Whether the Dane kept his advantage heading into the second round remained to be seen. Fading light forced the suspension of the 1st round with South African Justin Harding a stroke adrift of Hansen but with the eminently birdie-able 18th still to play.

What we can definitively say is that world No.2 Collin Morikawa and world No.5 Viktor Hovland are nicely in the mix and featured in our wrap of the first round. 

Enjoy the latest edition of the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic ‘Daily News’ FREE here. Get up to speed with all the news and scores from Thursday and tee times for round two by scrolling through the ISSUU link below or download Friday’s Daily News to your favourite device to read offline or keep for prosperity.

Enjoy and stay tuned for the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic Daily News review of the second round, out bright and early Saturday.

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Joachim B. Hansen is making a nice habit of 18-hole leads in Dubai. He knows how to turn an early edge in the Emirate into lasting DP World Tour glory too, although going the distance at the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic this week is going to be an altogether tougher assignment than his near wire-to-wire win at the AVIV Dubai Championship in November.

A bogey-free seven-under 65 earned Hansen the overnight lead at the $8 million Rolex Series event, albeit with an asterisk. When fading light forced the suspension of the opening round, Justin Harding was six-under with the eminently birdie-able 18th still to play. The 35-year-old South African, like Hansen a two-time DP World Tour winner, will return at 7.45am hoping to edge alongside or even ahead of the Dane, before a quick turnaround for his 8.40am second round tee-time.

It’s not just Harding that will have had Hansen sweating on the lead though.  

Former champion Sergio Garcia and desert specialist Tommy Fleetwood are in a group of six at five-under, Fabrizio Zanotti included. The Paraguayan also has the 18th to complete so will fancy moving up like Harding.

Just a stroke further back on four-under, meanwhile, are a gaggle of six featuring Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland, the world numbers two and five respectively. If that wasn’t sobering enough, the names of Scott, Westwood and Hatton light up those on three-under, further evidence, not that Hansen needed it, that winning at Emirates Golf Club is going to be far tougher than clinching the penultimate event of the 2021 season at JGE proved. 

“A bit of shame there wasn’t any more tournaments at the end of last year but [I’ll] try to keep it going,” said Hansen who went on to a share of 9th at the DP World Tour Championship the week after the Dubai Championship.

“I’m a bit more relaxed, have a bit more belief in myself [after finishing 37th in last year’s R2D standings]. But still have to play pretty good golf to play here again in 2023. So just trying to do my best.”

Hansen’s best on Thursday was as good as his post-round comments were to the point. “Pretty good,” the world No. 110 said when asked for a summation of his 65. “I kept the ball in play. I didn’t drive it that well. Putted fantastic.”

Friday’s galleries will no doubt swarm to the Morikawa, Rory McIlroy and Bernd Wiesberger three-ball, off the 1st tee at 12.20. McIlroy and Wiesberger will resume one-under, notably a stroke behind Dubai 17-year-old Josh Hill who got it to four-under but finished tied on 70 with Texan Sam Bennett in the race for amateur honours. Emirati No.1 Ahmad Skaik signed for a 75.

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By Kent Gray
JB Hansen won’t ever forget his AVIV Dubai Championship victory on Fire, especially not as the Dane got to share his second European Tour title inside a year with family and friends at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

Sadly, the relentless cadence of tournament golf waits for no man, with the spotlight now firmly on the season-ending DP World Tour Championship just four days and a mere hop and skip away over on JGE’s Earth layout.

RELATED: European Tour reveals divorce from Asian Tour in email to members

The uncomfortable truth is, even before Hansen had wrapped up his final round 68 to edge Bernd Wiesberger and Francesco Laporta by a stroke, the golfing world had moved on, suddenly intrigued by a story about another significant no-show.

Few will publicly question Jon Rahm’s decision to put his family and mental and physical well-being first but the world No.1’s decision to withdraw from the DPWTC at the 11th hour was a PR dagger, one with consequences that will linger far beyond the probability of an American becoming European No.1 for the first time this coming Sunday.

Remember, this is not only the supposed climax of the season with a $9 million purse, the tour’s richest prize fund outside the majors and WGCs. It is also the flagship event of the Dubai corporate who is reportedly investing $40 million annually to take over naming right sponsorship of the European Tour from the 2021-22 season.

