Hero Open Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

Get the December 2022 edition of Golf Digest Middle East FREE here!

Matt Smith — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 07:22:08 +0000

By Matt Smith
The festive season is here, and golf is getting into full swing in the UAE, with the Hero Cup, Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Dubai Desert Classic and Ras Al Khaimah Championship fast approaching. Ahead of all that we chat with back-in-form Tommy Fleetwood on the new season, Ryder Cup hopes and setting up home in Dubai. We also reflect of a roller-coaster DP World Tour campaign and Chiara Noja’s wonderful win to cap the second Aramco Team Series in Jeddah. Plus Valentino Dixon’s inspiring journey and his artwork of Dubai’s most famous courses.

All this and much more in the December 2022 edition of Golf Digest Middle East.

The issue is again free to our loyal audience. You can scroll through the ISSUU link provided here or download to your favourite device for later. Alternatively, pick up a copy at your favourite club. Whatever option you take, we hope you enjoy the read.

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DP World Tour: Sean Crocker secures wire-to-wire Hero Open win at St Andrews

Matt Smith — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 17:14:02 +0000

By Matt Smith
American Sean Crocker had to be at his best and secure a maiden DP World Tour and edge Eddie Pepperell for a wire-to-wire victory in the 2022 Hero Open at Fairmont St Andrews.

Crocker began the day with a two-shot lead but was joined at the summit early on as the chasing pack closed in on him at Fairmont St Andrews.

He led by one at the turn before starting the back nine with three birdies in four holes to reach 22-under par and stretch his advantage back to two.

But with Englishman Pepperell in the clubhouse on 21-under, Crocker endured a nervy finish as he parred his way home to sign for a closing 68 to win by a single shot.

Crocker, who started the 2022 season with eight missed cuts and a retirement in his first nine events, was visibly relieved as he holed his four-foot par putt at the last to secure the trophy.

Pepperell finished alone in second one shot behind Crocker after firing a brilliant Sunday 65, while home favourite David Law and Dubai-based Spaniard Adrian Otaegui shared third place on 19-under.

Swede Jens Dantorp and Denmark’s Oliver Hundebøll were a shot further back, while another Dane in Soren Kjeldsen, Wilco Nienaber of South Africa and Englishman Callum Shinkwin rounded out the top 10 at 17-under.

“Winning a golf tournament is not easy,” said Crocker. “Eddie did not make that easy for me either.

“After the three putt par on 15 I thought I still had a little bit of room. They are not easy holes coming down the stretch. Great save on 17. I thought I could then make it pretty easy — it’s a par five coming in, but I don’t think it’s ever easy to make a par to win a golf tournament. That was pretty special.

“I have felt pressure like that before but this is my first pro tournament win. That putt looked like it was 20 feet, the hole looked like it was half an inch wide. Right off the face I knew it was a well-struck putt. As I looked up and I saw it drop, I was just telling myself — don’t start crying.”

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DP World Tour returns to St Andrews for Hero Open

Matt Smith — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 10:45:09 +0000

By Matt Smith
It seems like only a couple of weeks have passed since the world of golf descended on St Andrews for the 150th Open Championship.

OK, it actually was only a couple of weeks, but the DP World Tour has returned to the Home of Golf for the Hero Open — on the Torrance Course at Fairmont rather than the Old Course this time around.

This is the Tour’s third visit to the links of Fairmont St Andrews, also the venue for the AXA Scottish Championship in 2020 and the Scottish Senior Open on six occasions. Incidentally it was also a Final Open Qualifying Venue earlier this summer before the big one on the Old Course.

One man hoping to make an impact is Ryan Fox, who is having something of a stand-out season. Following his five-shot victory at the Ras Al Khaimah Classic in February, the New Zealander has registered seven top-10s in 15 appearances this year, including three runner-up finishes, taking him to fifth on the DP World Tour Rankings. A second win of the season would see Fox overtake Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick in the standings and into third position, behind leader Rory McIlroy and Will Zalatoris.

