Golf in the Middle East is entering its annual sweet spot – when the mercury dips and the big professional tournaments roll into the region as the event season heats up.

Join us as we preview the Saudi Ladies International with an exclusive – and inspirational – chat with Golf Saudi ambassador and reigning Women’s British Open champion Anna Nordqvist.

Enjoy a sneak peek of Yas Acres, the long-anticipated new baby sister for award-winning Yas Links Abu Dhabi. Get the lowdown on the five-month rebuild of the Majlis greens at Emirates Golf Club and catch up with Josh Hill after the Dubai amateur sensation’s busy UK summer campaign.

We find out how Steve Stricker’s Americans won back the Ryder Cup and why Europe should be very afraid. There are even tips from winning Ryder Cuppers Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, along with a deep dive on the golf balls of 2021. Are you playing the right sphere for your game?

All this and much more in the October 2021 edition of Golf Digest Middle East.

The issue is again free to our loyal audience. You can scroll through the ISSUU link provided or download the bumper Octoberber 2021 issue FREE 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.

The post Get the October 2021 issue of Golf Digest Middle East FREE today! appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The five-month rebuild of the most recognisable greens in Middle East golf is underway. In the meantime, may we humbly suggest you brush up on your lag putting.

All 18 greens on the Majlis layout at Emirates Golf Club, plus the practice green beneath the club’s famed Majlis clubhouse, are being dug up and rebuilt to full United States Golf Association (USGA) specification.

Originally built as ‘push up’ greens in the late 1980s, the surfaces are subject to the region’s high-stress climatic conditions so had come to the end of their natural 20-25 year lifespan.

That was evident at January’s OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic but Dubai Golf CEO Chris May is confident the rebuild will impress members and guests when the course reopens in late September and the pros when they are fully bedded for next year’s European Tour stop.

Like for Arabian Ranches Golf Club’s recent greens rebuild project, Emirates G.C. is having the chosen Tifeagle Bermuda grasses flown into the UAE in refrigerated containers from Atlas Turf in Georgia in the U.S.

The most noticeable change will be the significantly increased size of the surfaces, thus the aforementioned tip to work on your lag putting in the intervening five months.

“The greens will essentially remain the same as Karl Litten’s original design,” said May. “The most noticeable difference on re-opening in September will be the increase in size of the greens. The putting surfaces will be brought back to their original size with the average increase being close to 40 percent.”

Scratch beneath the surface and the big long-term benefits can be found.

“The fundamental change will be enhancing the drainage in the greens complexes by building to USGA specifications.

The 1st green on the Majlis is prepped for the rebuild.

“This will enable the golf course maintenance team to manage and present the greens to the world-class conditions that are expected on the Majlis course. The greens will be hand sprigged to ensure a consistent coverage with this work to be complete by the end of June after which the grow in will take place through to opening.”

Dubai Golf is also investing in drainage to the Majlis’ greenside bunkers to improve playability. Al Naboodah Contracting, the company responsible for the majority of golf courses in the region, is undertaking the construction.

American Terry Baller, who has significant global experience with many of the top design companies, is the design consultant.

“We are very much looking forward to reopening for play in September for our members and guests and providing world-class putting surfaces on the Majlis course for many years to come,” said May.

The post Majlis greens to grow up to 40% as USGA specification rebuild begins at Emirates Golf Club appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
David Cannon has dedicated the past 37 years of his life to capturing some of golf’s most iconic images for Getty Images. With his trademark Tilley hat and a career-long association with Canon cameras, the 64-year-old Sussex snapper has covered 120 men’s and 71 women’s majors, 19 Ryder Cups and all 16 Solheim Cups.

The life-long Leicester City supporter has also worked at nine FIFA World Cups, the football assignments contributing to another incredible stat; the Englishman has spent the equivalent of 15 years sleeping in hotel rooms, rising early after many of those 5,500 nights so as not to miss the best of the dawn light.

Cannon has witnessed the incredible transformation of Dubai as the futuristic city has grown up around golf. He first visited in 1986 as Emirates Golf Club was transformed from a barren desert landscape complete with wandering camels to the majesty that is today the Majlis layout, the No.1 course in the Middle East. He’s not missed a single edition of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic either and owns the definitive collection of still images from the ‘Major of the Middle East’, Ernie Els’ first win in 1994, Tiger Woods’ iconic shots atop the Burj Al Arab in 2004 and Rory McIlroy’s European Tour breakthrough in 2009 the most memorable among them.  There’s even a book commemorating the first 25 years, published in conjunction with author Rodney J. Bogg.