RELATED: European Tour to become DP World Tour from 2022 with record total prize fund in excess of $140m

It’s not a good look when the world No.1, a player who is third in the Race to Dubai Rankings and seemingly the only one seriously able to challenge Americans Collin Morikawa and Billy Horschel for the Race to Dubai title, can’t conjure four more days out of his tired body and mind, notwithstanding that the said “demands of a long season” had led to the “difficult decision not to travel to Dubai next week.”

Sponsors and fans might have been able to turn a convenient blind eye except the European Tour confirmed that Viktor Hovland and Justin Rose had also taken the decision to withdraw just a day earlier. It’s all a tad embarrassing given the trio had been front and centre in a whiz-bang video to launch the rebranded DP World Tour just two days before that at a big Expo 2020 media event.

Don’t forget either that European Tour CEO Keith Pelley has been forced to grant Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed special exemptions to play the DPWTC even though they have failed to meet the minimum eligibility requirements and have been removed from the Race to Dubai rankings as a consequence. With three big names withdrawing, the tour clearly could not afford to lose any more fan or TV broadcast pulling power, even if Garcia and Reed will play only bit-part roles in the main narrative this week.

Behind the scenes at JGE this week, Pelley’s has also been busy circling the wagons around the soon-to-be DP World Tour and, by extension, its strategic partner, the PGA Tour.

Golf Digest Middle East is privy to an email Pelley sent to players over the weekend that spells out the unceremonious end to the European Tour’s strategic alliance with the Asia Tour now the latter has hitched its wagon to Saudi Arabian investment.

RELATED: Saudi investment company confirm Greg Norman as CEO, plough $200m into revitalised Asian Tour with promised Middle East events

Pelley said the agreement, dating back to 2016, would not be renewed, that no events would be co-sanctioned “moving forward” and critically that there would be no route to the European Tour via previously open Asian Tour pathways. Furthermore, any European Tour player wishing to tee it up in any Asian Tour event herewith must apply in writing to Pelley no less than 30 days before the conflicting event. “Once the application is received, together with our Executive Team I will evaluate and review each request on its individual merits, and revert to you with my decision in due course,” Pelley wrote.

With planning for the LIV Golf Investments start-up league fronted by Greg Norman and bankrolled by the Saudi PIF rumbling along, the boundaries of the global game are being redrawn and fiercely defended. How the players will react to announcements like the European Tour’s decision to immediately cut ties with the once friendly Asian Tour remains to be seen; the players see themselves as private contractors after all and will ultimately go where the big money and best opportunities are. Some will be comfortable picking sides, others will covet freedom of global trade.

The problem for the soon-to-be DP World Tour, even with 47 events and minimum $2 million purses, is that the Race to Dubai is no longer an irresistible magnet to the circuit’s biggest names. It perhaps never was and a bolstering of the DPWTC purse to $10 million in 2022 seems unlikely to change that.

A format that requires a player to commit to so few regular-season events to qualify for the DPWTC and rewards so richly those playing majors and WGC events confined largely to the U.S. (and Asia) is fundamentally flawed. If the European Tour wasn’t already a feeder to the PGA Tour, it is speeding headfirst along that path now. Pelley and co. must also surely fret at what the Asian Tour might become, thanks to being at the epicentre of the world’s largest market and emboldened by the sudden influx of Saudi Riyals and a Kingdom of global ambition.

The bottom line on Sunday, at what should have been a widely heralded penultimate event of the season, was that the AVIV Dubai Championship was relegated to a sidebar story. Hansen and Dubai deserved better. The DPWTC certainly deserves more this week and beyond. It’s simply not good enough that the game’s biggest names give a few days’ notice of their unavailability or, worse still, don’t even have the Race to Dubai title on their radar at all.

Unfair? We’ll give Horschel, who is second in the R2D rankings and could easily own the once-coveted Harry Vardon Trophy come Sunday, the final word:  “I’ll be honest, at the beginning of the year, the Race to Dubai wasn’t one of my goals,” said Horschel.

