So, forgive McIlroy (or not) for letting off a little steam when someone pitched him a slow softball Saturday on X (formerly Twitter). In a discussion referencing McIlroy’s Ryder Cup concern, golf data guru Lou Stagner, of Arccos, posted, “I wonder if @McIlroyRory also wants to change the rules so Stenson can captain the team?”

The query—in reference to Henrik Stenson being stripped of his captaincy for the 2023 matches because he joined LIV in 2022—was likely facetious and probably rhetorical. But McIlroy, being the avid reader he is, saw the comment and responded on Saturday by taking a shot at the Swede.

“The best thing to happen to the 2023 Euro Ryder cup [sic] team was Henrik going to LIV!” McIlroy said.

A sly joke or a not-so-subtle dig? Who knows, but it helps McIlroy’s case that the Europeans blasted the Americans 16½-11½ at Marco Simone in Italy with Luke Donald at the helm for the winning side. And, in fact, the Englishman was so well-regarded for how he handle the team that he’d been tabbed to return as the captain the for 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

I wonder if @McIlroyRory also wants to change the rules so Stenson can captain the team? https://t.co/d0wpP94KqX

— Lou Stagner (Golf Stat Pro) (@LouStagner) December 9, 2023

Stenson, of course, was disappointed to lose his captaincy, though the five-time Ryder Cup player had to know that he was taking that chance when he signed with LIV.

“I’m just disappointed that with everything that came out because there was a big willingness on my part to sit down and talk long before this thing got to where it got to,” Stenson said in an interview after the final round of this year’s Open Championship. “There were certain people, without naming names, that didn’t want to sit down and take those meetings. As a consequence, I feel like we ended up in all of this that could have been avoided. But we live, and we learn.”

Stenson reportedly got a $50 million contract from LIV and two weeks after he was removed as Ryder Cup captain, he won his LIV debut at Trump Bedminster to claim the $4 million first prize. In 13 events this past season, Stenson notched three top-10s.

Image: Christian Petersen

The post Rory McIlroy takes a shot at Henrik Stenson and his terminated Ryder Cup captaincy: ‘Best thing to happen’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Terry Mundy offers a fascinating insight into the highs and lows of looping for European Ryder Cup talisman Ian Poulter

It has been a frustrating couple of weeks, coming from Abu Dhabi we missed the cut there, played okay but didn’t really putt anywhere near as good as we both hoped and then we come here, we do a lot of work on the range and putting, then you get to the first round of the tournament and it doesn’t work out again (four over 76), you don’t get off to the greatest start and it becomes more and more difficult as it goes on. All you can do is to get back to the putting green and the driving range. It is one of those jobs that if things go well it’s pretty easy for the player and the caddie, you go out there, you shoot five-under, you come in, you get some lunch, you go back to the hotel and you come and do it again. But when it isn’t firing on all cylinders it’s hard work on the golf course and then you get in and it’s hard work again because you’ve got to work on putting it right. So this is the side of the job that isn’t so much fun but over a period of time it’s fine, the game doesn’t owe Ian or I anything, we have had our highs in it, it has looked after us well but it’s a little frustrating when it’s not going too well.

RELATED: Caddie Confidential: Helen Storey takes us inside the ropes with Lee Westwood

The technical side of the job is the same every day, you come up with the correct yardage, you call where the wind is, you decide what that yardage is playing and you select a club accordingly, and for the most part that’s not the issue. The issue is when it isn’t working and you’re hitting it right and left, you’re not holing putts, then you have got a frustrated player and then it does become about the personalities and how you talk to each other and how you get through these times. I think it differs from time to time, there are times when a player needs a shoulder to cry on, there are times when he needs a good rev up. I have been with Ian a long time and we are mates so in that respect it’s easier for me because I know him so well that for the most part I know what to say, when to say it and how to deliver it but it’s not always easy because everybody is desperate to do well all the time. So when things don’t go well we would look at everything again and we ask ourselves ‘is this good? What do we need to do? Do we need to sharpen that up? Are we working too hard? Are we not working hard enough? Is it going to help going on the range for three hours or are we just going to get worse?’ It’s a constant battle but in my experience you…if Ian played well, putted it well, popped in a six-under, that could all change for the rest of the year, it is just getting that going again. You don’t want to struggle for too long, you want to get that fixed as quick as you can and turn it around.

