By Matthew Brookes
A proper grip is fundamental to good golf. Next cab off the rank is a sound set-up which can greatly enhance your ability to move the club correctly throughout the swing.

We regularly see amateurs setting up in the wrong posture with tight hamstrings or a scapula stability issue often to blame. Your pro will be able to quickly identify any physical limitations that are causing you to set-up incorrectly or if you have any trouble with the following routine which will ensure you’re balanced and positioned correctly every time.

Start in a tall standing position, legs locked straight, and then move your feet shoulder width apart (or wider to suit the club you’re hitting such as a driver). Now place the club on your chest and stomach, pulling the club towards the body with your hand. Ensure there is always contact with the body. This connection will help activate the upper back muscles which are very important further down the line in the set-up.

Now relax your knees a fraction, allowing just the slightest bit of bend, before hinging forward from the hip until the club is sticking out between your legs behind you, creating a tail.

The key thing to look for on video or in the mirror when reviewing this movement is for a flat lower back. You must avoid “anterior tilt” of the pelvis, often called a “S posture”. A flat or neutral back helps keep the core engaged in the golf swing, vital for power and consistency.

The pulling of the golf club towards the body noted earlier is very important to help with a better turn in the backswing. It also helps prevent rounding of the upper back, otherwise known as a “C posture”.

Another checkpoint is to draw a line vertically down from the back of the right shoulder joint or allow your club to hang vertically from this position. Check that the line of club passes just in front of the knee cap and into the ball of your foot. This will help make sure your pressure is evenly distributed between the toes and heels.

Follow this simple routine and you’ll be on your way to replicating a stronger and more balanced set-up position again and again.

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Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

The post Perfect golf swing set-up and posture appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Jack Woods
Last month we looked at a technical issue many amateurs encounter and a basic drill to correct this common chipping fault. Grab the July 2019 issue for a refresh or search the instruction tab on golfdigestme.com for the piece entitled ‘Fancy footwork to avoid heavy or bladed chips’.

Simply improving technique doesn’t guarantee consistent up and downs once you get out on the course, however. How often have you stood on the practise chipping green before a round and felt really comfortable with your chipping only to find you tense up on the course and can’t knock it close?

A great way to work on this is to create pressure practice scenarios. A simple way to create this pressure is called “Par 18”, a game where you select nine locations around the green with an even mixture of easy, medium and hard shots. From each location you try to get up and down in the fewest number of shots with only one ball and one attempt at each location. Each shot should be given your full attention so remember to follow the routine you use on the course during a normal round. In other words, line up those putts as if you’re playing in the monthly medal.

“Replicate the pressure of a round where the scorecard in your back pocket really counts.”

Each location is a par 2 so the nine holes combined add up to a par 18 challenge, hence the name of the game. It is important that the game is only played once per day and you keep your score each time to replicate the pressure of round where the scorecard in your back pocket really counts. By playing these nine ‘holes’ with the knowledge you can’t simply start again, you begin to create similar pressure levels to those experienced on the course. This way you’ll be better prepared to cope with the tension when it really matters.

Combine this game with the ‘fancy footwork’ tip from last month and watch your up and down stats rise in direct correlation with lower scores.

Jack Woods is a PGA Teaching Professional at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai. For more information, visit dubaigolf.com

The post VIDEO: Play our ‘Par 18’ chipping game to lower your scores appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
James Williams is a stress-free interview. Simply press record, sit back and enjoy a captivating journey through a lifetime in golf as colourful as that famed tan, one that strangely never acquainted itself with his legs. It seems there is a reason seasoned golf professionals wear trousers and if you ask nicely, Emirates Golf Club’s newest “old” pro will likely hitch said slacks to keep a running joke rolling. Self-deprecation is one of the Shropshire product’s endearing trademarks.

But we digress. Back to an interview where probing lines of enquiry, beyond the initial conversation starter, are rarely required.

So, how did you get into golf?