“But after playing well in the WGC events and playing decent in the majors, that changed.”

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By Kent Gray
Denmark’s Joachim B. Hansen is playing for his second European Tour title inside a year and to extend his season into the final week of the Race to Dubai.

Italy’s Francesco Laporta is already in the DP World Tour Championship but will tee it up in search of something even more precious, a maiden win.

France’s Antoine Rozner is likewise a lock for the season-ender next week and has a chance to pop over to Earth at Jumeirah Golf Estates after successfully defending the penultimate event of the year on Fire.

The final day of the AVIV Dubai Championship isn’t short of intriguing storylines, not with 13 players within five strokes of the -19 lead shared by Hansen and Laporta who will be joined in Sunday’s final threesome by Rozner who is just a shot adrift.

With six birdies and a bogey apiece, Hansen and Laporta both carded 67s on Saturday to go from one shot adrift to one short in front of overnight leader Rozner atop the leaderboard.

Finland’s Kalle Samooja is two shots back on -17 after a round of 68, with Rolex Series winners Min Woo Lee and Tommy Fleetwood sharing fifth position on 16 under par after rounds of 66 and 68 respectively. Lee posted six birdies and eagled the 13th hole to move into contention, while Fleetwood recovered from a two over par front nine with six birdies after the turn. Ryder Cuppers Martin Kaymer (65) and Bernd Wiesberger (68) share seventh place with Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond (63) on -15.

Hansen made par on the final hole after first finding the buggy track with his approach shot and then pitching into the greenside bunker. He managed to get up and down from there to stay on -19 and Laporta joined him with a birdie on the last.   

“It was very good from tee to green, the best I’ve ever played from tee to green,” Hansen said who is 85th in the current Race to Dubai rankings so needs to win or finish second to make the top-50 for next week’s DWTC.

“I missed a lot of good chances at the beginning and a few on the back nine. All in all five under is a good score but it could have been a lot better. The lie was alright with that third shot (at the last), but I got a bit too steep on it, but the fourth shot up to the pin was a nice one.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow, we’ll see how that’s going to go. Hopefully it will be another beautiful day and we’ll see what happens in the end. I just need to stay patient, I had a lot of chances out there today, so just stay patient and see what happens.”

Laporta is enjoying the tight fight.

“It’s obviously the third round, and we were all in contention so there was more pressure than the other two days, and it was more windy so it was the toughest day of the week,” the 31-year-old world No. 211 said.

“My game is pretty good actually. I didn’t hit the irons very solid like the other two days, so we’re going to work on that this afternoon on the range. But I’ll keep everything, my driver is in good shape and my putting is getting so I’ll try keep that going tomorrow.”

Rozner is happy to remain in the scrap after adding a 69 to his earlier rounds of 65-64.

“Today was tougher, definitely. I did not hit the ball as well as the other days. There were a few mistakes here and there and didn’t score on the easy holes. In the end it is not a disaster. It is three under and I am still in there in the mix and everything is up to tomorrow. I’m in there and that is what I wanted when I started this tournament and I have a chance.”

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By Kent Gray
Denmark’s Joachim B. Hansen earned the overnight lead, Dubai’s Ahmad Skaik the lasting admiration of a proud nation.

A nine-under 63 has “JB” Hansen two strokes clear of Englishman Andy Sullivan and Paul Waring, South African Dean Burmester and defending champion Antoine Rozner of France. Ryder Cupper Tommy Fleetwood is a further shot back on six under par but the main AVIV Dubai Championship headline, at least in the UAE, belonged to Skaik whose 68 was the lowest round on the European Tour by an Emirati golfer.

The lefty’s four-under circuit of Fire at Jumeirah Golf Estates easily eclipsed the one-under-par 71 carded by Emirati trailblazer Ahmed Al Musharrekh at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Championship.

“It’s hard to put it into words how it feels,” said Skaik who is battling almost head-to-toe niggles but is clearly better for his strong showing at last week’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club.

“I really could trust my game out there today which feels amazing, I think I hit 16 greens, so I felt in control of the ball.

“To see my Dad’s smile at the end there means everything. My goal coming into this week was to make the cut and that remains the same, I’ve made a good start, but I need to now keep my head down and do more of the same tomorrow.”