“Emirates Golf Club is obviously a very special place to me because I’ve seen it since it was a square kilometre of desert with a wire fence around it,” Cannon said.

“I’ve been coming here two, three, four times a year since 1987. Apart from the majors, I think it has been the most important part of my photography life, actually. I love this place.”

The European Tour released a video to commemorate Cannon’s contribution to the oldest tour event outside of continental European overnight. Check it out here:

30 years of Dubai ?️

One photographer’s journey in the desert ?@OMEGAGolfDubai #ODDC pic.twitter.com/HpbHk9TIoG

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 25, 2020

“I’m extremely honoured, actually, to be involved with Dubai. It’s been a huge part of my life. It’s such a wonder of the world…30 years to go from the desert to what it is now,” he says.

“I just like recording split seconds of life, history.

“If I look back on my career, I think I’m hopefully going to leave a quite unique legacy to the game of golf. Hopefully, I can go on a load more years yet and leave something special.”

As a tribute to one of the ODDC’s enduring characters, we’ve dedicated a double-page spread in each issue of this week’s Daily News, a 24-page newspaper produced by the Golf Digest Middle East team and printed by official OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic publisher and partner Motivate Media Group, to ‘Cannon’s Shots’ of the day. Today we’ve extended the feature to allow the renowned photojournalist to share his favourite images from 34 years visiting Emirates Golf Club. Enjoy the trip down memory lane, shared here on golfdigestme.com.

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Sheikh Mohammed’s vision has been richly rewarded

Emirates Golf Club was a huge part of the vision Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, had for this special part of the world in the early 1980s. The Middle East’s first grass golf course did so much to help the development of Dubai. It has stood the test of time with very few changes to the course as the whole landscape of Dubai has been transformed around it.

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Dramatic transformation of Emirates Golf Club

Aerial view of the course under construction in 1987, a square kilometre of land with three rubber-lined lakes.

Emirates Golf Club in December 2014, shot from roughly the same point with the Marina and other construction underway.

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1990: Eamonn Darcy and a new era for sports photography

This was the first year that I became involved in live transmission of pictures. It was still film in those days with a local runner needed to get to the nearest photo lab to get the rolls of film processed. At Allsport (now Getty Images) we had one of the first digital transmission machines. This changed the world of transmitting colour images from a minimum of 21 minutes per picture to under seven. We had so many pictures used, mainly because the story was so good – a European Tour event in the desert on grass with a totally magnificent course and especially the iconic clubhouse. Pictures sold the story. Eamonn Darcy, with maybe the strangest swing in professional golf ever, beat a stellar field using an Emirates Airlines pilot as his caddie!

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Another survivor of the first 30 Dubai Desert Classics – former Tournament Director Mike Stewart

David Cannon

Mike Stewart (right) engaged in a difficult conversation with Seve Ballesteros in 1992 as Mike Tait and Seve’s caddie look on. A penny for your thoughts Seve? No drop… it’s wasteland and just bad luck my old friend.

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Amateur Rory McIlroy played his first OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic when Ernie Els won in 2007

David Cannon

This picture is very special in many ways. I have been lucky enough to photograph Ernie Els from when he was an amateur in 1989 and we have become good friends. The same has happened with Rory, whom I first photographed in 2004 in the Junior Open Championship at Kilmarnock Barassie. To see him look straight at me with his award sitting beside Ernie and Michael Schumacher makes this a very special moment.

I guess we should have known that just two years later Rory would claim his first European Tour title in Dubai on that same green where he had sat with two sporting greats two years previously.

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The 25th OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic Anniversary photograph

I was honoured to be asked to take this photograph in 2014. I cannot recall or in fact imagine a similar picture being arranged let alone taken at any other regular tour event. Only the Open Championship champions dinner at St Andrews every five years, and the Masters past Champions dinner at Augusta each April, manage to get their past winners together. Those are major Championships whereas the ODDC is a regular European Tour event, as storied a history as it now owns. This picture is certainly unique, a testament to Dubai, that all these past champions recognised the importance of the tournament to the region and the European Tour. The only tinge of sadness was that we were missing the incomparable Severiano Ballesteros, though to have Javier his son there was a lovely tribute to the great champion. The logistics of gathering them all at the same time was another story!

