Countless golfers go a lifetime without a hole-in-one, much less a professional title but Kyle Barker needed just a single afternoon to tick off those two bucket-list milestones on Wednesday.

The 19-year-old South Africa sealed an impressive two-shot, wire-to-wire victory at the MENA Tour’s Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open with a closing 68 at Yas Links, highlighted by an ace at the fourth.

Todd Clements pushed Barker to the limit with a closing 66, the day’s best score, but the South African had a counter jab to everything thrown at him by the English Amateur champion, as well as a couple of his own scorecard upper cuts.

Barker, playing on a special invitation, started the final round par, birdie, par, ace, birdie but then bogeyed the 6th and tripled the ninth. His topsy-turvy quest for a maiden pro title continued when he eagled the par 5 11th only to bogey the 16th and once again give Clements a sniff. But a birdie-birdie finish, including sinking an improbable 50-footer on 17, finally sunk Clements’ challenge.

“I am really so happy. Words can’t really express it,” said Barker after collecting the silverware and the champion’s US$9000 cheque from Yas Links general manager Howie Roberts.

“Feeling a proud South African at the moment, proud because the last two events on the MENA Tour were also won by a South African [MG Keyser at the Dubai Creek Open and Golf Citizen Classic at The Els], so this win is a bit special too.

“When Todd birdied the 13th, 15th and 16th, I needed do something special and hitting my three-wood approach on the final hole to within four feet did the trick.”

Clements, forced to settle for his second runner-up finish in three starts, was again gracious as he came up just short again in his bid to become the third amateur winner on the developmental circuit.

“Kyle played brilliantly all week and deserved to win,” said the 21-year-old Englishman who birdied the 9th to affect a four-shot swing following Barker’s triple. Sadly a bogey on the last blew his chances.

“I tried to be patient out there and stuck to my game plan. Of course, I am a bit disappointed on missing out on victory, but the good thing is that I’m able to take a lot of confidence out of today, a lot of positives.”

England’s Jamie Elson signed for a final round 68 to finish third on -9, one clear of compatriot Christopher Cannon who finished with a flawless 67. Elson’s solid performance sees him return to the top of the professional order of merit, 4432 points ahead of Fredrik From after the Swede finished T-18 at -2 following rounds of 73-71-70. A cheque for $6000 boosted Elson’s season earnings to $19, 471 (AED 71,518) while From has pocketed $17,718.

Scotland’s Paul Doherty carded back-to-back 67s to join Germany’s Georg Schultes in a tie for 5th on -7, one ahead of Welshman Toby Hunt as England’s Zane Scotland took a share of 8th on -5 following a final round 70.

Darren Clarke, the MENA Tour patron, settled for tied 26th on level-par after a final round 73 while UAE national rep Khalid Yousuf closed with a 73 to finish +3 in a share of 39th place alongside, among others, Dubai amateur Michael Harradine.

The MENA Tour’s next event, the new Jordan’s AYLA Golf Championship from October 5-7, unusually starts next Thursday unlike most the circuit’s Monday starts.

For final scores click here

Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open champion Kyle Barker with Yas Links General Manager Howie Roberts and the Abu Dhabi club’s Director of Golf, Kames Ibbetson.

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Rookie South African professional Kyle Barker will take a four-stroke lead over Clements into the final round of the Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open Wednesday after backing up his opening 66 at Yas Links with a bogey-free 68 today to move to -10.

Clements (pictured) added a 70 to his first round 68 to remain in contention at -6, a shot clear of South African Tyler Hogarty, Welshman Toby Hunt and Englishman Jamie Elson who is doing his order of merit ambitions no harm at all with rounds of 70-69 thus far. But it is the 19-year-old Barker, playing on a special invite this week, who is impressing everyone with his ball striking.

“I really enjoyed my day out there. Didn’t really hole that many putts, but managed to keep bogeys off my card, which was great,” said Barker.

“My caddy and I are working as a team and the results are showing on the scores. Again, I struck the ball nicely and created a plenty of scoring opportunities there. I feel like I’m in great position and hoping to pull off my first professional win.”

Kyle Barker

Clements, T-17 at the Els last week after finishing joint runner-up at the Dubai Creek Open earlier in the month, started Tuesday just two back but couldn’t get his putter going.

“I played better than Monday, but just couldn’t hole putts, missed at least four or five from close range. That’s golf. Maybe tomorrow is a better day,” said the 21-year-old who hopes to emulate Indian No.1 Rayhan Thomas and Dutchman Pierre Junior Verlaar as amateur winners after they won the 2016 Dubai Creek Open and March’s Royal Golf Mohammedia Open respectively.

