By Matt Smith
Tapio Pulkkanen and Johannes Veerman took advantage of the afternoon conditions at Infinitum’s Lakes Course to share the clubhouse lead on a storm-hit firsrt day of the inaugural ISPS Handa Championship in Spain.

The DP World Tour finally reached Europe for the 2022 season on Thursday for the first of two back-to-back Spanish events, but heavy rain and thunderstorms meant the opening day was delayed for over two hours.

David Law of Scotland posted the low score from the early starters with a five-under 65, but the afternoon groups were treated to more benign and softy conditions and they took advantage before play was halted overnight due to darkness.

Dubai-based Spaniard Adrian Otaegui led the home charge to sit two behind the leaders on four-under, thanks to a six-birdie 66.

Both Pulkkanen and Veerman endured tough starts – with the Finn bogeying his opening hole, the 10th, and the American opening with back-to-back bogeys after teeing off at the first – but they both bounced back in style.

Veerman, a DP World Tour winner at last year’s Czech Masters, birdied six holes on the back nine to sign for a six-under 64, while Pulkkanen birdied two of his final three holes to move into a share of the overnight lead.

South Africa’s Hennie Du Plessis and SSP Chawrasia of India were also on six-under through 16 holes when bad light halted play, while Jack Senior carded a 65 late in the day to join Law on five-under.

“I had a pretty slow start, bogey-bogey, and I thought maybe this isn’t so good a day, but I made two more birdies coming in to make the turn and then I just lit it up on the back nine — putting really hot and hitting it really good,” said Veerman.

“This golf course, you have a couple of tough holes out here but you have a lot of wedges, so if you can put it in play off the tee — because the rough is so long — you can really get it close because you have short clubs in your hands. We’ll see how we go tomorrow but I’m going to go back, get to bed early and go again.

“I came through Qualifying School here in 2019 so I only have good memories about this golf course so it’s nice to come back and play well again. I lit it up in the last four rounds after making the cut on the number, so I have some really nice memories around here.”

Pulkkanen added: “I have played 50 rounds here before because my national team used to come and practise here, so it’s almost like a home course. I just hit it solid and made some putts.

“I think the greens softened up a lot after the rain so that made it easier. The greens on Tuesday were quite tough and then they were slower after the rain. The rough was wet so you want to be on the fairway but my driving was really good so I didn’t need to worry about the rough and that helped a lot.

More
Morikawa can’t stop dunking from off the green
Highlights from Day 1 of Zurich Classic
DP World Tour heads back to where it all began 50 years ago
Is Ash Barty aiming for a shot at a golf career?
Your Zurich Classic tee times
Our 11 favourite teams at Zurich Classic
Report: First PGA Tour player request to play LIV Golf events
LIV Golf ready to go live as tickets go on sale
WATCH: Dylan Frittelli in bizarre rules gaffe

The post Pulkkanen and Veerman set the early pace, with Dubai’s Adrian Otaegui on the prowl appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Special Correspondent
RAS AL KHAIMAH, UAE: David Law took control at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital as the Scot carded an eight-under 64 to take a two-stroke advantage into the weekend at Al Hamra Golf Club.

The 30-year-old, whose sole win came almost exactly three years ago at the ISPS Handa Vic Open, had finished his first round with an eagle and he carried that momentum into the second day in the northernmost of the United Arab Emirates.

Law registered two more eagle threes and birdied the other two par fives at the coastal resort, with three further birdies earning him a 64 and a 14 under par total.

“I chipped in twice for two eagles so that was picking up four shots straight away which was great,” said Law. “I played good, yesterday was tricky, today as a little different. It was a different golf course today, but I rode my luck a little, chipping in twice, but I was happy.

“It’s been a while since the win. This is my fourth season on tour. I had a chance at St Andrews last year to win and I felt very comfortable again in that position. I feel like my golf has progressed nicely in the last three years and that’s the main aim, that’s all anyone’s trying to do – to keep improving.”

Law’s 64 moved him two shots clear of Nicolai Højgaard of Denmark, whose seven under 65 was enough to claim outright second spot heading into the weekend on 12 under.

“It was a good day, I played some nice golf, felt like I was driving it a bit better than I have for the last couple of weeks so I put myself in some good spots to hit it close to the pins,” said the youngster.

“After those last two weeks, I put in some good work. I felt like my thoughts and swing were a bit blocked up, I couldn’t free up so I’ve just been trying to free up a little bit, play golf with my skills and let my talent take over instead of trying to overthink things.”