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The iconic 8th hole on the Majlis course at Emirates G.C.

The photograph above, taken in 1988 at the official opening of Emirates Golf Club, is almost unrecognisable today as you can see by the image below, shot from the tee in January 2019, 30 years later. There is no doubt this is one of the most photographed holes in golf.

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Tiger Woods Burj Al Arab shoot

In 2004 an idea we had two years earlier came to pass. What would it be like if we could manage to get Tiger Woods to hit a golf ball off the helipad of the recently constructed Burj Al Arab hotel? Pretty epic as it turned out.

Tiger first played the Desert Classic in 2001 and elevated the event around the globe. But this photoshoot in 2004 became the greatest global PR success of the year with over 300 newspaper publications printing photos, let alone a huge worldwide television audience seeing the incredible footage. The world’s most iconic sportsman of that era had announced Dubai to the world through golf and the Desert Classic. It was exposure money, and certainly no amount of travel advertising could buy.

For Getty Images and myself as the photographer, it was a sensational day and one I will never forget, especially as Tiger announced later that afternoon that all he had been trying to do was to land one of his drives into the helicopter!

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Tiger in the Woods… A dream finally captured in 2001 and that fantastic moment of victory in 2008

I had been waiting for the ultimate ‘Tiger in the Woods’ image ever since Woods burst on the scene. In 2001, when he first played in Dubai and in the midst of a great tussle with Thomas Bjorn, Woods drove through the fairway into some trees on the dog-leg 18th hole and I had my chance. Technically this was a tough picture to capture in the shade but I managed it in the last year we used film!

In 2008 Tiger won for the second time holing one of his amazing final green clutch putts to give us a fabulous trademark fist pump! What a player!

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Emirates Golf Club – a course with so many photographers ‘studios’…

David Cannon

Danny Willett on his way to victory in 2016 at one of favourite spots for covering the ODDC, the dogleg on the par-5 13th hole. I always tell people that Emirates Golf Club is the very best of the year for photography. The 3rd, 8th, 10th and13th holes in the morning, with the 5th, 9th, 14th, 16th and 18th in the afternoons, all provide brilliant light conditions and backdrops. It is almost as if the designers were thinking of us all those years ago.

David Cannon

The post ‘Apart from the majors, the Desert Classic’s been the most important part of my photography life’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The countdown is on to the 11th edition of the Golf Digest Middle East Classic presented in association with King’s College Hospital London and AutoRoute, the culmination of our three tournament autumn series.

It’s not to late to enter the grand final at Emirates Golf Club next Tuesday where the winners of division A (0-10 handicaps), division B (11-24) and ladies competitions will earn Pro-Am starts at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and remodelled Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic respectively.

ENTER the 2018 Golf Digest Middle East Classic TODAY!

To get you in the mood for the October 16 decider, here’s s highlights reel from the second qualifying tournament at the Els Club, Dubai last week where Kevin Riley, Hisham Shammas and Stephanie Kemper all qualified for the 11th GDME Classic.

At AED 555, the entry fee for the GDME Classic is a sharp price for a round on the Majlis, rated No.1 in the most recent Golf Digest Middle East Top 10 courses ranking, in its own right. The bonus is a post Classic gala dinner and your chance to win once-in-a-lifetime European Tour and Ladies European Tour Pro-Am spots as well as other goodies from our sponsors.

RELATED: 100th edition cover star waltzes away with the 10th anniversary edition of the Golf Digest Middle East Classic

Check out the fun (and best action pictures) had at the Saadiyat Beach Golf Club and Els Club, Dubai qualifiers and enter the 11th Golf Digest Middle East Classic today. 

The post VIDEO: Golf Digest Middle East Classic qualifier at The Els Club, Dubai appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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

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

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

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

The post Night golf is coming to the Omega Dubai Desert Classic (kinda, sorta) appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Players can choose different points scoring games.

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

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

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

The post Emirates Golf Club to open Middle East’s first Topgolf venue in 2020 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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.”