Grant Forrest. DP World Tour

One man looking to spoil that particular party is Scotland’s defending champion Grant Forrest, who produced a brilliant birdie-birdie finish to win his maiden Tour title on home soil last year, one shot ahead of England’s James Morrison. Fellow Scots Calum Hill, who had won his maiden Tour title a week earlier, and David Law also finished in the top five. Forrest’s victory saw him become the first Scot to win in his homeland since Paul Lawrie at the 2012 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles and the 29-year-old enjoyed an encouraging preparation for his title defence as he finished tied third in last week’s Cazoo Classic at Hillside Golf Club.

There are no shortage of Scots aiming to emulate Richie Ramsay and make it back-to-back Scottish winners on Tour. Long-standing multiple DP World Tour winners Stephen Gallacher, Marc Warren and Ramsay are joined by a younger generation of Scottish starts including defending champion Grant Forrest, Ewen Ferguson, Connor Syme and Hill. Also hoping to make it another Scottish success story for the second year running is Liam Johnston, who graduated from the Challenge Tour at Ras Al Khaimah alongside Robert MacIntyre, Law and Forrest in 2018.

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Sam Horsfield makes it two wins in three starts on the U.K. swing with victory at the Celtic Classic

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 21:10:11 +0000

Warren Little
Sam Horsfield celebrates during the final round of the Celtic Classic, where he won for the second time in three weeks on the European Tour.

By John Huggan
For the second time in three weeks—uniquely with a missed-cut in-between—Sam Horsfield is a winner on the European Tour. And for the second time in three weeks—with a tie for 56th in-between—Thomas Detry was second. Finishing in near-darkness after a downpour mixed with the threat of lightning caused a two-hour delay earlier in the day, Horsfield’s bogey-free closing round of 67 at Celtic Manor in Wales gave him an 18-under 266 total for the week and added the Celtic Classic title to the Hero Open he won a fortnight ago. Detry, who also shot 67, was two shots back, one more than was the case last time the pair went at it on the golf course.

Three men tied for third on 15 under par: Thomas Pieters, Detry’s fellow Belgian and the highest-ranked player in the field; overnight leader Connor Syme of Scotland; and the ever-popular figure of Englishman Andrew (Beef) Johnston.

In contrast with the immediate aftermath of his maiden victory on the European Tour, Horsfield was a lot more coherent on this occasion—and rightly proud of the fact that he had not dropped even one stroke to par after the triple-bogey 6 he made at the short 17th on Friday. There were, however, one or two moments of near crisis for the long-time Florida resident over the next 37 holes, especially down the stretch in the fast-fading gloaming.

A badly-pulled tee-shot off the 16th tee saw Horsfield playing from heavy rough, the ball well below his feet. A huge heave from there put him in a greenside bunker, from which he conjured up a beautiful recovery to no more than four feet. Par was saved. Likewise, from way left of the 17th green he was able to again get up-and-down, this time by way of a 18-foot putt that all but killed off any hope his rivals had of even a playoff. And Horsfield’s routine par on the 575-yard 18th confirmed that impression.

RELATED: Thomas Bjorn discusses his walk from Euro Tour HQ to Celtic Manor—while walking

“It was pretty crazy,” said Horsfield, now a two-time winner on tour, who will move into the top 80 on the World Rankings and is guaranteed a spot in next month’s U.S. Open. “But I was a lot more relaxed this time. My goal this weekend was to have no bogeys. And I was able to do that. The putt on 17 to keep that alive was huge. But I was solid all week and it was nice to have that little cushion coming to the last.”

Winning so recently had benefits, too. Claiming to never feeling either nervous or uncomfortable, Horsfield, who is managed by Terry Munday, Ian Poulter’s long-time caddie, appeared outwardly calm even if the waywardness of those shots coming in betrayed at least some anxiety. Then again, his strategic thinking and course management was hard to fault.