Darren Clarke, the 2011 Open champion and MENA Tour patron, moved into a tie for 20th on -1 after a second round 71, but defending champion Craig Hinton shot back-to-back 74s to miss the cut (which fell at +3, 147) by one, as did Luke Joy (74-74).

Scotland’s Paul Doherty fired a five-under 67 to make the biggest move, up from T-63 to T-13, as the English duo of Lee Corfield (-4) and Zane Scotland (-3) left themselves with work to do.

Elsewhere, Khalid Yousuf carded rounds of 72-74 to be +2 for the championship and in a share of 39th overnight. But his UAE national team-mates had a much tougher time of it on Tuesday with Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship-bound Ahmed Skaik missing the cut on +8 after rounds of 75-77 as Abdalla Al Musharrekh finished +23 (84-83). Ahmed Al Musharrekh, who played the opening round in the company of Clarke, was forced to withdraw with a wrist injury while no second round score was posted for Sohail Al Marzooqi on the MENA Tour website after he opened with a 19-over-par 91 on Monday.

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Buamaim’s long-term dream for the tour is, of course, to unearth young, Olympic Games-quality Arab stars, but he couldn’t grumble at the quality of Barker’s golf Monday, a sizzling 66 helping the 19-year-old South African open up a two shot lead at the Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open.

MJB will also be heartened by the hot streak Todd Clements is currently riding after the English amateur eased into second place with a 68. Eight players share third after 69s, the tour’s most decorated player in Zane Scotland and the producer of Monday’s shot of the day, South African Wayne Stroebel, among them. Stroebel holed a wedge on the 141-yard par 3 13th for his first career ace.

But the day belonged to Barker who opened his round with three successive birdies, was five under through seven and added further gains on the 13th and 16th to cancel out a lone bogey on the 10th.

“Everything flowed quite smoothly out there. I struck the ball beautifully, putted nicely and my approaches were relatively close, creating plenty of birdie opportunities,” said Barker, a professional barely a year who is playing Yas Links on a special MENA Tour invitation.

“I had a lot of fun playing on this course, which is in great condition and look forward to having some more good times in the next two rounds.”

Jamie Elson, meanwhile, made the early move in the all-important pro order of merit race. The Englishman signed for a two under 70, three shots better than Swede Fredrik From, the only man above him in the points standings save for South African MG Keyser who has abandoned his OOM hopes to chase a Asian Tour card in Malaysia.

Yas Links-attached Luke Joy has ground to make up after an opening 74 while English compatriot Andrew Marshall remains in the OOM conversation after a 71.

Playing in his second MENA Tour event in three weeks this season, former Open champion Darren Clarke carded a solid 70.

After finishing tied second with Rayhan Thomas at The Dubai Creek Open and 17th at last week’s Golf Citizen Classic at The Els, Clements needs another strong week to zero in on the top 50 of the World Amateur Golf Rankings. The 21-year-old Essex lad, currently ranked 64th, has started his mission strongly by mixing five birdies with a solitary bogey on the 15th.

“I started off well, making four birdies in the first seven holes and that set pretty much the tone for the round,” Clements said. “I played good, solid golf and made no major mistakes which was the key.”

Clements leads the amateur battle by two shots from Kenyan Agil Is-hag (70). Englishman Taylor Carter (71) is third while and Saudi Arabia’s Othman Almulla, England’s Robert Horridge and the UAE’s Khalid Yousuf shared fourth after even par 72s.

Ahmed Skaik was the next best of the UAE national team players with a 75 but the remainder of local contingent now have a very clear line in the sand with regards the level required to compete on the MENA Tour.

Ahmed Al Musharrekh, playing in the company of former Ryder Cup captain Clarke, left himself a mountain to climb after dropping six shots in his last five holes en-route to a six-over 78 while Abdalla Al Musharrekh carded an 84 (+12) and Sohail Al Marzooqi a 19-over 91.

For full scoreboard, click here

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By Kent Gray

With a major champion returning for his second start in three weeks, the current order-of-merit leader winging his way to Malaysia and the return of a perennial title challenger from Austria, this week’s Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open doesn’t lack for preview fodder.

But as inevitable as it is that former Open champion Darren Clarke, MIA South African MG Keyser and confidence-bruised Englishman Luke Joy will dominate the early narrative at Yas Links, there is an intriguing amateur subplot that has MENA Tour chairman Mohamed Juma Buamaim just as excited.

At the summit of the battle within the battle is Englishman Todd Clements who will look to extend his lead in the circuit’s amateur OOM. Clements, who moved up to 64th in the amateur world rankings on the back of his joint second placing with Rayhan Thomas at the recent Dubai Creek Open, takes a 27 point lead into the 12th of the tour’s 15 regular season events over countryman Sam Hobday.  UAE-based Swiss international Michael Harradine, third overall 41 points adrift, will also hope to have some say at Yas Links.