The post English amateur sensation Sophie Lamb reunited with British Open champion IK Kim in Dubai appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 24-year-old American confirmed the news, first revealed by Golf Digest Middle East last month, in this short video overnight.

Spiranac’s appointment is another shrewd promotional curve-ball from Tournament Director David Spencer, designed to keep the Desert Classic front an centre as one of the European Tour’s preeminent events. Reigning U.S. Masters champion Sergio Garcia, who has just announced new bride Angela Adkins is expecting the couple’s first child in March, is already confirmed to defend the famed dallah (Arabic Coffee Pot) on the Majlis while Golf Digest Middle East exclusively revealed PGA Tour cult hero Pat Perez is set to headline the $3million event.

Related: Pat Perez set to bring his brand of PGA Tour pizzazz to 2018 Omega Dubai Desert Classic

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.

Sadly, Spiranac continued to harassed by faceless 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 will do the same for the men’s event in her ambassadorial role.

He reveals why in this piece which appears as part of a special “9 for 9” feature in out 100th issue.

Read the story here: Paige Impressions

Meanwhile, ticket prices for the Desert Classic have been released. Daily tickets for the four-day main competition are priced at AED 175. A season pass, which provides access all week, is available for AED 500. Children aged 16 and under will be allowed free entry to the course if they are accompanied by an adult who is holding a valid ticket for the day.

The post On the tee… Paige Spiranac appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
PGA Tour cult-hero Pat Perez has been confirmed to headline January’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

In a major coup for the “Major of the Middle East”, the 41-year-old American will bring his signature mullet, flamboyant personality and born-again game to the Majlis course at Emirates Golf Club for the 29th edition of the $3 million European Tour event.

Nicknamed the “Volcano”, Perez is managed by the same team as reigning U.S. Masters champion Sergio Garcia who has also been confirmed to defend the Desert Classic’s famed dallah (arabic coffee pot). It’s a marquee double-billing to start the customary drip-feeding of player announcements ahead of the now split Desert Classic which will begin the previous week in Abu Dhabi.

Related: Muscat event added to 2018 European Tour schedule as the Desert Swing is split in two

Getty Images/Garcia salutes the Majlis galleries after winning last year’s Desert Classic.

There are few more popular players inside or out of the ropes in pro golf than Perez who won his second PGA Tour title at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba at the start of the 2016-17 season and went on to finish 15th in the FedEx Cup with $4.36 million in season earnings.

The win in Mexico came eight years after the world No.31 captured his only other PGA Tour title at the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer and just three events after an enforced eight-month layoff due to shoulder surgery.

Perez feared the torn labrum in his left shoulder may end his career but instead rattled off six top-10s and 14 top-25s in a breakout season. Despite 16 years on tour without losing his card, the six-footer reached the Tour Championship for the first time and eventually placed 16th, nine shots adrift of Justin Thomas, after flirting with the top of the leaderboard early on at East Lake.

Related: Pat Perez is antithesis of young successful tour players, but still hanging with them on leader board

Perez was the oldest player at East Lake, a throwback to a bygone era who is enjoying taking it to the “young punks” now overpowering golf’s professional ranks.

As well as being a fan favourite, he shapes as a PR boon for the Desert Classic. Perez is a certified pressroom funny man as this quote from the Tour Championship, when he was asked how he’d spend the FedEx Cup’s bonus pot (of which he had only a mathematical chance of winning), illustrates:

Our own Pat Perez must have a few expensive things in mind ??? pic.twitter.com/iZuiCsuqDE

— SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) September 21, 2017

The full answer revealed even more of his fun personality: “Quickly. Yeah, quickly. I might not live that much longer. I’ve got to start spending it now!”

Here’s another classic interaction with the press corp from East Lake where Perez was quizzed on his intention to play the Champions Tour – even though he’s still nine years shy of the over-50s circuit:

#PatPerez fantasized about laid back #ChampionsTour life when rapping with the media at the #TOURChampionship today. Legendary. #PerezPosse pic.twitter.com/pxVA5Xssor

— William Murray Golf (@WMurrayGolf) September 20, 2017

Rest assured Perez can walk the talk as well as this holed shot highlights. We love the reaction almost as much as the 147-yard cup-finder.