Warren Little
Sam Horsfield plays his approach shot on the 18th hole as he wraps up the victory at Celtic Manor in Wales.

“On [the driveable] 15th, I laid-up rather than go for the green,” he explained. “It was a perfect 3-wood number, but there is so much trouble around that green. The birdie on 14 was huge because it gave me that option. Had I been only one-ahead I probably would have gone for the green.”

Earlier in the day, incidentally, former Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn completed what he called the “hardest thing I’ve ever done,” the roughly 130-mile trek from European Tour headquarters at Wentworth to Celtic Manor. Along the way during the four-day journey, the 49-year-old Dane generated much in the way of donations to UNICEF U.K. and the Golf Foundation. And, judging by his gradually deteriorating “pace of play” towards the end of his journey, nearly as many blisters.

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Watch this Euro Tour pro use a boat (yes, a boat) to get to an island and play a recovery shot

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 02:49:38 +0000

Ross Kinnaird
Joel Sjoholm takes a boat to the island on the 17th hole during the final round of the 2020 Hero Open.

By Ryan Herrington
Every shot counts in golf, as the old saying goes. And so tour pros will often get creative when trying to play a wayward shot rather than take a drop and add a penalty stroke to their score. But we haven’t seen anybody get quite as creative as Joel Sjoholm did during the final round of the European Tour’s Hero Open on Sunday.

Sjoholm, a 35-year-old Swede who was a first-team All-American at Georgia State in the early 2000s, hit his second shot on the par-5 17th hole at England’s Forest of Arden Country Club way right of the green. So far right in fact that it landed on a small island sitting in the middle of the water hazard adjacent to the hole.

Able to see the ball on dry land and noticing a boat beside the green, Sjoholm decided to climb in with a few clubs and go to the island to try to play his third shot. (There are going to be a lot of things in this story where you shake your head, like for instance what is a boat doing adjacent to the hole. The best thing is to sort of ignore the absurdity to it and press on.)

Erm… Not sure how to caption this so we’ll just say what we see. Joel Sjöholm is currently in a boat to go and play his ball from an island ?‍#HeroOpen #GolfForGood pic.twitter.com/PcS3vlhERr

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) August 2, 2020

After warily getting to the island—his boating skills are a bit wanting—Sjoholm had to do a little work to give himself a reasonable chance at the recovery shot, including taking down some signage. (Also not a strength of his as you can see in the video.)

UPDATE: Sjöholm is terrible at moving signs, but has played his ball from Henderson’s island and made bogey.#HeroOpen #GolfForGood pic.twitter.com/wtW8m9ysEY

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) August 2, 2020

Eventually, he played his third shot back over the water, the ball hitting the green and rolling hot of the back side. From there, Sjoholm hopped back in the boat to get to finish up the hole. Sjoholm got on the green with his fourth but two-putted for a bogey.

You’ve done everything right so far Joel, so whatever you do, don’t fall in…#HeroOpen #GolfForGood pic.twitter.com/F7vPZTYvay

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) August 2, 2020

After the round, Sjoholm explained his mindset when he decided to take to the water.

“I always tend to find ways out of my problems. I’m a problem solver more than I’m the greatest ball-striker on earth,” he said. “I tend to find my way out of things, and I thought I’d find my way out of this as well. I sort of did. I definitely could have left it in the water or the penalty area, but we got it out and I made 6.

“I think I was much more afraid of falling into the water than of me messing up when I got to the island. I saw that some guys were playing quite good around me so I hopefully I didn’t mess something up for them because I took some time down 17. I’m sorry for that but I did what I had to do.”

We have to give a few grades to Sjoholm for this pretty amazing sequence of events:

Boat skills: C
Signing moving skills: D
Recovery shot: B-
Ingenuity: A

Sjoholm finished the round with a one-over 73 to come in tied for 22nd, nine shots back of eventual winner Sam Horsfield.