“My golfing life started…actually, I was a much keener cricketer to the extent that I did play a lot of county cricket and got selected for England training. Didn’t get on the team, but that was my true love. Left-handed cricketer, totally right-handed person.”

Williams is a totally natural storyteller too, and clearly just warming to his task as the next 112, almost pauseless minutes prove.

It transpires his introduction to golf came through his father, a bank manager who took up the game later in life. Williams’ Snr saw a neighbour throwing out an old set of clubs one day and seized on an opportunity for young James.

“It was a rusty old pencil bag with about eight clubs in there. Believe it or not they were hickories. We cut them down and of course I gripped it cack-handed because they’re right-handed clubs. I probably would have been world No.1 if I didn’t remain left-handed,” Williams says with a hearty dollop of English jocularity.

He may never have become a world-beater but the then Shrewsbury G.C. member was good enough to get down to a one-handicap and play county golf. And in some illustrious company too.   

“I come from a county that at that time had five courses so we had to join forces with a neighbouring county. We played in the Midlands league… [European Tour Dubai chief] Nick Tarratt probably played against me years ago, we didn’t know each other then. [Golf in Dubai President and former R&A chief] Peter Dawson actually played for Warwickshire. They’ve got like 20, 30, 50 golf courses, we had five, got thrashed every time.

“The incredible thing was, we had as our No.1 and No.2, AWB [Alexander Walter Barr or “Sandy”] Lyle and Ian Woosnam. So the other 10 of us turned up and lost most times and those two played together in the foursomes and always won.”

Williams eventually fell into a PGA traineeship and deeply in love with teaching. After cutting his teeth in the UK, foreign adventures beckoned and he soon found himself mixing with 4-Star Generals at Woodlawn G.C., a course within the Ramstein Air Base in southwest Germany which remains today the U.S. Air Force’s European HQ and home to the NATO Allied Air Command.

It was an enlightening life and golf experience but the icy German winters eventually wore thin so Williams applied for a role at a club soon to open in the UAE. It was 1987 and his military pals were worried.

“No one had heard of the UAE but I speculated and put in an application.” Williams sat back and waited for a response. And waited. Six months later he’d almost given up but decided a call to Emirates Golf Club was in order, if only to politely register his disappointment at the lack of a courtesy call to say he’d missed out.

An apologetic Rodney J. Bogg, Emirates G.C.’s first general manager, answered and had a surprise, inviting Williams out for a trial along with two other hopefuls.

“I stayed for a week – gobsmacked! Horrible word, but just gobsmacked by the whole place. I remember walking on the driving range. I’ve been to many golf courses by this time but I was tip-toeing across the grass. I have never seen anything so level, every blade of grass vertical to the ground like a brand new scrubbing brush. ‘Well hit a few shots, guys.’ You know I’m a big ball and turf guy which golfers should be if they are going to strike the ball. But I didn’t dare take a divot, I was just clipping it off the top, didn’t want to be the guy digging up their new range.”

Williams became part of the furniture at Emirates G.C. for the next decade as Dubai grew up around its pioneering grass golf course. The next chapter in his career spans 20 years at Jebel Ali where, as golf operations manager, Williams was the perpetually smiling face of the resort course. Recently though, the grin started to fade as he did a stocktake of his career and realised he was no longer in the customer-facing roles he loved. A hankering to get back to those happy old teaching days become impossible to ignore and thankfully Emirates G.C. were receptive to a home-coming.

“I was the first pro to get here, and sadly now I’m the oldest pro,” Williams jokes of being back on the tools as part of Dubai Golf’s Peter Cowan Academy Dubai team.

“It is fabulous fun. I’ve got to rebuild my clientele but a lot of the original members have already come back. It never goes fast enough for me because I want to show that it’s worth Emirates having me back but it’s been very encouraging so far. I hope it’s been for the club. I couldn’t be happier.”

Mustufa Abidi/Motivate Publishing
James Williams and son Robbie are now working side-by-side at Emirates G.C. where Robbie is part of the Golf in Dubai team delivering the Omega Dubai Classics and MENA Tour.