But the presence of UAE nationals Ahmed Skaik, Khalid Yousuf, Sohail Al Marzooqi and Abdalla Al Musharrekh among the 24 amateur entries is especially welcomed by Buamaim.

It is a particularly important time for Skaik who won the individual title at last year’s 21st GCC Golf Championship in Bahrain. The left-hander is counting down to the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in New Zealand (Oct. 26-29) and the Nomura Cup (Asia-Pacific Amateur Teams Championship) in Malaysia (Nov. 9-12).

Skaik will have promising 17-year-old Mohammed Al Hajeri for company at Royal Wellington next month where the individual winner earns a start in the 2018 U.S. Masters. Abdalla and Hassan Al Musharrekh, meanwhile, will fly with Skaik to Jordan’s AYLA Golf Championship, a new stop on the MENA Tour next week, as part of the on-going prep for the Nomura Cup.

“It’s great to see UAE national team members, in particular, sign up for the event,” said Buamaim.

“The experience that the region’s amateurs gain from competing alongside professionals will hold them in good stead for their future regional and international engagements.”

Clarke, the 2011 Open Champion and the MENA Tour’s increasingly hard-working patron, has returned to Abu Dhabi of his own accord, partly to push the circuit’s agenda with the Emirates Golf Federation but also in the hope of rekindling some old magic ahead of teeing it up on the Champions Tour in the U.S. next year.

The 49-year-old, who spent time practicing under the watchful eye of Butch Harmon School of Golf director of instruction Justin Parsons at The Els over the weekend, finished T-16 at the Creek with scores of 68-69-74. Clarke will be hoping his putter co-operates a little more at Yas Links as he looks to go one better than his T-2 finish in his MENA Tour debut at the 2015 Ras Al Khaimah Classic.

Great to spend some time with Darren Clarke this week. His instinct (strike) and artistry (shape) are about as good as anyone. Good two days work @the_els_club_dubai @bhsgdubai #teamtitleist #titleist #golfer #golf #golfing

A post shared by Justin Parsons (@jparsonsgolf) on Sep 23, 2017 at 2:31am PDT

Joy hopes to quickly rebound from a missed cut at the KLM Open and the “crushing blow” of failing to advance from the first stage of European Tour Q-School in Austria last week. At fourth on the Pro OOM, the 29-year-old still has much to play for and especially so around the links layout to which he is attached.

Related: Joy “absolutely deflated” after failing, by a stoke, to advance at European Tour Q-School 

After back-to-back Dubai Creek and Golf Citizen Classic victories, Mathiam Gerhard, or “MG “, Keyser, is opted to chase a return to the Asian Tour which means Joy, Swede Fredrik From and former Challenge Tour winner Jamie Elson will resume their battle for top honours as the circuit quickly zeros in on its flagship $100,000 Tour Championship at Al Zorah from Oct. 23-26.

Dubai-based Keyser begins a three week stretch on the Asian Development Tour in Malaysia at this week’s PGM EurAsia Sabah Championship at Sabah Golf and Country Club but has vowed to return to MENA Tour duty in 2018.

“I would love to play the rest of the Mena events and try finishing first but I have commitments in Asia and have to focus on getting my main tour card back for next year,” Keyser told Golf Digest Middle East.

“And then I can hopefully schedule the Mena Tour in for 2018 and try and play enough events to be able to play tour champs.”

Order of Merit standings thru Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Classic at The Els, Dubai:
Professionals
MG Keyser (South Africa) – 18,774 points
Fredrik From (Sweden) – 18,397
Jamie Elson (England) – 17,453
Luke Joy (England) – 16,420
Andrew Marshall (England) – 16,171

Amateurs
Todd Clements (England) -181 points
Sam Hobday (England) – 154
Michael Harradine (Switzerland) -140
Tiago Lobo (Brazil) – 121
Rayhan Thomas (India) – 118

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The 29-year-old Abu Dhabi-based Englishman’s forgettable 2017 suffered another “crushing” blow Friday when he failed to advance from the first stage of European Tour Q-School in Austria – by a single stroke.

Joy carded rounds of 68-72-68-66 at GolfClub Schloss Ebriechsdorf for a -3 aggregate of 274. Spaniard Tommy Cocha, who fired a stunning final round of eight under 61 to finish -15 and win by five strokes, headed a total of 22 qualifiers from the first stage, section B qualifier.

Unfortunately Joy, whose year has been derailed by a savage bout of malaria contracted during the MENA Tour’s South African swing, was so close and yet so far again. He’s now played Q-School five times but has never made it beyond the second stage.