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European Tour up-and-comer Sam Horsfield wins first title on his ‘home’ tour at Hero Open

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 02 Aug 2020 21:15:28 +0000

Richard Heathcote
Sam Horsfield celebrates on the 18th hole after winning his first European Tour title, the Hero Open.

By John Huggan
You have to go back to last year’s Oman Open and Kurt Kitayama’s victory to find the most recent American winner of a regular European Tour event (non-major or World Golf Championship). The Californian still holds that mildly esoteric claim to Old World fame, but this week’s champion comes close to pushing Kitayama aside. The record book will show that England’s Sam Horsfield won the Hero Open at Forest of Arden by one shot from Thomas Detry of Belgium. But any audio of the event will quickly reveal Horsfield’s accent is a twang grown in Florida, where the Manchester-born 23-year-old has lived since he was 5.

Whatever, Horsfield’s maiden victory on his “home” tour was achieved with a curious mixture of aplomb, alarm and, ultimately, some semblance of serenity. Six shots clear of the field and 18 under par after making his sixth birdie of the third round at the 422-yard par-4 11th, the former Palmer Cup player (yes, he represented Europe against the U.S.) stumbled all the way back to 14 under before getting into the sanctuary of the clubhouse. By the time he signed his Saturday scorecard, his advantage was down to a single stroke.

Ten holes—five birdies, four pars and one bogey—would pass in the final round before Horsfield made it back to 18 under par, his fragile overnight edge doubling in size as a result. That was the good news. Not so cheery was the fact that the 3 he made at the 435-yard 10th was his last dip under par until the 516-yard par-5 17th, a hole Horsfield reached tied with Detry on 17 under the card. The Belgian had actually gotten to 18 under, but a miss from no more than four feet on the final green meant a closing bogey.

Cue the shot of the week, given the context. After finding the fairway with a 3-wood from the tee, Horsfield’s 5-wood approach from a slightly downhill lie—Sky Sports on-course commentator Wayne Riley described as “both fluffy and cuppy”—flew the waterfront and right of the putting surface and finished just off the back edge, no more than 20 feet from the flag. Two putts later the world No. 224 was back (yet again) to 18 under and armed with a vital advantage, one that proved to be just good enough. A two-putt par from 50-feet on the difficult 211-yard par-3 18th saw him round in a closing 68 and, more importantly, over the finishing line.

“I wasn’t aware of what Thomas had done on 18 until I got to 17 tee,” said Horsfield, a long-time protege of fellow Englishman Ian Poulter. “So I knew we were tied. My caddie and I were like, ‘Go do this thing, just hit some good shots coming in.’ I wanted to leave myself a good 5-wood number. That is my favourite club. I had 233 yards with the wind into and off the left. So it was playing maybe 245. It was a perfect hold-up, cut 5-wood, but I had to ‘man-up’ and hit a good shot, which I did. That’s my favourite shot in the bag and I executed it perfectly. It was one of the 5-woods of my life.”

All of which sounds pretty straightforward. But it wasn’t long before Horsfield, who shot a third-round 61 in last week’s British Masters en route to a T-10 finish, was showing a bit more emotion. Confronted by a FaceTime link with his mother, sister and grandmother back in Florida as he left the 18th green, Horsfield was barely able to speak.

“That was awesome,” he said. “My mom has always told me that she hoped I would be the first person I call after I win. And when I was talking to [Sky’s] Tim [Barter] by the green I could hear her and my sister celebrating. So it was pretty emotional.”

Speaking of which, a ways down the leader board, Miguel Angel Jimenez rounded off his record-breaking 707th European Tour appearance with a even-par 72 that left the 56-year-old Spaniard at seven-under for the week and in a tie for 34th place.

