David Lipsky and Aaron Rai prepare to putt on the ninth green during Thursday’s first round of the 2022 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Sarah Stier

By Ryan Herrington

There are ways to prepare for a PGA Tour event. Being involved in a car accident is not among those recommended.

Thankfully, David Lipsky wasn’t hurt, nor was anyone else in the fender bender the 33-year-old tour rookie was involved in Tuesday morning as he was driving to TPC Louisiana ahead of a practice round at the Zurich Classic.

Lipsky said that he was changing lanes to avoid a car ahead of him that was broken down when he was hit from behind by another vehicle. “Yeah, it was a little bit of a hectic beginning to the week,” Lipsky said.

Your @Zurich_Classic co-leader David Lipsky, who is teaming with Aaron Rai, already had an eventful week. He was involved in a car crash on Tuesday heading to the course. He said no one was hurt in the accident. pic.twitter.com/EobINlcQ4B

— Rex Hoggard (@RexHoggardGC) April 21, 2022

Yet not so hectic as to keep him from sitting near the top of the leader board after the opening round on Thursday. Paired with England’s Aaron Rai, the duo shot a 10-under 61 during four-ball play to sit one off the lead after the morning wave.

Lipsky, a California native who lives in Las Vegas, made six birdies on his own ball in the best-ball format as well as holing out for an eagle from 113 yards on the par-4 eighth, the team’s second-to-last hole.

“David played some incredible golf, hit some shots really close, putted well,” Rai said. “And David made a lot of birdies, especially early on and around the turn, which really got things going for us.”

This is the first time Lipsky and Rai, also playing his first year on the PGA Tour, have competed in the Zurich Classic, and while it might not seem like the American and the Brit have much in common, the two had become friendly competing together on the DP World Tour the past half-dozen years. Additionally, their caddies often room together on the road, which is how the pairing came to be.

“It’s just a comfortable fit for us,” Lipsky said. “We know each other from the European Tour. So we always have that in common. I think it was meant to be.”

After earning his PGA Tour card via Korn Ferry Tour finals last fall, Lipsky had missed the cut in six of his first seven tour starts. Since then, the two-time European Tour winner made seven of nine cuts, including a T-7 finish at the Corales Puntacana Resort Championship in March.

Similarly, Rai, 27, had success in Europe, winning twice in the previous three years, before earning his card via the KFT Finals, but has been slow to find his footing on the PGA Tour. He’s posted just one top-10 finish (T-6 at Farmers) in 16 starts.

The comfort of sharing the load this week seemed evident on Thursday but will take on a different complexion Friday when the pair compete in alternate-shot play. “I’ve never played foursomes before,” Rai said. “So tomorrow will be the first time.”

How about Lipsky?

“There’s an event in Europe, it was called the GolfSixes. You only played like six holes. Every hole had like a different theme. One was alternate shot, one was best ball. So I played like two holes alternate shot like five years ago.”

With Lipsky already having an unusual week, perhaps not knowing what you don’t know will be a good thing.

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The post From car accident to Zurich Classic leader board, tour rookie Lipsky has already had an eventful week appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Midway through his topsy-turvy opening round, there was a scary reminder that the Majlis layout doesn’t really suit Thomas Pieters’ big power fade game. By round’s end, complete disaster miraculously averted, the Belgian had the lead in the 31st OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic and maybe, just maybe, the belief he might actually be able to win on this thus far unhappy hunting ground.

Giddily cruising along at five-under at the turn, the 18th after he had started the $3.25 million European Tour event at the 10th, Pieters was making a mockery of the gusty conditions.

But like so many found to their frustration on Thursday, the Majlis had mayhem up her sleeve. A double-bogey at the 1st and another dropped shot at the 2nd threw the 27-year-old back into the pack and it seemed David Lipsky might hold onto his -4 clubhouse lead all the way into Friday.

On cue, the topsy version of Thomas re-emerged, three successive birdies from the 5th and a gritty par-par finish capping a 67 to leave Lipsky a shot adrift. Swept along with eight birdies in total on a day when there was far more blue numbers on the leaderboard than red, Pieters agreed it had been terrific scoring.

“Yeah, it was,” said Pieters who arrived in Dubai fresh from a T-30 finish in Abu Dhabi last week. “My drives and 3-woods weren’t very good today but somehow I found the greens and if I did hit a fairway, I took advantage of it. Played the par 3s very well. So that means I’m hitting my irons pretty good as I did last week and I just rolled in a few putts, which was nice.”

Pieters’ putter certainly came to the party, especially after he threatened to self-combust after those three dropped shots in two holes. The key putt came on the 5th, a tricky gain binned via six feet of break, before birdie putts from eight and nine feet disappeared on the 6th and 7th.

If it looked easy, it wasn’t.

“Well, there’s nothing easy about today, but I found 14 greens, which is always nice in these kind of conditions. I thought putting was quite tough because the greens are rock hard. I gave myself plenty of chances and luckily made a few.

“I’ve been working on my putting real hard, and I just hope to see some progress. I saw that today. Hopefully we can keep it up. I know I’m hitting the ball quite nice, and you know, I’m just looking forward to the next three days.”