The role means Williams now has the joy of working even closer to his 25-year-old son Robbie who is part of the Golf in Dubai team behind the Omega Dubai Desert and Ladies Classics and increasingly the face of the MENA Tour. Like his father, Williams Jnr’s first love wasn’t golf either, rather football. He was good enough to play for England Schoolboys and sign junior papers with Wolverhampton Wanderers but also cunning enough to see a good opportunity when the father of Emirati golf, Mohamed Juma Buamaim, offered him an internship.

“As a Dad, to see him growing and getting all this experience, yeah, I’m very proud. I will say that there is no one prouder than me seeing him on television doing the Desert Classic presentation. I’d be shaking like a leaf and apparently he was but he doesn’t stumble over his speeches like me.“

James Williams is equally proud of his daughter Anna-Louise, a physiotherapist in London, and grateful to his understanding wife Heather for allowing him to pursue a career where weekends and family time are a precious commodity. “She’s been very patient with her husband. You’d better get that in writing before she divorces me!”

Conversation reverts back to his beloved cricket but this time with a golf spin, not unlike the leg-breaks he used to “turn a yard”, at least the ones that bounced anyway. His childhood hero was the elegant left-handed West Indian batsman Sir Garfield Sobers so imagine the thrill when, during his initial stint at Emirates G.C., Bogg asked him to look after the visiting cricketing knight one day.

“He was just the greatest guy to talk to. When your hero turns out to be as nice as that, it’s one of the biggest things that has happened to me out here. Perhaps in our own countries we would never meet all these famous people. Is it a big deal? To me it has been. To actually see these people and find out they are normal like us has been a thrill.”

Williams played in the first three Desert Classics but his biggest playing kick came before the inaugural event in 1989 when he was asked to guide another idol, Tony Jacklin, in a reconnaissance lap of the Majlis course. The 67 he shot in the company of the Ryder Cup legend is a treasured memory and made all the practice beforehand, and some predictably nervy play in the tournaments proper afterwards, worth it.

“We were working 14 hours a day preparing everything for the first Desert Classic so I’ve hardly played and I’m going to look stupid in front of the members. All of a sudden I’m feeling a lot of pressure. So three weeks before I fished my clubs out. I would finish giving lessons at 10 o’clock at night, quickly run home, have a shower, half an hours kip, and then put the range lights on and belt balls all night long, over and over and over again until I actually had an awful cut down here [pointing to his left palm] because of a poor grip and soft hands. I don’t think we paid for the electricity in those days but I’ve paid with a scar for life.”

Williams would love to play more often and has a goal of teeing it up in the Sharjah Senior Masters if he can get his game, and his now 59-year-old body, to co-operate. But it’s teaching that really inspires him.

“I don’t think I’m really somebody, maybe not good enough, to be at the sharp end teaching top professionals but that was never been my goal. I actually don’t think you get as much satisfaction as seeing someone that’s come along, dead keen, they finally get the ball up in the air, they’re running around jumping in the air, like whoopee!

“I’m sure some people here think I’m a bit of a pain in the arse, but for people to say its really nice to have you back, and there’s been too many saying that for it not to be half true, it’s humbling. I think maybe they just like my enthusiasm, that I care. It is lovely to be back.”

The feeling from friends old and new at Emirates G.C. is mutual. For lessons, and yarns, delivered with genuine enthusiasm, the club couldn’t have hired anyone better.

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English amateur star Lamb will play the Ladies European Tour season-ender from Dec. 6-9 after accepting an invited from Golf in Dubai, the tournament organiser. It mean’s the low amateur at August’s Women’s British Open will be reunited with the South Korean winner of the fourth of the season’s five ladies major championships.

Related: British Open champion I.K. Kim fizzing for Omega Dubai Ladies Classic return

“Winning the amateur medal in a major event was a huge moment for me. It is something everyone dreams of when they first start to play golf,” said the 19-year-old of winning the Smyth Salver with a -6 aggregate at Kingsbarns Golf Links, 12 shots adrift of Kim.