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Tour pros give Miguel Angel Jimenez a fantastic 18th-green salute for breaking the European Tour’s appearance record

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 23:06:09 +0000

Ross Kinnaird

By John Huggan
Just about the only thing missing from the appropriately sun-kissed scene was a celebratory cigar in the mouth of the man center-stage. But walking towards the 18th green at First of Arden, Miguel Angel Jimenez was all smiles. And why not? He was already eight under par for the first round of the Hero Open, which is doubling as his record-breaking 707th European Tour event. But that score surely didn’t really matter to the maybe 30-strong group of his fellow players gathered to the right of the putting surface on the 211-yard par 3. The popular figure they came to salute could have been eight over for all they cared.

Indeed, it was clearly a touching moment for the man himself. Jimenez was openly moved by the gesture from what was a telling mix of young and old by the green. Speaking of which, immediately after two-putting for a closing par that left him with an opening-round 64, two shots off the lead held by his compatriot, Sebastian Rodriguez Garcia, the 56-year-old Spaniard was greeted by the face and voice of Sam Torrance via FaceTime. It was the 66-year-old former Ryder Cup captain’s record for most appearances on the European Tour that Jimenez was breaking. Long-standing pals, the pair shared a jovial and mutually appreciative few minutes over a socially distant glass of red.

Miguel's fellow professionals surround the 18th green to welcome him home.

707 events. 1 legend @majimenez1964
#Miguel707 ? pic.twitter.com/HuH8fV2kdm

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) July 30, 2020

“It’s been a wonderful day, eight under par,” said Jimenez, whose most recent win on the European Tour came at the 2014 Spanish Open. “A beautiful summer day, and especially on the 18th green with all my colleagues. It’s made me feel a little bit emotional inside. I appreciate that very much. Some of them are new players. Others I have known for many years. It was really nice.”

There was time, too, for a more philosophical analysis that went beyond a round in which Jimenez made eight birdies and 10 pars. The more than three decades spent accumulating so many appearances on the Old World circuit—what European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley called a “monumental achievement” thanks to Jimenez’s “enduring passion for our game”—was also occupying his thoughts.

“I felt very emotional,” continued Jimenez, who has sprinkled 21 victories and 162 top-10 finishes among his 707 starts. “I cannot describe my day, you have to be inside my skin. I enjoy everything about my life here. It’s not the first time I’ve said it, this is a way of living. Golf is my life, you never remember any bad moments. You can understand that you’re not going to be in a perfect mood and not make a perfect score every time. You can have a bad game, but not a bad day, that’s the difference.”

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Miguel Angel Jimenez gets the last laugh on everyone as he sets this European Tour milestone

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 03:48:07 +0000

While set to break the European Tour record for most career starts, Miguel Angel Jimenez at 56 still has a lot of golf left in him. (Tracy Wilcox)

By John Huggan
With two of the top 100 golfers in the world—Eddie Pepperell and Joost Luiten—in attendance, this week’s Hero Open is a long way from boasting the strongest field in European Tour history. But for at least two of the 132 competitors at the Forest of Arden in the English Midlands the €1 million event is going to be a special occasion, no matter how well or badly each performs.

Miguel Angel Jimenez will be making his 707th European Tour start, breaking the long-standing record of former Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance. As a measure of the 56-year-old Spaniard’s admirable longevity, just 12 men have made more than 600 appearances, never mind 700. Jimenez has maintained a remarkable level of competitiveness, too. Six years on from becoming the oldest European Tour winner (50 years and 133 days) at the 2014 Open de España, Jimenez led at the halfway mark of the Austrian Open just two weeks ago.

That David Drysdale is making his 500th Euro Tour start this week isn’t quite so notable—he is the 43rd player to reach that mark—except that 45-year-old Scot is also closing in on one of the Old World circuit’s more esoteric “achievements.” All those starts have come without a victory yet. Only Malcolm Mackenzie can boast a similar level of commendable but ultimately unfulfilled perseverance. Hope remains, however, for Drysdale considering that Mackenzie did eventually get over the finishing line first. The Englishman picked up his lone tour victory, the 2002 French Open, at his 509th attempt. So Drysdale, who has four second-places, 34 top 10s and 284 cuts made in-so-far 499 goes at breaking his winless streak, has at most nine more tries before he “beats” Mackenzie’s “record.”