Rolling into the weekend like #PatPerez holing it from 175 yards out @PlayoffFinale. Heads up; flying irons. #WilliamMurray #ZFG #Irreverent pic.twitter.com/0jJ7A4xnXl

— William Murray Golf (@WMurrayGolf) September 22, 2017

The Desert Classic will be Perez’s fourth regular season start on the European Tour after T-66 and missed cut performances at the 2012 and 2015 Alfred Dunhill Championships respectively and a DQ at July’s Porsche European Open when he signed an incorrect second round scorecard.

He signaled his intention to play in Dubai earlier this year after joining the European Tour as an affiliate member courtesy of his top-50 status and now career high Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR).

“I’ve always stayed in the US. So I figured, after I won and got to the top 50 in the world, I might try and travel a bit and see some new parts of the world and play against other great players. I wanted to play the European Tour and become more of a global player,” he said.

“I am going to try and broaden my horizons, go to places such as Dubai and Malaysia, and see where I fall.

“This time last year I was in a sling. I had surgery in March last year and I hadn’t played at all and I didn’t really know what to expect coming back, so winning my third event back kind of changed my second half of my career. So now that that has happened, I have a whole new position in the game and I am going to try and take full advantage of it and be part of the European Tour, like a lot of great players have from the US and Europe, and I am excited to do it.”

The feeling is most definitely mutual for Desert Classic Tournament Director David Spencer who describes the PXG staff player as “very Dubai”.

“I think every tournament promoter is looking for something different and something that can help them with sponsors and fans. We’ve heard so many good reports, actually mostly from other players as to what a character Pat Perez is, how good he is with people,” said Spencer.

“He’s very Dubai, bright, bubbly, he’s exciting and this year in particular – I mean the big story for us is when we agreed to bring him he was 118th in the world and now he’s 31 so it’s just one of those great luck stories.“

While Spencer is not afraid to enlist players capable of pushing ticket sales and PR, he’s also supremely confident Perez will shine where it really matters after making 22 cuts in 26 starts on the PGA Tour this season. The Desert Classic could certainly do with its drawcard making the weekend at least after Tiger Woods’ ill-fated return to the Majlis last February.

Perez, in fact, already has a tenuous and perhaps unwanted link to the Desert Classic after saying Woods “knows he can’t beat anybody” following Tiger’s opening 77 on the Majlis and resulting WD with the back injury that has kept himself out of the game ever since. He later admitted the comments earned the ire of Woods and while the pair quickly made up, Perez told Golf Digest he was frustrated by the coverage of his comments, particularly on social media, which he says were taken out of context. He had taken down his Twitter account even before the comments had aired on a radio show he co-hosts in the U.S.

“I’m tired of the trolls and people not having the facts,” Perez said afterwards.  “I’m worn out.”

Thankfully the Volcano seems to be rejuvenated and back to his quotable best. He’ll also be one of the players to beat in January, at least as far as Spencer is concerned.

“Like any of them will tell you, Pat’s not coming to make up the numbers,” Spencer said of the Scottsdale, Arizona resident who has $21.75 million in career earnings.

“He’s coming to win and I think he’s done a fair amount of research into what the course is. It’ll suit his game being the fact the course is over sown with winter grasses and he comes from an area where that is prevalent. That’s one of the things we said to him, that playing the Majlis in late January is very Arizona [like] in its playing surfaces.

“The Majlis suits all great players and he is a great player.”

It is understood Perez will travel to Dubai with his wife Ashley who caddied for him in the par 3 contest at Augusta National before he finished T-18 at the U.S. Masters.

It’s so awesome to always feel such unconditional love… on and off the course ??? such a fun day caddying for my pro at #augustanational ! #masters #luckygirl #caddie #dufl

A post shared by Ashley Perez (@therealashleyperez) on Apr 5, 2017 at 4:20pm PDT

It was Perez’s best performance in this year’s majors after he missed the cut at Erin Hills and Royal Birkdale in the US and Open Championships before a T-28 at the PGA Championship, His best finish in the bigs was a T-6 back at the 2005 PGA although he’ll bring good vibes from a solid finish to the FedEx Cup with T-6 and T-12 places at the Dell Technologies and BMW Championships before East Lake.

The post EXCLUSIVE: Pat Perez set to bring his brand of PGA Tour pizzazz to 2018 Omega Dubai Desert Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.