Who's the most famous person in your contacts, excluding golfers?

? @StephenCurry30
? @LandoNorris
@esmuellert_
? @NiallOfficial
? @MichaelJordaan#DPWTC | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/rPD6eAVU7A

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 15, 2023

Whoever’s behind the DP World Tour’s social media account made sure to say EXCLUDING GOLFERS and we’re thrilled he did because this led to some damn good responses.

After a “wee look” through their phones, the pros came up with some big names such as soccer pros Franz Beckenbauer and Thomas Müller, basketball/golf legend Steph Curry, cricketer Shane Warne and musicians like Lewis Capaldi and Niall Horan.

Perhaps this is an American perspective, but Shane Lowry won the contest when he name-dropped Michael Jordan. The two have combined for seven championships (six NBA titles and one Open Championship), and we’d love nothing more than to know what the two of them text about. We know that MJ is a Ryder Cup obsessive, so perhaps some trash talk between the two sides?

No matter what, we hope Lowry has a good grip on his phone, or Jordan may get a text or two from randos asking him if he wants to join some unknown golf foursomes.

Image: Ramsey Cardy

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Having driven short and left of the green on the 324-yard par-4 18th at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid course, Siem stood over the resulting chip knowing that, should he hole out for what would be his third eagle of the day, he would register only the second round of 59 ever shot on the DP World Tour.

It wasn’t to be, although it was close, the ball missing the flagstick by inches before finishing maybe 12 feet past.

Chip for a 59…

An incredible round for @SiemMarcel ?? pic.twitter.com/0u9vqcCh3E

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 15, 2023

The putt for 60, however, failed to live up to most of what Siem had produced earlier—seven birdies, those two eagles and a lone dropped shot. Never online, it missed comfortably on the left. So 61 and 17 under par for the 72 holes it was in the end.

“At the start of the day I wasn’t really thinking about winning the tournament,” said Siem, who is in strong contention for one of the 10 PGA Tour cards available off this year’s Race to Dubai standings. “I was just trying my best. I’m really pleased though. I had a chip on the last for 59, something I’ve never had before. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I misread the putt. But it was cool to think about the 59.”

Another who started the final round alongside Siem also caused a ripple of excitement during a final round (and tournament) dominated by Pavon. The Frenchman led from start to finish, dropped only three shots all week, closed with a near-immaculate bogey-free 64 that took him to 23 under par for the week and made off with his maiden DP World Tour title by four shots. Almost incidentally, South African Zander Lombard reached 19-under to pip England’s Nathan Kimsey and claim a distant runner-up spot.

But never mind all that. It was defending champion Jon Rahm, seeking a fourth win in this event, who had local pulses racing early. At the conclusion of his third-round 67, the Masters champion announced that “the best has yet to come” and at least for a while he was living up to that promise.

Birdies on each of the first four holes had Rahm dreaming of what would have been the unlikeliest of victories. And when two more birdies arrived before the turn, he was out in 30 and thinking big. Sadly, however, the back nine turned out to be something of an anti-climax for the large crowds following the World No. 3. Three pars were followed by a bogey on the par-4 13th. But ever the showman, Rahm finished with a typical flourish, driving the last green and leaving the putt for eagle hanging on the lip. It all added up to 64 and an eventual T-9 finish.

“Today was a good day,” Rahm said. “It was the start I wanted but not the back nine I needed. I gave myself a chance to hope. But overall this wasn’t the week I wanted. Friday afternoon [when he shot 72] cost me a lot. If I could have made a few putts like i did yesterday and today it could have been a different tournament.

“I’m still proud to have come and competed and hopefully sneak a back-door top-10,” he continued. “That is good for the stats, good for the soul. I might have just run out of energy a little bit this week. Today was just a last-gasp attempt to give the crowd what they wanted. I almost did that on 18. I hit the perfect drive and almost made the putt. It would have been an incredible way to finish.”

This time around, that sort of glory was left to Pavon. Arriving in Madrid on the back of a T-6 finish in last week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, the 30-year-old Toulouse-native was clearly a man on the rise in an event where he has some positive history. A year ago, Pavon shot 19 under par and finished second—by six—to that man Rahm. “Chevaux de course,” as someone from France might say.

Main image: Stuart Franklin

The post Watch DP World Tour pro almost pull off the most unlikely 59 in golf history appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Siem won four titles between 2004 and 2014 but has had to wait until now for DP World Tour win No. 5, although he did win Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge on the European Challenge Tour in 2021.

"Now I'm a winner again, come on!" ?

Hear from @SiemMarcel after his comes a five-time winner on Tour. #HIO2023 pic.twitter.com/lOC5rpjXZM

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) February 26, 2023

The 42-year-old, who secured his card for the 2023 season at Q-School in November, went into the final round one shot behind overnight leader Paul but made four birdies over the first 11 holes to move two strokes clear.

His first bogey of the day at the 13th resulted in a two-shot swing, as playing partner Paul made a birdie there to pull alongside Siem at the top of the leaderboard.

Siem fought back though, holing from 15 feet for a birdie on the long 15th to regain the solo lead ahead of the difficult finishing holes.

And after parring the 16th and just missing his birdie try after a delightful approach into the 17th, Siem took a one-shot lead to the 18th.

Having narrowly cleared the water guarding the green with his third shot, Siem made another par at the last to end his long wait for a win after Paul was unable to convert his birdie putt.

Siem made a total of five birdies and one bogey in his closing 68 to finish the tournament on 14 under par.

Paul was alone in second on 13 under, with Joost Luiten another shot further back after his Sunday 68.

Siem trailed by one shot at the start of the day but poured in his 20-foot birdie putt at the long fourth to join his compatriot at the summit.

He got a second birdie on the eighth courtesy of a wonderful up-and-down from the bank close to the water.