The Yas Links-attached pro recovered from a “random” four-putt in the delayed third round with a pair of birdies to dip under par and get back to level for the tournament. He knew he needed to go low in the final round and although he managed a three under 66, Joy was left to rue  “lots of [missed] opportunities”.

“It’s caps off a dismal display of golf over the summer,“ Joy said in his refreshingly honest warts and all blog.

“Since having malaria I have not been able to come close to any sort of form that resembles the game I am used too. All the goals set forth for the year have come to a crashing halt and left me feeling absolutely deflated.

“You always want to try and stay as positive as you can but when you bring nothing to the table it gets increasingly difficult to remain upbeat and brimming with confidence which every golfer at this level requires to perform to the highest level.”

Joy said he could accept failure if he’d brought his “A/B game to the party” but had disappointingly been running at C/D level for months and that “takes it out of you more mentally than physically.”

He hopes to rebound quickly at the MENA Tour’s Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open at his home Yas Links from Monday. Fourth on the developmental circuit’s order of merit, Joy still has much to play for with the MENA Tour champion earning European Tour starts in Dubai, Malaysia and Morocco and for the first time a PGA Tour invite to the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. A full Sunshine Tour card for 2018 and exemption to the final stage of qualifying for the Asian Tour also await although Joy faces stiff competition from in-form Swede Fredrik From and countryman Jamie Elon who is through to the second stage of European Tour Q-School via a qualifier in Scotland a fortnight ago.

“I know I have the game and what it takes to get and stay at the highest level of golf,” said Joy. “It’s just so disappointing at this stage of the season that I’m going to have to wait another year to get the opportunity to play and perform at the level that I want to be.

“Many thanks for all your support this year,” Joy continued in his blog post to his loyal followers. “Sorry it’s been depressing reading but hopefully the form will turn for the good and [I can] start posting some numbers that I can be proud of again.”

The post Luke Joy “absolutely deflated” after his European Tour dream is put back on ice appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 30-year-old South African earned a place in the MENA Tour record books Wednesday when he captured the $30,000 Golf Citizen Classic in a sudden death playoff with Spaniard Victor Bertran, becoming just the second player to win back-to-back titles on the developmental circuit.

But a week after double-bogeying the penultimate hole at the Dubai Creek Open to make his victory over amateurs Rayhan Thomas and Todd Clements a little more nerve jangling than it needed to be, Keyser again needed to dig deep at The Els Club where he trains regularly.

The Dubai-based Pretorian’s two stroke overnight lead vanished when he double-bogeying the par 5 5th while Bertran, playing in the seventh to last group, went about setting the clubhouse target at -9 with a closing 66.

Keyser needed two birdies in his last three holes, including a gain on the 54th and last hole of regulation to force the playoff with a final round 73. He then repeated the two-putt birdie on The Els’18th in the first hole of overtime as Bertran tugged his second shot left en-route to a bogey.

“It was a pretty long day out there [in the heat], but luckily I managed to get the job done,” said Keyser.

“I didn’t play very good golf all day, but I know the course pretty well and that knowledge came in handy. I knew the 16th and 18th are birdiable holes and I did birdie them to stay in the hunt.”

Keyser collects his $5400 winner’s cheque from Troon International president Mark Chapleski (right), Els Club GM Karl Whitehead and tournament co-ordinator Thomas Nicholson.

Keyser emulated Zane Scotland who has two doubles among his 10 tour titles – the Shaikh Maktoum Dubai Open and RAK Classic in 2013 and the 2014 Ghala Valley Open and Golf Citizen Masters Al Ain. But he won’t have a shot at a hat-trick of titles at next week’s Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open at Yas Links as he has he returns to the Asian Development Tour.

“I would have loved to give it a go for a hat-trick of wins on the MENA Tour, but unfortunately I have to travel to Malaysia. But I really enjoyed playing on the MENA Tour.”

Keyser’s absence will be well and truly made up for by the return of 2011 Open champion and former Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke who will play his second MENA Tour event in three weeks.

Scotland’s bid for his first victory since 2016, meanwhile, fell short after he closed with a 74 that left the Englishman T-4 at -6, one behind countryman Adam Sagar.

Englishman Clements carded a flawless 69 to win the amateur division after week after sharing the spoils with Thomas. Clements leads the amateur order of merit with 181 points from countryman Sam Hobday (154 pts) and Dubai’s Michael Harradine (140 pts).

Keyser jumped to the top of the Pro OOM standings with 18,774 points. Swede Fredrik From (18,397) and Englishman Jamie Elson (17,453) round out the top three after finishing T-9 and T-21 at The Els.

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