Spain’s Adrian Otaegui, meanwhile, broke the course record at Al Hamra with a stunning 63 which left him four shots off the lead in third spot, on ten under.

“Yesterday I holed some good putts, today I holed some good ones as well,” said the Spaniard. “I think the difference today was that I felt a lot more comfortable with my driving.

“I tried to just keep it going, keep giving myself birdie chances. I was feeling confident with my putting, I was rolling the ball very well, so nothing really special in my mind. Just the basics, keep going and I think we did that very well.”

The post Law in charge at Ras Al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital   appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

A bogey-free, seven-under 64 allowed the Scot to equal his lowest European Tour round on Thursday afternoon and leapfrog early clubhouse leaders Kalle Samooja and Richard McEvoy by a stroke at Education City Golf Club. Italian Nino Bertasio and South African Hennie Du Plessis later joined Samooja and McEvoy tied for second at six-under.

Law is off the 10th at 7.25am (Doha time) on Friday and will be hoping to kick-on from his impressive start, just the second time in four European Tour starts this season he’s signed for a round in the 60s.

“It was a good score. I played really well. Conditions were quite easy but I was happy with my iron play and I holed some putts, which was nice,” said the The 2019 ISPS Handa Vic Open champion of his opening round.

7 birdies in 15 holes.@DavidLawGolf takes the solo-lead.#QatarMasters pic.twitter.com/swlpF4U0lX

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) March 11, 2021

“I’ve been guilty over the last few weeks when I’ve had decent rounds going of not finishing them off. I was semi-conscious of sticking with it and trying to go low.

“I was really happy with how I stuck to my routines, my processes and I came out of it with a good score.

“I’m a lot more focused on my targets rather than my golf swings. Over the last couple of seasons I’ve been guilty of asking myself why I’ve been hitting bad shots, instead of just going on to hit the next one.

“Over the break we had I sat down with my coach Alan McCloskey and Paul Lawrie, we discussed it and it’s all about getting the ball in the hole now, trusting that you’ve done the hard work and the work’s done.”

Having a morning tee time Friday is a bonus too.

“It’s a nice draw. I’m looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow. It’ll be different,” said Law.

“Although it was hot and muggy it was calm, it’s never normally like that here. Tomorrow will be a bit more like normal, a bit of wind and it’ll be testing. I’m looking forward to it.”

Defending champion Jorge Campillo opened with a 68 to be four strokes back entering Friday. Jordanian amateur Shergo Al Kurdi fired a fine 68 for a share of 21st place overnight.

The post Scot David Law determined to cash in on fast Doha start appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
ABU DHABI — It depends who you talk to—or at least try to talk to—but the European Tour’s new pace-of-play initiative seems to be having an effect. Two days in, players and caddies alike have been moved to comment on the improvement, with most threesomes at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship getting round the 7,642-yard course in no more than 4½ hours.

Billy Foster, bagman for the early second-round leader Matthew Fitzpatrick, is one who has noticed a positive difference, one he estimates at around 20 minutes compared with years past.

“The big thing is that players are no longer taking 90 seconds to hit a shot,” Foster says. “They’ve got a club in their hands and they are ready to play. The knowledge that two bad times over four rounds means an extra shot on your score seems to have got them moving quicker. They are aware of that and they are getting on with things. Even Bryson DeChambeau, who was in our group, played at a decent speed. I was impressed.”

The same likely cannot be said for DeChambeau, although it is impossible to be definitive. Playing alongside Fitzpatrick, DeChambeau shot 77 to finish at five-over 149, well outside the cut line and 14 shots worse than Fitzpatrick. DeChambeau didn’t hang around to talk about it all either. After a brief visit to the scorer’s hut, he turned down a request for interview before heading to the clubhouse.

Not surprisingly, Fitzpatrick was in finer fettle after adding a 67 to his opening 68. Long one of the faster golfers on the European Tour, the former Ryder Cup player was more than happy with the brisker pace of play, one more suited to his temperament.

“So far, so good,” he said. “I can’t remember the last time we got round so fast in a three ball. That was great. The only thing is that, because I am already quicker than most, I’m feeling a bit of pressure now that I’ve got to get even quicker. But it’s all good. Playing with the slow guys in the past, I had time to think, but now that they seem to have their act together, it probably feels a lot quicker to me than to them.”

Still, it would perhaps be as well not to get too excited. While the initial signs are good, there are some caveats to consider. For one, the 132-player field is significantly smaller than will be the norm at events later in the summer. And for another, the Abu Dhabi Golf Club course has three par 5s that are reachable for only the longest players in the field—and even then only when they find the invariably narrow fairways off the tee. So only occasionally are players waiting for the par-5 greens to clear. For the vast majority, those holes are “90-yard par 3s” after a lay-up second shot.

