Catch up on Bronte Law’s clutch victory in the final edition of our Dubai Moonlight Classic ‘Daily News’ for 2021.

Our wrap of Friday on the Faldo is available FREE here. Alternatively, or simply scroll through the ISSUU link below or download Saturday’s Daily News to your favourite device to read offline or keep for prosperity.

The post Get your souvenir Dubai Moonlight Classic Daily News wrap edition FREE here appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Any doubt that Topgolf Dubai would be the most significant advancement for the game since golf first meets grass in the Middle East – also at Emirates Golf Club – more than three decades ago evaporated within a fortnight of the arena’s grand opening.

More than 200,000 microchipped balls were whacked, with varying degrees of success but almost universal joy, at the facility on the club’s old Faldo driving range. Indeed, since the January 4 opening, on average 8500 players a week have passed through the doors, many of them newcomers to the game and some of them now under the spell of just one sweetly timed strike. That’s all it takes, as Dubai Golf CEP Chris May has already witnessed.

“It is hugely encouraging to see a wide cross-section of nationalities and demographics using the facility, many of them trying golf for the very first time. One particular success has been the large numbers of UAE Nationals really embracing it,” said May.

“This will be a huge step forward in bringing new golfers into the game and in time introducing them to the Par 3 courses in the city and ultimately turning them into golf members of the future.”

READ MORE:
Dubai Golf clubs bolster IMG Prestige offering

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We have two spots to giveaway in the Motivate Media Group team (regional publishers of Golf Digest Middle East) set to participate in the Nov. 4-6 day-night event. That’s right, two lucky readers, one male and one female, will tackle the tricky Faldo layout at Emirates Golf Club in a team to be captained by one of the event’s 56 professionals.

Entry is as simple as filling in your details below and clicking submit. The only condition is that you are available to play on both Nov. 4 and 5 before the pros, including former world No.1 Lydia Ko, British Open champion Georgia Hall and English LPGA Tour star Charley Hull, complete the final round of the 54-hole event solo.

The OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic will be played behind closed doors in 2020 due to health and safety precautions but here’s your chance to not only gain access to the tournament but get inside the ropes for a once-in-a-lifetime Pro-Am experience.

Entries close at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 27. The winner will be notified immediately after the random draw.

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Good luck!

The post WIN! Here’s your chance to tee it up in the OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The new LET Order-of-Merit leader likes what she sees at Emirates Golf Club.

By Kent Gray
A reconnaissance lap of the Faldo course has given Nuria Iturrios a booster shot of something she has in abundance heading into the Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic.

As the Ladies European Tour’s latest winner, the 23-year-old Spaniard oozes confidence coming into the new 54-hole Pro-Am. Following her opening practice round in Dubai after winning last week’s Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco, her stocks seem to have risen even further.

“I really like it,” Nuria said of the event’s new 6300 yard, par-72 layout after the LET’s previous 12 events in Dubai were held on Emirates Golf Club’s neighbouring Majlis layout.

“The par 5s are easy to reach in two, so that’s great for me; I really like that. There is one short par 4, the 13th, which I can reach in one shot and the par 3s are interesting because they are not that long, but these greens are difficult to hit it where you need to go, because there are a lot of breaks.

“I think we had a good training last week in Morocco, where the greens were sloping and tricky too. There are some breaks which you can’t see from the fairway, so you have to have a good strategy.”

While the 285 yard 13th will be in reach in the right conditions – she averaged 269 yards off the tee in Rabat – Iturrios’ winning formula last week paid more to precision. How about driving accuracy a whisker under 85 per cent which led to a 74 per cent greens in regulation return, 18 birdies and a final, title-clinching 13-under-par total?

A repeat of those impressive stats won’t be easily achieved of course but Iturrios seems to have that covered too courtesy of a relaxed attitude.

“Over three days, the winning score here could be 13-under or 14-under, because the par-5s are easier to reach [than in Morocco]. But this is another tournament and another week and another experience for me. I just want to enjoy it.

“I worked really hard in the off-season, so my game is really solid now. My putting is so good. The chipping is good too, so I just want to enjoy it and keep calm.”

That said… “It would be fun to win again.”

Indeed, a Solheim Cup debut beckons at Gleneagles in Scotland if Iturrios can keep the momentum going but September, it seems, isn’t on her immediate radar.

“I have the Solheim Cup in mind but I’m only 23 years old, so if it happens this year it’s going to be great, but if not, it will be a goal for the next few years.”

The post #ODMC2019: New LET order of merit leader Nuria Iturrios keeping calm and carrying on in Dubai appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The Dubai Creek ‘Summer Pass’ offers unlimited golf on the club’s championship course and floodlit Par-3 course between May 1 and September 15 for just AED 5000.

In addition, Summer Pass holders will have unlimited access to the Peter Cowen Academy Dubai practice facilities and use of the state-of-the-art gym and swimming pool at Fit Lab. Summer Pass holders will receive a complimentary 30-minute lesson from a PGA instructor and a 30-minute personal training session and fitness assessment at Fit Lab.

The deal also allows access to the Faldo course at Emirates Golf Club between 9am and 2pm daily as well as access to the club’s own Peter Cowen Academy Dubai practice facilities and Par-3 course. Furthermore, all holders can redeem a “host of discounts and exclusive privileges”.

Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club has announced an ‘Early Bird’ promotion which will allow you to bring up to three guests to play the Creek’s championship course for those who register before April 15.

For more information and to avail this super deal, visit dubaigolf.com, email creekmembership@dubaigolf.com or call 04 205 4575.

Tell them Golf Digest Middle East sent you!

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The Dubai Creek teaching pro survived a high-scoring playoff to edge UAE PGA chief executive Luke Plumb (Trump Dubai) and Jonathan Craddock (Emirates G.C.) after the trio had reached overtime with one-over 73s on The Faldo course.