“It’s been a great experience for me to see where my game compares to the best in the world.  When you have confidence in yourself you feel like you can do just about anything, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself and will take things as they come.

“It will be fun playing in Dubai as I have heard a lot of good things about the tournament and know pretty well that it attracts a very strong field each year.

“I am grateful to Golf in Dubai for the invitation and look forward to visiting the magnificent city and playing on the famed Majlis course, Hopefully, there’ll be some more good times to come.”

Related: Pettersen on her Dubai return: “I show up to win tournaments”

Lamb, whose career took off when she captured the the British women’s stroke-play championship and England Golf Women’s Order of Merit title in 2016, has no intention of turning professional until she’s represented Great Britain and Ireland in the biennial Curtis Cup matches against the U.S. in Scarsdale, New York next June.

“That’s something I want to achieve before I turn professional. Not sure how things will pan out, but definitely the Curtis Cup is something I want to do,” said the East Lancashire teen who is listed as a +4.1 handicapper on the England Golf website.

Lamb was England’s top scorer in the mixed international against Spain for the Seve Ballesteros Trophy earlier this year, winning all her games.

Said Falcon Golf (Golf in Dubai) chairman Peter Dawson: “Her achievements since winning the North of England under-14 championships amply show she has enormous potential. This is just the beginning, and I am sure we will see more of her in time to come.”

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“I am deeply honoured and humbled to accept this award and to join past recipients who I have long admired and respected. It’s a privilege to be included in a list of such distinguished honorees,” said Buamaim, chairman of the MENA Tour and Golf Citizen, an online tee time booking engine.

“Getting recognised and noticed for our work is something we all relish. I feel honoured to have been with involved with golf over the last two decades and look forward to working on initiatives that bring a fresh perspective to the game of golf,” Buamaim, the former vice chairman and CEO of Golf in Dubai.

The award citation lauded Buamaim for his contribution in streamlining the affairs of the game in the region. “He single-handedly spearheaded an ambitious campaign to promote and develop the game of golf in the MENA region with the aim of producing a future generation of champions,” it said.

“In 2005, he, along with Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar, created ‘Golf in Dubai’ to promote the emirate as a leading global golf destination and manage and promote highly-successful Omega Dubai Desert and the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters events.

“An irrepressible man not known for resting on his laurels, he took up the biggest challenge of his career when he launched the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Golf Tour in 2011, the year he also started tee-time portal Golf Citizen with the aim of realising huge golf tourism potential by collectively promoting richly-diverse golf courses on its network,” the citation continued.

Buamaim’s contribution in promoting golf in the region was recognized at the highest level in the UAE when he was presented with the Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Award in 2014 for his role in the “enrichment of the sports movement in the UAE.”

He was also honoured for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to Golf’ at the inaugural Middle East Golf Awards (MEGAs) in 2013.

The post MENA Tour chief Buamaim honoured at Asia Pacific Golf Summit appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Organisers hope Paige Spiranac will again lend her social media celebrity to December’s Omega Dubai Ladies Masters but admit “we may not put her through the trauma of playing” the season-ending Ladies European Tour [LET] event.

Tournament Director David Spencer has revealed the 24-year-old American is likely to be offered an ambassadorial role at the €515,000 tournament from December 6-9 after emotionally missing the cut at the LET event the past two seasons.

Spencer is also hopeful the aspiring professional golfer will consider returning to act as the official starter for the men at the European Tour’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic, also at Emirates Golf Club, in late January.

Enter the Golf Digest Amateur Series today! CLICK HERE for Abu Dhabi GC event this Thursday

Asked if Spiranac would again be invited to the Ladies Masters, Spencer told Golf Digest Middle East: “Maybe, but we may not put her through the trauma of [actually] playing.“

Related Video: Spiranac hopes to ‘save someone’s life’ by speaking out on cyber bullies

“We’re hoping to bring her to the ladies and the men’s [Desert Classic] and we’re actually considering asking her to be the starter at the men’s event, the official starter.”