“It’s hard to tell how much things are going to improve because pace of play varies from course to course,” says Scotsman David Law, who is six under after 36 holes. “But the new rules are definitely going to help. Guys know their record isn’t wiped clean at the end of each round. A bad time hangs over them all week now. That helps keep things moving, too.”

The post Matthew Fitzpatrick, in contention in Abu Dhabi, is an early fan of the Euro Tour’s new pace-of-play policy appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The MENA Tour’s new social media hashtag – #HBFS – translates to Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster. After establishing a five-stroke lead with a round to play, Englishman Matthew Baldwin is certainly making it harder for everyone else in the regional developmental circuit’s season-opener in Jordan.

RELATED: Brilliant Baldwin on the cusp of a maiden MENA Tour victory and a Challenge Tour invite he doesn’t really need

The ‘better’ part also rang true on Sunday when the MENA Tour announced it had secured Challenge Tour invites for the winners of its first five ‘spring swing’ events, another significant carrot for its members who already had European, Challenge and Asian Tour invites in their crosshairs.

Sunday was also a day of proud reflection for MENA Tour officials when a former winner on tour, David Law, secured his European Tour breakthrough at the Vic Open in Geelong near Melbourne.

The MENA Tour previously trumpeted a ‘Making it Possible’ hashtag and Law is proof that great things are indeed attainable from this Middle East launch pad, a 72nd hole eagle at the 13th Beach Golf Club on Sunday helping the Scot bank €156,250 for his one-stroke victory over Australians Brad Kennedy and Wade Ormsby.

Law, 27, captured the MENA Tour’s Sotogrande Masters in 2016, beating 10-time tour champion Zane Scotland by six strokes at La Reserva Golf Club in Spain. The tour basked in the reflected glory on Sunday with this social media message:

Heartiest congratulations to @DavidLawGolf, a champion on our Tour, on winning the @VicOpenGolf for his first @EuropeanTour victory. We are so proud of you David. #HBFS pic.twitter.com/MHduSY5NR9

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) February 10, 2019

There was also a heartfelt message from Law’s Scottish pal Conor O’Neil who is in a four-way share of second place heading into Monday’s final round at the $100,000 Journey to Jordan-1 event:

BITE-SIZED INTERVIEW
(After 2nd round of Journey To Jordan-1)@conorogolf was delighted with his 69 that took him up to tied 2nd place at 8-under, but his joy doubled when he heard his good friend, and a former room partner on MENA Tour, David Law had just won the Vic Open. pic.twitter.com/xsmGjW9JH9

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) February 10, 2019

That tough time O’Neil mentioned was heartbreaking, as Golf Digest’s John Huggan reports in his review of the pioneering Vic Open.

Now the proud parents of a daughter, Penelope, Law and his fiancée, Natasha, endured the agony of a still-born child two years ago.

“When you go through something like that, you realise how fragile life is,” Law told Huggan.

“I’m just so grateful that we got the support we did. It was unbelievable. I went back to play two weeks after it happened and, honestly, it was probably six weeks too early. We were both still in a pretty bad way. But I had to play, and I knew that the longer I put it off, the harder going back would be. That first week, in particular, was horrendous.”

Law won the 2018 Scottish Challenge in his 100th start on the European Challenge Tour less, a victory that would propel him to a European Tour card.

“I think that it’s only natural you begin to have some doubts,” he says of his earlier struggles. “I knew I was good enough to play and be competitive at a higher level, but when you keep getting knocks you start to wonder if you’ll ever get the chance. It’s not something you really want to think about, but there comes a point when you can’t ignore it any longer.”

The post Law’s European Tour breakthrough proudly reverberates 13,600km away at the MENA Tour’s season opener in Jordan appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
GEELONG, Australia — It was already groundbreaking, but the ISPS Handa Vic Open ended up being earth-shattering, too. At least it did for the equally well-paid two champions to emerge from this mixed-gender collaboration of the European Tour, the LPGA, the PGA of Australia and Australian Ladies Professional Golf. Only five events into his rookie season, 27-year-old Scot David Law can now call himself a European Tour champion. And Celine Boutier of France can do likewise on the LPGA Tour, early in only her second year as a full card-holder.