Related: Let UAE PGA winner Joe Way show you how to escape fairway bunkers

Plumb was the first casualty in extra time, a double-bogey on the Faldo’s par-4 1st not enough to match Way and Craddock’s bogeys. The survivors then bogeyed the par-3 2nd before Way finally got the job done with a par on the par-5 3rd.

@joeway_ Joe Way was victorious @emiratesgc winning a 3 hole playoff after tieing on 73 with @golfcoachjc and Luke Plumb. #emiratesgolfclub #faldocourse #uaepga #dubaigolftrophy #orderofmerit

A post shared by UAE PGA (@uaepga) on Mar 7, 2018 at 10:26am PST

Way isn’t in the field for the next event on the PGA schedule at Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Monday but is well placed in the season-long order of merit in fifth place after 14 of 19 events. Stefan Wears-Taylor, Mills, Mike Bolt (Trump Dubai) and Ryan Smith (The Address Montgomerie) make up the top four heading into the Abu Dhabi, the Montgomerie Pro-Am (April 2), Jumeirah Golf Estates (April 16) and UAE PGA Strokeplay Championship at Arabian Ranches on April 30-May 1.

The UAE PGA Matchplay Championship, which also counts towards the final OOM standings, is on-going with the semifinals and final to be held at Trump International Golf Club Dubai in the week before the strokeplay championship.

Related: What a Way to finish the UAE PGA Pro Am

The top 14 players in the OOM standings, plus two picks, qualify for the UAE PGA team hoping to regain the Dubai Trophy against the Emirates Golf Federation’s leading amateurs at Emirates G.C. and Dubai Creek on May 12-13.

The post Way wins second UAE PGA title on The Faldo after tough playoff appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

According to the European Tour, promoters of the tournament have invested in state-of-the-art floodlights that will be in place around the ninth and 18th on the Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club to make sure the gloaming doesn’t force play to run over into the next day.

The lights became a preventative solution to a potential problem that came from the European Tour moving the tournament up one week on the calendar. Officials contemplated reducing the number of players competing from 132 to 126 to make certain each round could wrap up on its appropriate day. With their installations, the lights will allow the field size to remain the same.

“This is a wonderful idea, and fits perfectly with our desire to bring innovation to our sport” said European Tour commissioner Keith Pelley. “We thank the promoters of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic for their inventiveness and imagination which will allow six more players to compete in what is already a world-class field. No professional golfer ever wants to come back the following morning to complete a round due to lack of daylight and this intervention, should it be required, will rule out that necessity.”

In 2010, the Faldo course at Emirates Golf Club became one of the first fully-floodlit 18-hole courses.

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Golf Digest Middle East experienced Topgolf in Tampa earlier this year. It shapes as a genuine game-changer as golf tackles waning participation rates. 

By Kent Gray
In arguably the most significant development for the game in the Middle East since golf first met grass in the UAE nearly 30 years ago, Topgolf is coming to Dubai.

Emirates Golf Club, home to the region’s first grass course since 1988, is the trailblazer once more with a three-level, 60,000sq foot Topgolf Dubai scheduled to open at the Emirates Hills venue off Sheikh Zayed Road in June next year.

Topgolf brings technology – and a party atmosphere – to the royal and ancient game. Played to the backdrop of music in a souped-up, floodlit driving range, players hit microchipped balls to targets where accuracy and distance are rewarded in a series of different points scoring games. Results are instantly flashed up on big-screen TVs in climate controlled hitting bays where participants also enjoy food and beverage.

An artists impression of the new Topgolf Dubai, due to open in 2019.

It promises a much-needed participation boost for the game in a region where golf doesn’t come cheap. Whereas traditional forms of the game can be an intimidating experience for newcomers, non-golfers have flocked to Topgolf given its less formal, family-friendly and fun first ethos.

Players hit microchipped balls to a series of targets where accuracy and distance are rewarded. Here “golf influencer” Paige Spiranac samples Topgolf Las Vegas…barefoot!

Year-round programming including events for kids and families, social leagues, groups, tournaments and instruction have been promised in Dubai.

Here’s a video teaser of what’s to come:

Founded in 2000 by American twins Steve and Dave Jolliffe as a way to spice up their driving range practice sessions, Topgolf now operates at 37 venues around the globe and is said to “entertain” more than 10.5 million people annually. Following recent expansion into Australia, Canada and Mexico, the Dallas-based company today confirmed its latest partnership with Dubai Golf.

A leisure subsidiary of wasl Asset Management Group, Dubai Golf will manage the venue on a day-to-day basis, working closely with Topgolf to “ensure the culture, fun and excellent hospitality that are authentic to Topgolf are brought to the city”.

The Dubai complex, to be spread over approximately 12 acres of land, will be built in the vicinity of Emirates G.C.’s existing Faldo course driving range with a rooftop terrace offering views over the marina and city skyline.

Dubai Golf CEO Christopher May believes the venture will be a boon for the club, the emirate and the game regionally.

“We are focused on expanding the reach of golf within the region and Topgolf will bring an exciting and unique new way of enjoying the game to the residents and visitors of Dubai,” said May. “We are looking forward to the opening of what will be a very exciting addition to Dubai Golf.”

Players can choose different points scoring games.

Emirates G.C. plays host to the Ladies European Tour’s Omega Dubai Ladies Classic for the 12th time this week and has hosted the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, a blue-riband event on the men’s European Tour since 1989 (save for 1999 and 2000 when it was played at sister-club, Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club).

The Faldo course at Emirates G.C. is the only 18-hole layout in the region to offer fully-floodlit night golf.

F&B is all part of the experience as Topgolf Vegas shows.

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