It is about personalities, and as a caddie, you wouldn’t perhaps do and say the same things to every player. You don’t caddie one way and you don’t say one thing to all the players. If you have one player who’s chilled and very relaxed he might need a kick, and you might have another one who is so highly strung, he would need the opposite.

So it’s your job as the caddie to decide what needs saying and what needs doing and how to do it and it’s never the same for two players.

RELATED: Caddie Confidential: We go inside the ropes with Andy Sullivan’s looper Tom Ridley

Getty Images

We changed the equipment a little bit and we are trying to recheck that is the right way to go or do we put back in what we know or do we stick with something that’s supposedly going to help long term. [Coach] Pete Cowen is involved in that process, we are just reaffirming stuff. When you have come in and you haven’t had a good score it’s nice to have him there to confirm whether the swing looks good or is there a problem that needs fixing, but yes, Pete said that the swing was pretty good but it becomes about commitment and being aggressive, when you’re not scoring well it’s hard to do that, it’s hard to attack.

You reflect on the things Ian has achieved in the past, such as the Ryder Cup performances, the WGC wins, matchplay wins, sometimes you need to be reminded that it’s not all that bad, you have done this and that, you’re capable, maybe not quite clicking today but we just need to get one good round in the bank and you just keep resetting, trying to go out there and be as positive as you can. We are in a bad position here, I think the cut is going to be level, one under par, we know we need to go out today and shoot five-under and we will do our best (he signed for a 69). At the end of the day there’s no panic button yet, we have had a couple of bad weeks but we will go out today and try to shoot five or six under and if it happens then we will build on that, so it’s just trying to keep pressing to find that one round to spark you off. –With Kent Gray

The post Caddie Confidential: Poulter’s bagman reflects on another MC in Dubai appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Casey has made enough money for several lifetimes—being successful on two tours for almost 20 years will do that for you—and yet the can’t-close-on-Sundays reputation lingers. As recently as last month at Pebble Beach he took a three-shot lead into the final round only to be run down by Phil Mickelson. A second-place finish was worth a lot of money but brought up the Sunday thing again, even though the finish there was on Monday.

No one’s ever going to compare Casey to Tiger Woods when it comes to 54-hole leads, but on a difficult day on Innisbrook’s Copperhead course, the former hung on, making a tough par at the 18th hole to beat Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Kokrak by a shot and win the Valspar Championship once more. His one-over-par 72 was hardly pretty, but it was good enough. A year ago, Casey shot 65 the final day to charge from behind for his first tour win in nine years.

“It feels very different,” Casey said. “But not any less cool.”

While Casey was hoisting the trophy, Luke Donald was walking away with a smile on his face too, even though his final two-over-par 73 dropped him to a tie for ninth. It was Donald’s first top-10 finish since he a solo second at Harbour Town almost two years ago and the first cut he had made since he finished T-64 exactly a year ago at Innisbrook.

Donald had to stop playing last year after missing the cut at Hilton Head because of a herniated disc. His first official tournament back was the Sony Open in Hawaii in January—where he missed the cut. This was his second PGA Tour start of the year and gave him hope.

“I still think I can compete with the best players,” Donald said. “I know I don’t hit it as long as most of the young guys, but I never have and I’ve been able to play well in the past.”

Casey and Donald have much in common. They’re both English and both 41; Casey was born in July of 1977, Donald in December. Each is a four-time Ryder Cupper; Donald’s never played on a losing team, Casey’s teams are 3-1. Each has won the World Cup of Golf; they did it as partners in 2004. Both turned pro in 2001.

Donald, who went into Tampa ranked 919th in the world, has spent 56 weeks ranked No. 1. Casey has been ranked as high as No. 3. Perhaps because of that year-plus atop the World Ranking, Donald was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 2012. He also claimed the money title on the PGA Tour and the European Tour in 2011, winning $10 million combined that year.

Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

What the two most shares in common, however, is having very distinguished careers that lack a major championship. Donald has finished in the top 10 eight times in majors, his best finishes being a T-3 at the Masters in 2005 (seven shots out of the Tiger Woods-Chris DiMarco playoff) and a T-3 at the PGA in 2006 (six shots behind Woods). Casey has nine top-10s in majors, his best finish a T-3 at the 2010 Open Championship, eight shots behind Oosthuizen.

If either could somehow add a major to his resume, he would be a candidate for the World Golf Hall of Fame. The bar has been set recently at one major victory and 15 wins overall—Fred Couples. Casey now has 16 wins between Europe and the U.S; Donald has 12 but also has the imprimatur of that No. 1 ranking and his remarkable 2011 season.

Both played college golf in the U.S.; Casey at Arizona State; Donald at Northwestern. Both married Americans, although Casey’s marriage ended in divorce. He has since re-married, this time to someone from Great Britain. Donald still has a home in Chicago; Casey has one in Arizona.

In 2012, on the night before the Ryder Cup singles, the European captains met to discuss their lineup for the next day. The team trailed 10-6 at Medinah, but had finished Saturday with two wins to get that close and had the momentum—most of it coming from Ian Poulter’s five late birdies to steal the final match of the day. The sentiment in the room was to have Poulter lead off, send the team’s most emotional player into the cauldron of Medinah first. But Paul McGinley, one of the vice-captains disagreed.

“I said, ‘If we send Poults out first, it will get the crowd all wound up,’ ” McGinley recalled a few years later. “But if we send Luke out first, the crowd here likes him too much to get into a frenzy. It will calm things a little. Plus, he’ll go out and play well in the heat.’”

Captain Jose Maria Olazabal agreed. Donald led off and beat Bubba Watson, 2 and 1, setting the tone for the day and starting the European rally. As it turned out, Donald hasn’t played in a Ryder Cup since. Two years later, McGinley chose Lee Westwood over Donald for the final captain’s pick, even though he was close friends with Donald. In 2018, Donald was vice-captain for Thomas Bjorn and is likely to be a European captain in the future.

Casey and Donald have shared many moments in golf, from winning the World Cup in 2004, the Ryder Cup in 2006 and competing in majors like the 2008 U.S. Open.

That probably won’t happen for Casey. He played in three straight Ryder Cups from 2004 through 2008 but didn’t play again for 10 years, in part because he missed making the team, in part because he resigned from the European Tour prior to 2016 after not wanting to travel to Europe from Arizona as often as was required. He re-joined the tour for 2018 and was one a captain’s pick of Bjorn’s.

The two men have very different personalities: Casey is an extrovert; Donald an introvert. A 20-minute interview with Casey might require two questions. Say hello, ask him how it’s going and let him talk. Donald is equally pleasant and polite, but a good deal quieter.

They are at very different junctures in their career at the moment. Casey’s victory left him thinking there might still be big things ahead for him as he heads into his middle-40s. He began the final round Sunday with a one-shot lead on Dustin Johnson. Everyone waited for Johnson to blow past Casey and the field, but the move never came. Johnson shot 74, failing to make a birdie all day. After that, it was left to Casey to hold off Oosthuizen and Kokrak.

“I had a lot of confidence,” Casey said after it was over on Sunday. “My victory here last year put me in a frame of mind, a comfort that I felt many years ago in my career, in, pick a year when I was winning consistently in Europe.

“People forget, I haven’t been a prolific winner, but I’ve won 17 times around the world. I’d like it to be more. It’s not bad. I’d like it to be more, obviously. I know how to win, plain and simple. I think I had forgotten and last year’s win kind of broke the seal.”

Icon Sportswire

The victory moved Casey to No. 11 in the Official World Golf Rankings. Donald jumped from No. 919 to No. 548 with his finish—a long way from where he once was, but a first step in a journey that might look like it is 1,000 miles long right now.

Both have been very good players. Casey is just shy of stardom at the moment; Donald’s been to that plateau—except in the majors.

