June (where he would miss the cut), Suri was bold in his claims.

“My ultimate goal is to be top of the world rankings,” he said. “People say I might have locked up my card for next year on the European Tour. And that’s fine. But there are still a few months to go this year. And what gets me going is putting pressure on myself.

Getty Images

I have big expectations. My aim is to be in the top-100 on the rankings by the end of the year.    “To do that, I have to prepare well and give myself the best chance of winning tournaments every week. Two years from now, I’d like to be in the top-10 and giving myself the chance to win majors. I feel like the ceiling of my game is at that level. I don’t see why I can’t.”   Quite. And on the evidence of this week, he’s well on his way.

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