Spiranac made her professional debut, and created a global media storm, at the 2015 Dubai Ladies Masters courtesy of a controversial sponsors’ invite.

When the Instagram superstar returned to Dubai last December, she tearfully admitted to an on-going struggle with depression and anxiety due to cyber bullying in the wake of her rounds of 77-79 the previous year.

She had toyed with quitting the game after “the hardest experience of my life” but felt compelled to fight on and speak out given concerning teen suicide rates. “Hopefully I can save someone’s life, I think that’s so much more important than if I make the cut or miss the cut,” she said at the time.

Video: Paige Spiranac’s Top 3 short game tips

Sadly, Spiranac continued to be targeted by faceless online trolls after carding rounds of 77 and 80 on the Majlis layout to finish 13 over par, nine shots shy of the cut which fell at +4, last year.

Spencer took plenty of heat when he first invited Spiranac to Dubai and expects fall-out from the lastest decision. But he remains unapologetic, insisting Spiranac had significantly raised the profile of the Dubai Ladies Masters and would continue to do so in an ambassadorial role.

“We took a lot of criticism for that [the 2015 sponsors’ invite] too but we are happy to stand by what we’ve been criticised for,” said Spencer, who also serves as a strategic adviser to Falcon Golf who now run both the Ladies Masters and Desert Classic.

“In my life I’ve been lucky enough to be in golf situations and see which golfers light up a room when they walk into it and I include in that [list] Seve, Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman and Tiger, of course.

“But the one I’d add to that is Paige, in that she has great presence, she’s an interesting character, she’s got lots of interesting [charity] causes. Apart from being physically beautiful, which she obviously is, she’s got a heart of gold and that comes across in corporate situations.“

David Cannon/Getty Images Spiranac during the second round of the 2015 Omega Dubai Ladies Masters.

Spencer admitted sponsors were initially reluctant for the tournament to be associated with Spiranac who profits from 1.2m followers on Instagram, and more than 235,000 and 162,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter respectively. But he said corporate backers had done a “complete 180 degree turn” and now, “I mean, they just love her.”

Related: Paige Spiranac and her crazy professional debut

“We think what may be happening is that people think this social media [strategy] is a sexist thing but I was so heartened at that public clinic [involving Spiranac] last year when we had all the young golfers there [watching],” Spencer said.

“There is obviously a connection to golf via social media and we’ve got to be competitive with other sports [and in the entertainment space]. It’s not easy to get sponsorship, whatever sport you have.”

Whatever transpires with Spiranac, four-time defending champion Shanshan Feng won’t return to defend her title due to a prior engagement back in China.

“Shanshan has requested a leave pass and [joked] it will give someone else a chance to win,’ Spencer said. “She said ‘I’ll win it again in 2018’.”

The post Paige Spiranac welcomed back to Dubai Ladies Masters but unlikely to be put through “trauma” of actually playing LET event appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Mark O’Meara, the 127th Open champion at Royal Birkdale in 1998, will hit the opening shot of the 146th championship Thursday ahead of a tasty smorgasbord of opening round three-balls.

The 60-year-old American, who won the US Masters three months before edging fellow countryman Brian Watts in a playoff for the Claret Jug, is off at 6.35am local time (9.35am UAE time) alongside Ryan Moore and Chris Wood, the 2008 Open silver medallist as low amateur over the Southport links.

Defending champion Henrik Stenson is out with Jordan Spieth and South Korean Si-Woo Kim in the headline morning threesome at 12.47pm (all UAE times herewith) ahead of Louis Oosthuizen, Justin Rose and Justin Thomas at 12.58pm.

The other key morning group sees U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka end his post Erin Hills hiatus alongside world No.2 Hideki Matsuyama and Abu Dhabi and French Open champion Tommy Fleetwood, the local favourite.