Both will turn 42 before the year is over and both sincerely hope that the best is yet to come.

The post Paul Casey and Luke Donald see their paths cross once again as their careers take new turns appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Steven Kelbrick most definitely subscribes to the theory that life begins at 50, in a golfing sense at least.

The Dubai-based Brit’s second coming in amateur golf continues at this month’s 2nd Sharjah Senior Golf Masters where he’ll trade putts, and hopefully trade secrets, with a field containing 14 former European Ryder Cuppers. Kelbrick qualified for the Staysure Tour (formerly European Senior Tour) event last month and cannot wait to return to Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club to see how his +2 handicap stacks up against legends of old.

His ultimate dream is a promised but not guaranteed round with U.S. legend Tom Watson on the Old Course at St. Andrews this summer. But before we get to that potential holy-grail moment at the home of golf, the oil and gas trader’s journey to Sharjah is worthy of a recap.

Kelbrick fashioned quite the record during his junior days, playing county golf for Cheshire, the prestigious Peter McEvoy and Carris trophies (under-18) before captaining England Universities in home internationals during a collegiate career that saw him help the University of Liverpool capture a pair each of team matchplay and strokeplay titles.

As often the case, career and family commitments put competitive golf on the backburner, at least until the now dual Trump International Golf Club, Dubai and Royal Liverpool member shifted to the UAE from Switzerland 4½ years ago. A little help from now Yas Links-based coach Matthew Parker and Arabian Ranches putting guru Malcolm Young helped reignite the competitive fires and when he turned 50 last June, the game really changed.

“It opened up a whole new world,” Kelbrick said of cracking the half-century. “It opens up all the national senior opens apart from the British Senior Amateur which you can’t play until you’re 55 for some reason. It’s competitive and I’ve had a couple of decent years so I just want to build on it.”

Kelbrick has already tested the 50+ waters, finishing a tidy 14th at the European Senior Masters in Austria last summer before he went on to upstage the whippersnappers to clinch the 2016-17 Emirates Golf Federation (EGF) Order of Merit title. He also came within a shot of qualifying for The Senior Open at Royal Porthcawl. Those results combined have given Kelbrick the confidence he can compete at the top echelons.

Which gets us back to this year’s Senior Open at St. Andrews and that Watson wish. Kelbrick, who coincidently sponsors European Tour players Haydn Porteous. Lucas Bjerregaard and Paul Waring though his third share in the SwingFit Performance Academy in South Africa, has been promised a practice round with his boyhood hero if he qualifies for the July 26-29 major.

“I first saw him play at Royal Troon in ’82 when he beat Nick Price [to hoist the Claret Jug for the fourth of five times] and from that day on…it’s just the way he’s lived his life, conducted himself,” said Kelbrick of eight-time major champion Watson.

“I’ve had the chance to meet him twice but I’ve never played with him. He’s a hero as man and as for his golf, his record speaks for itself.”

But first things first though. Let’s focus on those 54 precious holes at Sharjah.

“My goal for Sharjah? Well, there’s no cut, so just show, confirm to myself, that I can compete with some of these boys. If I get anything like mid-field, I’d be thrilled. If I can shoot three 72s – I shot 75 in qualifying with two doubles and 73 with a triple the day before – I think that will be a good performance.”

It would certainly set Kelbrick up nicely for his second shot at the Senior Open.

“If I do qualify, I said to Brendan [Taylor, Executive VP, Golf (EMEA) for sports marketing and talent management company Wasserman] to bring the tissues. It’ll be five hours of tears, I would be useless,” says Kelbrick.

Don’t be fooled. Kelbrick might be misty eyed, but good golf begins at 50, remember.

The post Meet the Dubai amateur chasing a St. Andrews play date with Tom Watson…via Sharjah appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Of all the known storylines and potential plot twists to come during the opening fortnight of the new, two-part Desert Swing, none are more intriguing than the return of Rory McIlroy.