As ever, Jimenez is approaching his record-setting week with the air of someone about to embark on the most pleasurable few days imaginable. We can take it as read that his famously eccentric stretching routine will be part of his pre-round warm-up; that he will be puffing on a large cigar out on the course; and that at least a glass or two of his favoured Rioja will disappear down his throat each evening.

“He’s an icon, isn’t he?” Pepperell says. “And not just of the European Tour. He’s an icon for golf. Of that generation of players, he is probably in the top-five globally in terms of popularity. To have that just shows how charismatic he is. I’ve played with him a few times, and he is always very friendly. How can you not love his outlook? I have nothing but admiration for him.”

That is pretty much the universal view of Jimenez, who made four Ryder Cup appearances between 1999 and 2010 and has won nine times, including two majors, on the PGA Tour Champions in the U.S. since turning 50. And, as ever, his pre-tournament interview was laced with typically self-deprecating humour, all delivered in his sometimes barely decipherable version of the English language.

“When you start, you never know where you are going to finish,” says the 21-time European Tour winner. “But with the years going by, I am setting records. I’ve been playing for 32 years now alongside so many great players. Seve Ballesteros. Jack Nicklaus. Gary Player. Jack Nicklaus. Tiger Woods. Phil Mickelson. And now with the new ones on the way up. I’ve had a beautiful life.”

Still, there was a turning point. At 33 and with only two victories to his name, Jimenez was an assistant captain to Ballesteros in the 1997 Ryder Cup at Valderrama.

“That was an amazing experience for me,” Jimenez says. “I was in the right place at the right time. I learned so much. I had played well before that, but it helped me to be there. I haven’t changed though. Why would I have to change? I am myself. I am Miguel Angel Jimenez, someone who has enjoyed the same things all my life. That’s me. You would, for example, have to plant a bomb in my side to get me away from the golf course. The luckiest thing that ever happened to me is finding golf in my life. I do what I want to do. To me, golf is a way of living.”

To his long-standing credit, world No. 313 Drysdale handles the inevitable “why haven’t you won?” questions with equanimity. Having twice lost his card by a handful of Euros and once missed out at the tour qualifying school by a single shot, he is rightly proud of his persistence in the face of much diversity.

David Drysdale talks to the media ahead of this week’s Hero Open, where the Scot will make his 500th European Tour appearance. (Ross Kinnaird)

And his career has not been totally devoid of success. Twice a winner on the Challenge Tour, the former Dunbar Golf Club assistant (at which time he played as a marker alongside John Daly in the 1992 Open Championship at Muirfield) has accumulated nearly €6 million in prize money, a sum that places him 113th on the career earnings list. He has also represented Scotland in the World Cup and been a perennial fixture in the tour’s driving accuracy category. Few have hit more fairways in the 12 years that have passed since the Berwickshire-resident made the last of his 10 Q-school visits.

“I’ll never be truly satisfied as a professional until I have won on tour, but the life it has given me is one of extreme fortune,” Drysdale says. “It is not something you set out to achieve when you start playing professionally to play 500 events on the European Tour, but it is a fantastic achievement. I have enjoyed experiences and made friendships around the world. I know how lucky I am in that respect.”

Maybe so, but good fortune was not on Drysdale’s side earlier this year at the Qatar Masters, where he lost out only at the fifth extra-hole to Jorge Campillo. More than once, the Spaniard holed-out from distance to first stay alive then complete victory.

“It was tough to watch Jorge making all those putts,” Drysdale says. “He literally couldn’t miss. On the first playoff hole, the fact that he got up and down from the fairway bunker was unbelievable. But that’s what Jorge does. He is an absolute machine on the long putts and to be fair to him, every single putt he made in the playoff was right in the middle of the cup. He made the putts and deserved to win.”

And so, after all that he has been through, does David Drysdale. There’s still time. Another 207 events at least, if Jimenez is anything to go by.

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