The 1998 champion Mark O’Meara will hit the first shot Thursday

World No.1 Dustin Johnson is grouped with struggling Rory McIlroy and former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel in the marquee afternoon three-ball at 5:48pm.  Mouthwatering groups beforehand include 2015 champion Zach Johnson, Jason Day and reigning  Dubai Desert Clasic and Masters champion Segio Garcia (4.04pm) and Rickie Flower, Adam Scott and Paul Casey (4.26pm).

There’s sure to be huge support for Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnson on Royal Birkdale’s first tee at 2.36pm  and big galleries following runaway Dubai Duty Free Irish Open champion Jon Rahm, US Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed and Englishman Lee Westwood at 5.59pm.

Phil Mickelson, the 2013 champion at Muirfield, is out at late at 6.10pm just ahead of newly crowed Scottish Open champion and Golf in Dubai-based Rafa Cabrera-Bello, the Spaniard joined by two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson and Aussie journeyman Scott Held at 6.21pm.

The long range forecast for Birkdale on Thursday is for a cloudy high of 16 degrees Celsius with westerly winds of 17mph gusting to 30mph. — Kent Gray travelled to The Open with Etihad Airways

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First it was Tiger Woods serving as the honourary starter for Falcon Golf, hitting balls from the foot of the Burj Al Arab to unveil the new government-backed entity during February’s Desert Classic. Now Sergio Garcia has lent his suddenly major name to launch the body’s new online home.

The newly minted Masters champion has teamed up with Indian No.1 Anirban Lahiri to headline the content on golfindubai.com, a long overdue one-stop shop for golf tourism in the emirate.

Falcon Golf engaged Garcia and Lahiri in a friendly long drive duel at Skydive Dubai during the Desert Classic. If they couldn’t believe their luck when the Spaniard went on to win the “major of the Middle East” at Emirates Golf Club, imagine the delight when Garcia edged Justin Rose in an epic Sunday showdown at Augusta National in April.

In conjunction with key local stakeholders including clubs, tournament sponsors, Dubai Sports Council, Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and the Emirates Golf Federation, golfindubai.com centralises information for tourists and tour operators.

Commenting on the new website, Peter Dawson, Chairman of Falcon Golf, said: “Driving greater golf tourism is one of the key goals we set ourselves on our establishment, and I’m delighted that just a few months into our operations we have launched a website which for the first time provides one place where Dubai’s fantastic golf offering is showcased in full.”

The new Golf in Dubai website is a one-stop shop showcase of Dubai’s 11 courses (and counting) for golf tourists and tour operators

“A coordinated approach between all parties who together make up Dubai’s golf experience will unquestionably pay dividends for all concerned. golfindubai.com is one important step in our endeavour to rekindle awareness among discerning holiday makers, business travellers and Dubai residents of the enjoyment they all can have playing or watching golf here.

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Former R&A chief Peter Dawson to helm Falcon Golf

“Not many places in the world can so readily offer the access to walk in the footsteps of champions like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and Shanshan Feng while playing a round of golf during your holiday or business trip. Dubai can, and thanks to the new website, finding out how has become a lot easier.”

Said His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of DTCM: “Dubai is one of the most esteemed golf locations in the world and has much to offer beyond the courses, from incredible hotels and pristine beaches, as well as world-class attractions for all ages, such as Dubai Mall, the Burj Khalifa and amazing water and theme parks,” he said.

“With more courses in the pipeline to complement the world-class choices already available, and initiatives such as this new website, there is huge potential for the sport to help us hit our target of 20 million visitors by 2020.”

The website was officially launched today at the Asia Golf Tourism Convention in Danang, Vietnam. A VIP trip to Dubai, including a start in the 2018 Omega Dubai Desert Classic Pro-Am, has been teed up to lure traffic to the new site.

Photographs by Getty Images

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The Dubai-adopted Indian amateur made his first European Tour cut at just the third attempt, easing into the weekend three shots inside the 36-hole snip.