The scrutiny in Abu Dhabi and Dubai won’t quite be as intense as it was for Tiger Woods’ comeback in the Bahamas before Christmas – no one moves the needle like the Big Cat – but the Northern Irishman will surely dominate the game’s New Year narrative nonetheless.

When he shut down the first winless year of his career in early October, there was genuine disappointment McIlroy had chosen to bypass the Race to Dubai decider after at least attempting to qualifying for the PGA Tour’s equivalent at East Lake the previous month, before teeing it up in the British Masters and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Eyebrows arched again when the 28-year-old was spied playing the Desert Classic venue as the DP World Tour Championship was coming to its climactic conclusion across town at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

But most, from European Tour chief Keith Pelley down, were prepared to cut McIlroy some slack, satisfied with the recuperation plan he’d outlined following his limp T-63 season sign-off in Scotland.

Indeed, if McIlroy delivers on the blueprint, 2017 will soon be forgotten. The owner of four majors and more than 20 titles worldwide, already a Hall of Fame worthy career, was clearly thinking beyond resting those pesky ribs of his.

“If someone had told me at The Belfry 10 years ago [where he made his pro debut in the 2007 British Masters] that you’re going to do X, Y and Z and I’ve done whatever, I would have been really happy, ecstatic, over the moon,” he said. “But because of the experiences I’ve had in those 10 years and the golfer that I’ve become, these next three months could give me the foundation to have the next 10 years be even better than the 10 years I’ve just had. That turns a great career into one of the greatest careers. So that’s why I think these next few months are really important. I’m looking forward to it.”

The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship has long eluded the 28-year-old Northern Irishman. (Getty Images)

McIlroy’s transformation started with a trip to a specialist in Manchester for a full physical, including testing for potential food allergies. “There’s been a couple of things this year where my joints have been inflamed or I just haven’t had the right energy levels. So I want to use this time to delve deeper, to see where I can get better and be more disciplined.”

That discipline extended to meal times where McIlroy admitted he’d succumbed to “weaknesses” such as “red wine, dark chocolate, burgers, fries…and everything really.” It seems to have worked – he looked noticeably thinner around the gills in a tweet just before Xmas than he had been in those last press conference pics in October.

As is the modern way, we’ve had to settle for social media snippets for a clue to the swing changes he’s been working on. First it was “Some gate and green reading work today. #progress” Instagram update in late October. A few weeks later he was chipping away with the wedge: “Working on my take away and setting the club a little more vertical half way back”.

That McIlroy had zoned in on his short game was hardly earth shattering. While he topped the driving distance stats on the PGA Tour last season with a 317.2 yard average (his 161st placing in driving accuracy put an interesting spin on that stat), McIlroy ranked only 96th in greens in regulation and struggled the closer he got to the putting surface – his average 29ft 6in proximity to the hole from 125-150 yards left him 190th on tour and he was only a slightly better 145th in shots from 100-125 yards. Coupled with average putting – he was 140th in the over-arching strokes gained category – and it’s clear where even marginal gains could make a major difference.

Time – beyond eight potential rounds in the UAE – will be the ultimate judge of the off-season grind but McIlroy clearly needs to be 100 percent to meet his career reset remit. He intends to play at least 26 events up to the Ryder Cup in France next September, eight of those before the Masters in April which is the next obvious waypoint in his journey to immortality.

“The [career] Grand Slam, that’s probably the next reasonable goal on the agenda,” said McIlroy before verbally painting the big picture. “And try to become the best European golfer ever. I’m trying to surpass Nick Faldo in that.”

A victory in any of this year’s  bigs would move McIlroy within on major of Faldo’s career total of six and edge him ever closer to an even bigger goal.

“If I had a career goal, it would probably be to be the best international golfer ever, you know, Gary Player has nine majors. I’d like to think I’m going to give myself a chance to get close to that tally.

You get demoralised and he’s an emotional guy, he wants things to be running right. So in a way, to go away and recharge the batteries is not such a bad thing. – Sir Nick Faldo

Flashback: Rory McIlroy poses with Nick Faldo after winning the under-17 division of the 2006 Faldo Junior Series at the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales. (Getty Images)

“Obviously the Americans have sort of dominated the world of golf for the last 100 years, with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger [Woods], Walter Hagen and all those guys, but I think that the next goals on my radar are obviously the Grand Slam, try and get the green jacket, and then try and set my sights on becoming the best European ever.”