A share of 23rd in 2017 is the world No. 84’s best return in five Desert Classics. There’s a long way to go before he can consider a fifth European Tour win, not to mention a course that still doesn’t really suit his eye to continue to grapple with.

“There’s some really tough holes. For myself, if I fade the ball, it’s never nice to have 90-degree doglegs to the left, and the rough has been really juicy, I don’t know why. Maybe they don’t want to see the 24-, 25-under winning the golf tournament.”

On the evidence of the first day, and particularly Pieters’ play, he mightn’t need to go that low to become firm friends with the Majlis after all.

The post Pieters putts his way out of a pickle to fire 67, leads by one in Dubai appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
David Lipsky is loving the liberty of being unshackled from any equipment deals but not half as much as he enjoyed the freedom of the back nine on the opening morning of the 31st OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic.

Taking full advantage of the relatively benign conditions afforded by being among the first group off the 10th tee at 7.10am, the 31-year-old American raced through his opening nine holes in three-under. The world No. 198 got it to -5 by the 2nd hole, his 11th, before hanging tough as the wind whipped up, a bogey two holes later the only blemish in an impressive 68.

At -4, Lipsky will begin Friday just a stroke adrift of pacesetter Thomas Pieters and with heightened expectations of a third European Tour win after claiming his second at the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek in late 2018.

Victory in Dubai, while still a long way off, would have the big club manufacturers clambering. Not that it seems Lipsky is in any hurry to ink a deal after he “switched pretty much everything” in his bag during the off-season.

“I can just use what I like and how it performs. That really helps give me confidence, as I don’t need to try to fit into any one particular manufacturer,” said Lipsky. “I like the freedom and it’s ended up working out for me.”

So too did the early tee-time, and especially so on the Majlis’ inward nine which played significantly easier than its outward counterpart which boasted the four hardest holes and five of the top six on Thursday.

“I was fortunate. I was first off so the wind died down my first six, seven holes. Took advantage of those. But the rest of the round was a grind.

“I hit a lot of fairways and greens, and out here with the way the rough is, and how firm the greens are, you’ve got hit fairways to attack pins.”

After finishing 43rd in last season’s Race to Dubai and opening 2020 with a share of 30th in Abu Dhabi, Lipsky has unsurprising goals for the new season.

“I just want to put myself in contention more often, a little bit more consistency to my game. I worked really hard in the off-season with my swing coach and I’m seeing it pay dividends right now.”

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The wind wasn’t funny from the get go and when Tiger Woods, citing uncontrollable back spasms, withdrew from the $2.65m European Tour event just an hour before his second round tee time, the joke really fell flat.

To cap the craziness off, play was suspended at 2.26pm due to the high winds and, with trees falling, finally called for the day an hour later.

The second round was set to resume at 7.30am Saturday but this might yet prove a scheduling race against time for the organisers as much as a battle of attrition for the players with more wild weather forecast.

South African George Coetzee, three under through eight holes before play was suspended, will return to the 18^th hole in the lead at -9, a shot clear of overnight leader Sergio Garcia who was one under through five holes.

Fellow Spaniard Nacho Elvira (through four holes) was solo third at -6 and American David Lipsky at -5 (through seven).

Only 63 of the 129 players remaining in the field were able to complete their second rounds, among them German Martin Kaymer and Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello who carded sensational three-under 69s in the conditions to leapfrog 33 places into a share of fifth place at -4 and serious title contention.

The big news, inevitably, was Tiger’s scratching a day after he slumped to an opening 77, the worst of the his 29 competitive loops of the Majlis course by two strokes.

Sand engulfs the 8th fairway – Getty Images

The initial prognosis is optimistic with Mark Steinberg, the former world No.1’s agent, saying the lower back spasms were not connected to the three surgeries Woods has undergone, the last of them in August 2015.

Steinberg doesn’t expect the problem, which flared late Thursday night, to prevent Woods playing the Genesis Open at Riviera from February 16 but there is now clearly a huge question mark hanging over the 41-year-old’s future.

Kaymer, the co-clubhouse leader with Cabrera Bello, summed up the general feeling afterwards.

“Just sad for the golf tournament and sad for us players to see one of the best players, probably the best player in our era, it’s a shame to see,” the two-time major champion said of Tiger’s Dubai demise.

“On one hand, you want to see him play golf, and on the other hand you don’t want to see him struggling. It’s a tricky one.”

Agent Mark Steinberg fronts the media with news of Tiger Woods back injury – Photo: Clarkwin Cruz

Reigning Open champion Henrik Stenson didn’t seem surprised by Woods withdrawal.

“Well, I think with the start he had, I think he had a lot of work to do to play the rest of the week all the way,” the Swede, in a temporary share of fifth at -4 through five second round holes, said.

“Again, it’s a question of him being healthy. I mean, if he’s going to be out here playing, you’ve got to be 100 percent. Once again, he needs to take care of his injuries obviously.”

For the record, Shinkwin, captured by Getty Images’ Warren Little in the strangely poetic main picture, was +5 with nine holes of his second round to play. The projected cut was +1.

Dubai-adopted Indian amateur Rayhan Thomas, a star on day one with his 68, was even par through three holes of his second round.

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