Hansen took full advantage of the favourable scoring conditions on Fire to post five birdies in six holes before the turn before adding four more on the way in.

The 31-year-old is out to add a second European Tour victory to his breakthrough Joburg Open win last year. He’ll need to win, or finish no worse than second, to advance from his current position of 85th in the Race to Dubai standings into next week’s season-ending top-50 DP World Tour Championship.

Getty Images JB Hansen.

“I loved it, no wind, perfect conditions and lovely to play in,’ said Hansen who has been in a solid run of form with four consecutive top 25 finishes.,

“I kept the ball in play, hit a lot of fairways in the first 14 holes but I holed the putts I needed, missed a few ones but you can’t hole them all.

“The greens are quite soft and they stop pretty quick when it’s not down grain so you’ve got a lot of opportunities when you’re hitting from fairway.”

All of the main first-round performers were rolled into the virtual media centre including Rozner who talked of cashing in on the “good vibes” of last year when he won with a -25 total.

But none of the interviewees was as illuminating as Waring who got to the crux of modern-day matters after explaining how he had his “ball under a lot of control.”

“… I’ll be honest with you, I struggled a lot mentally over the Covid period,” Waring offered.

“I think that’s been one of the major factors for me. With everything opening up a little more and having more freedom in our daily lives, I’ve definitely felt better for it. I started playing better around Wentworth [at the BMW PGA Championship in September] and I feel like I’ve been knocking on the door. Not fantastic results, but getting better.”

The post JB Hansen has the lead, Dubai’s Ahmad Skaik the main (local) headline after low scoring start to AVIV Dubai Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
Ironically, both of what proved to be the decisive moments in the final round of the Joburg Open on Sunday were shots that flew too far.

Three days after hitting the drive that echoed around the world of golf—a 439-yard bomb off the tee at the 597-yard par-5 fourth hole on the Randpark course during the opening round of the European Tour event—Wilco Nienaber arrived on the penultimate tee tied for the lead with Joachim B. Hansen. Unfortunately for Nienaber, a 20-year-old South African, that was as good as things would get. His tee shot on the 223-yard par-3 17th finished inches from the water that runs behind and left of the putting surface. A bogey, his first of the day, was the almost inevitable result from the awkward spot, the dropped shot putting Hansen one shot clear.

Perhaps fueled by adrenaline, Nienaber—statistically the longest hitter on tour with a driving average of 336.81 yards—found a fairway bunker with an iron off the 18th tee. Unable to reach the green in regulation at the 507-yard par 4, he again failed to match Hansen’s up-and-down par. Thus, the winning margin was two shots for Hansen, a 30-year-old Dane as he earned his maiden European Tour victory with a closing 67 and a 19-under-par 265 total.

For the record, another South African, Shaun Norris was third, three shots behind the new champion, with former Scottish and South African Open champion Brandon Stone among a three-strong group in fourth place.

“This is very emotional for me,” said a tearful Hansen, who had trailed by as many as three shots after Nienaber made three consecutive birdies on the front nine. “This is what I have worked so hard for. Wilco is quite a player. He hits the ball so far and has so many advantages. But I stuck to my game plan. All I could do was keep doing the things I had been doing for the first three days. And that proved to be good enough.”

There was special mention, too, for Hansen’s work on the greens. “I almost never missed a putt inside six feet,” he said at the end of what was only his 10th top-10 finish in 146 European Tour events. “And I holed a lot of long ones too.”

While Hansen’s success is a tribute to his perseverance, what this 19,500,000 ZAR event (approximately $1,271,886) will be most remembered for is that tee shot Nienaber hit on Thursday.

Wilco Nienaber’s 439 yard drive ?#JoburgOpen pic.twitter.com/AY6NNgPVUM

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) November 19, 2020

The former South African amateur champion’s gargantuan blast, one that finished almost exactly 99 yards past Bryson DeChambeau’s average tee shot on the PGA Tour, does, however, come with an asterisk. Sitting on the eastern plateau of South Africa known as the Highveld, Johannesburg is 5,751 feet above sea level, the thin air a hugely contributing factor in how far every shot travels.

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