A topsy-turvy Saturday, which saw the 17-year-old play 33 holes after Friday’s tournament delaying storm, continued when he signed for a third round 75 to be +1 for the championship.

In typically unflustered fashion, Thomas played down the feat but that didn’t stop it reverberating around the Middle East golf landscape, most notably at his home Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club. They were celebrating too at Emirates Golf Club in the ‘golf in DUBAi’ offices, none so more than vice-chairman and CEO Mohamed Juma Buamaim who oversees the developmental MENA Tour from which Thomas earned, an learned to grab, this moment.

“It was awesome to make the cut but I wasn’t really thinking about it,” Thomas said afterwards. “Obviously I had two more rounds to play [today] so that was what my mind was on. But pretty happy to make the weekend.”

Thomas planned a relaxing dinner out and a early night in afterwards in the hope of a big finish Sunday. “If I can get myself back into red figures, I’ll be happy.”

It’s little wonder he was tired after a nerve-jangling day, probably more for his growing legion of fans than Thomas himself.

Resuming his second round at even par (-4 for the championship after Thursday’s sparking 68), Thomas teetered with a double bogey on the 5th and further dropped shots on the 6th, 10th and 12th before getting it back to -3. But he then threw away back-to-back birdies on 16 and 17 with a watery, double-bogey seven on the 18th to eventually sign for a 75. Thankfully he comfortably made the cut which fell at +1.

His third round was even more adventurous. Starting from the 10th, he rattled off five birdies and a bogey in an outward 33 before fading back to a share of 54th place courtesy of a tired double bogey on the short 2nd and a triple bogey on the par 3 7th.

“I was trying to hit a six-iron and just caught it steep. Went in the water and then hit a wedge onto the green to about 25 feet and three-putted unfortunately. It was just lack of concentration with the putter.”

Thomas admitted to being mentally drained afterwards. The good thing about that is he can bank the feeling and knows what he needs to work on for the future.

“I can’t complain about the start [in the third round], was 4-under through nine, but unfortunately fell away on the back. I think I just got a bit tired, head popped up, made a couple of bad swings and that cost me.

“You have to focus so much on every shot. So when you’re on the back nine and start making a few bad swings it takes it out of you. But overall, I’m pretty happy with it.

“Played well on the [his] front [the Majlis’] back nine, so some positives to take away and take that into tomorrow.”

The post Rayhan’s red-letter day appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The Northern Irishman has withdrawn from next week’s European Tour event at Emirates Golf Club to continue his rehabilitation from the stress fracture discovered after he lost a playoff to Englishman Graeme Storm at the South African Open earlier this month.

“Obviously, we would have loved to see a fully-fit Rory compete in the tournament, but we fully understand the situation and wish him a quick recovery,” said Mohamed Juma Buamaim, vice chairman and CEO of tournament organisers, ‘golf in DUBAi.’

“As we understand, he is progressing very well with his rehabilitation and may soon return to golf which is a great news.”

McIlroy’s scratching focuses even more attention on Tiger Woods eighth Desert Classic appearance, if that was possible. Woods will tee it up on the Majlis with 10 of Europe’s 12 Ryder Cup team members, after making his 2017 bow at the Farmers’ Insurance Open at Torrey Pines from Thursday.

McIlroy enjoys an impressive record in the ‘Major of the Middle East,’ going 96-under-par for his last seven appearances which resulted in first in 2009, sixth in 2010, tenth in 2011, fifth in 2012, ninth in 2014, first in 2015 and sixth in 2016.

He made the cut for the first time in a European Tour event as a 17-year-old amateur in 2007 on the Majlis and also famously secured his first professional win two years later.

“Rory is a much-loved and familiar face to fans in Dubai, having competed in the event for 10 times, the most the most number of times he has played anywhere in the world. We all will miss him and look forward to welcoming him next year,” Buamaim said. 

For ticket information, visit dubaidesertclassic.com

Photograph by Getty Images

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