Faldo, speaking to Golf Digest Middle East during the European final of his global junior series at Al Ain in late November, is delighted to be in McIlroy’s crosshairs. He spoke to McIlroy during the first FedEx Cup playoff event, the Northern Trust in late August, where the Northern Irishman expressed frustration at not being able to practice how he wanted due to the injury. Asked if he saw anything amiss technically, Faldo deferred to the source himself.

“In his own words [Rory said] he was protecting those ribs, dropping the club a little bit on the backswing which is not good,” the CBS analyst said.

“You know, he wants to swing it a certain way and it’s either causing him pain or it’s the fear of it going twang again. If he pops that thing out again, there’s nothing worse than having an injury where you’ve got to lay off golf completely.  I’ve never been through that fully, well a little bit, but not when somebody says ‘you can’t touch a club for two months mate, you’ve got to repair’, that would drive a golfer nuts. I think that’s the main thing, it was definitely getting into his mind that he couldn’t play how he wanted to play.”

For that reason alone, Faldo believes McIlroy made the right call to close down his season early.

“He’s got to have the confidence that this rib is absolutely 100 percent so he can then commit to practicing how he wants to practice. You get in a rut if you don’t feel 100 percent and everything is just a little bit off. You get demoralised and he’s an emotional guy, he wants things to be running right.

“So in a way, to go away and recharge the batteries is not such a bad thing. I think maybe he’s coming out with a new 2018 swing, and body and mind, and [has] set his goals and can just come out and get on with it.”

No one is looking forward to McIlroy getting on with it quite as much as Thomas Bjorn. If the confidence and form rich Team USA (with the emphasis on ‘team’) are to be denied a repeat in Paris, the new European Cup captain needs the likes of McIlroy free wheeling at Le Golf National.

Playing catch up in golf is the worst feeling in the world… no matter how good you are, if you don’t do the practice, you simply can’t keep up with guys at the top of the game. – Thomas Bjørn

McIlroy, the 2009 and 2015 champion, will seek a hat-trick of Omega Dubai Desert Classic dallah’s at Emirates Golf Club. (Getty Images)

Bjorn didn’t play the DP World either (average golf is the penance one pays to be Ryder Cup captain) but he was at JGE. That McIlroy was MIA was of little concern to the Dane, as was the fact his talisman (with all due respect to Ian Poulter) has drifted to 10th in the world rankings, the lowest he’s been since 2014.

“The way I see it, Rory has been playing catch up all year,’ said Bjorn. “He gets to the biggest tournaments in the world, but he hasn’t practiced, he hasn’t been fit, and then he’s playing catch up. That’s the difficult part of the game of golf today – even if you get yourself a little bit behind, the expectations are still the same, so it’s been really hard for him to even play. “

McIlroy’s one regret last year was coming back a “week or two” too soon for the U.S. Open at Erin Hills where he missed the cut and put himself back even further.

“Now he gets some time off,” Bjorn continued “and he can come out early next year and be ready to play on an even playing field with everybody else. That puts him in a good position to get back to where he wants to be. Playing catch up in golf is the worst feeling in the world, because when you haven’t done the work before the big tournaments, you don’t really know where you are, and it’s very easy to miss the results you want.

“I think Rory gets questioned when he doesn’t get the result, and the same thing happened to Tiger – he was always injured, and he went to tournaments without practicing, but the expectations were still so high for him that he could never deliver on the golf course because no matter how good you are, if you don’t do the practice, you simply can’t keep up with guys at the top of the game.”

McIlroy last stood atop the world rankings at the 2015 U.S. Open and the prep work he’s put in at his Dubai base camp in recent months shows he clearly isn’t comfortable with his current standing in the game. A new ascent, and refreshed expectation, begins in Abu Dhabi.

The post Rory’s Reboot: ‘My next 10 years start here’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.