RELATED: Law’s European Tour breakthrough proudly reverberates 13,600km away at the MENA Tour’s season opener in Jordan

Reflecting perhaps the difficulty in setting-up any course for both men and women—a succession of tight pin positions on the final day were a lot more accessible for the male pros—the winning scores ended up 10 shots apart. Law’s closing eagle on the par-5 18th on the Beach Course at the 13th Beach Golf Club not far from Melbourne took the former Scottish Amateur champion to 18 under par and a one-stroke advantage over a pair of Australians, Brad Kennedy and Wade Ormsby. Boutier’s eight-under aggregate was two strokes better than two more Aussies, Sarah Kemp and Su Oh, as well as England’s Charlotte Thomas. Both winners earned $165,000.

Law’s victory was ultimately the more dramatic of the two. Standing on the 16th tee, the Aberdonian (a protege of 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie) was 15 under and three shots behind the long-time leader, Ormsby. But that was soon to change. In the space of 30 minutes, Law made a birdie on the 16th, then struck a hybrid to 12 feet on the final green and holed the eagle putt. All before Ormsby made a disastrous double-bogey 5 on the par-3 17th. The roles were suddenly reversed.

“My aim was to finish 3-2-4 [all birdies],” said Law, who shot a final-round 66. “My caddie and I reckoned that would get me a top-three finish. All I was trying to do was beat Brad. We had been competing hard for two days so that felt like a reasonable target. But that shot to the 18th was the most important of my life. It has changed my life really.”

Perhaps even more commendable, Law had earlier called a penalty on himself when his ball moved as he addressed it in semi-semi-rough just off the ninth fairway. His reaction was more positive—birdies on each of the next two holes.

Michael Dodge/Getty Images
Three strokes back with three to play, Law carded a birdie and eagle to post a final-round 66.

Boutier, too, had some stellar moments down the stretch. Locked in battle with Oh in the final group—Kemp had finished much earlier with a best-of-the-day 65; Thomas not much later with a 69—the Duke University graduate made a 25-foot birdie putt on the short par-4 15th just after her playing partner had lipped out for eagle. Boutier then made 10-footers for par on the 16th and 17th to preserve her advantage. As a result of those telling and timely putts, the safe par she made on the last a formality as she capped a closing even-par 72.

“I’m so excited,” was Boutier’s understandable reaction. “I’ve been working really hard for the past two years, and I’m just so happy that I was able to get my first win. I’m happy, too, with the way I handled myself today. I was struggling a little bit in the beginning, but I just held on and kept fighting until the end.”

There is nothing new in that, of course. Despite much success in her amateur career (she was a member of the French sides that won the 2010 and 2011 European Team Championships and the Duke team that lifted the 2014 NCAA crown), Boutier initially found life as a professional a lot more stressful. But since working with swing coach Cameron McCormick of Jordan Spieth-fame, things have rapidly improved.

“At the beginning, I was just super nervous, stressed and anxious, and I kept missing cuts,” says the 25-year-old, only the second Duke graduate to win on the LPGA Tour (joining Brittany Lang), and the fourth golfer from France (but first since 2003). “I was focusing too much on results, and I didn’t feel like I belonged out there. Now I do.”

RELATED: Vic Open is more than a novel event. It’s a model for the future

Law also knows a bit about perseverance. And heartache. Now the proud parents of a daughter, Penelope, he and his fiancée, Natasha, endured the agony of a still-born child two years ago.

“When you go through something like that, you realize how fragile life is,” Law says. “I’m just so grateful that we got the support we did. It was unbelievable. I went back to play two weeks after it happened and, honestly, it was probably six weeks too early. We were both still in a pretty bad way. But I had to play, and I knew that the longer I put it off, the harder going back would be. That first week, in particular, was horrendous.”

William West/AFP/Getty Images
Boutier, a two-time LET winner, became only the second Duke graduate to claim a title on the LPGA Tour.

Less than a year later, Law won the 2018 Scottish Challenge in his 100th start on the European Challenge Tour, where he had lingered for five years. That victory, however, sent him into the top-15 money winners. And there he stayed until the end of the season, advancing to the European Tour. Finally.

“I think that it’s only natural you begin to have some doubts,” he says of his earlier struggles. “I knew I was good enough to play and be competitive at a higher level, but when you keep getting knocks you start to wonder if you’ll ever get the chance. It’s not something you really want to think about, but there comes a point when you can’t ignore it any longer.”

And so to the celebrations. Law’s joking plan, living down to every Scottish stereotype, was to “sink around12-15 pints,” while Boutier predictably went with “champagne, French of course.”

Some things never change. You can put men and women together on the golf course, but sometimes they just have to go their separate ways.

The post David Law, Celine Boutier pull out matching first-time wins at the ISPS Handa Vic Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.