Siem took the outright lead with a birdie at the tenth before making it back-to-back gains from around ten feet at the 11th to stretch his lead to two shots.

After saving par at the 12th, Siem dropped his first shot of the day on the 13th following an errant tee-shot – and with Paul making a birdie from six feet, a two-shot swing meant they were tied at the top.

But after walking away from the tricky 14th with a par for the first time this week, Siem sent his approach at the 15th to 15 feet before holing the putt to lead on his own once again.

Back-to-back pars followed on the 16th and 17th before Siem opted to lay up at the par-five 18th.

In the rough after two shots at the last, Siem managed to clear the water and two-putt for par to clinch the crown, after Paul missed his birdie try.

The post Magical Marcel Siem ends eight-year wait for fifth DP World Tour win in India appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Daniel Rapaport
SANDWICH, Englan​d—​Marcel Siem holed a birdie putt on the 18th at the Open, fist-pumped like hell—it’s his thing—basked in the applause, signed for 67, made his way to Mediaville for a TV interview, and another, and another, and another, and another, and one last Q&A with scribes. Answering the same questions over and over requires some level of mental acuity, and the German had to break into the energy reserves. He was working off just five hours of sleep—the phone would not stop buzzing Thursday night, which tends to happen when you shoot 67 in a major championship on your 41st birthday.

“I’m not professional enough yet to put it in a corner and not look at it,” says a man who turned professional more than two decades ago and once cracked the world’s top 50. At six under heading into the weekend, firmly in the mix at the first major he’s played since 2015, Siem is a man in demand. Perhaps this whole center-of-attention thing just feels new, which makes a lot of sense when you consider what his last half-decade has looked like.

Siem won his fourth European Tour title in November of 2014 then decided life as an occasional winner wasn’t cutting it. He tried his hand at the hottest swing trend, getting the club shut at the top of the backswing and rotating like hell through impact. Not everyone can be Dustin Johnson, though, and Siem totally and completely lost it. He hung around the European Tour on past-champion status for the next couple years before that dried up. He then faced the question every golfer chasing this dream dreads having to face: Should I keep doing this?

“Sponsors all gone, you have a certain lifestyle that you’re used to,” Siem said. “You can’t play the big tournaments anymore. The prize money’s not coming in, but the costs are still there. I wasn’t sure if I should keep going. I lost my swing, I was injured.”

He kept going. Boy, did he keep going.

This week at Royal St. George’s marks the 13th straight week Siem has played a tournament, and they have not been glamorous tournaments. He caddied for himself—or, put differently, he carried his own bag—in five or six of them, he estimates. The grind began in South Africa at the Limpopo Championship, a Challenge Tour event where he finished T-25. There were two more Challenge Tour events down there back-to-back European Tour events. Diamonds in the rough, if you will. He missed the cut in both. After that, back to the Challenge Tour for a T-66, a missed cut and a T-36, and this is starting to get bleak. But the man inside the arena cannot allow himself to think that way.

“Richard Bland, Gregory Havret—there’s a lot guys in my age going back to the Challenge Tour,” Siem said. “If you don’t accept that you lost your card, and you still think you’re a European Tour player, and there should be a caddie around you, and you should be play for 2 million euros, you cannot compete on the Challenge Tour. There’s no chance. You’re grumpy, you’re upset all the time. Once you make friends on the Challenge Tour and accept that’s where I am, that’s the only way forward. I’m so happy that I understood that.”

Understood. Past tense, for his days on the Challenge Tour are numbered. Perhaps you’re wondering how Siem got into the field in the year’s final major—he did so by winning last week’s Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge by a shot. The $40,000 winners check must’ve felt like a million bucks, for it brought him that much closer to getting his card back—and got him into this week’s Open, the first he’s played since 2015.

“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I felt horrendous,” was how he described his energy levels this week. “Yesterday, I was actually feeling quite good, because I had a late tee time. I only have five hours of sleep this morning. First 10 holes, I felt really, really tired, my legs wobbly. Then, all the sudden, the crowd started to come, pressure was coming, I felt a little nervous, and I felt great again. I think that’s gonna help me again on the weekend, because the pressure is going to be high.”

Weekend pressure at a major championship. Marcel Siem is a long way from a T-25 at the Limpopo Championship.

The post Marcel Siem never lost hope after losing his game, and now he’s back contending in a major appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
It is a good thing professional golf does not have a “Number of Days Since Last Rules Controversy” sign placed at tournament sites. Because it would never crack double digits.

Already this week the sport has seen Lee Ann Walker assessed 58 penalty strokes for having her caddie improperly line her up on putts and Jesper Parnevik dinged for not taking a mulligan. Joining those ill-famed ranks is Marcel Siem.

Playing in the European Tour’s Open de France, Siem was under the impression that preferred lies were in place for the first round at Le Golf National (site of last years Ryder Cup) due to wet conditions. As such, Siem, 39, took the opportunity to lift, clean and replace his ball five times over his first nine holes.

One problem: Preferred lies were not instituted, meaning Siem incurred a two-shot penalty for each violation.

A total Siem, a former winner at the event, could not abide.

“That was a little too much for me and I disqualified myself,” Siem wrote on his Facebook page. “I thought I owed you the explanation.”

It’s a double-whammy, as the dropout means Siem now has to go to European Tour Q-school to retain his card for next season. Not that Siem seems concerned, ending his note with, “I promise I’ll be back.”

A tough break for Siem, but on the bright side, it was still 48 penalty strokes less than Walker. So, progress?

The post Another week, another rules controversy as Euro Tour player’s preferred lies and 10-shot penalty lead to DQ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The European Tour winners boarded a catamaran from Al Mouj Marina and sailed out to showcase the beauty of the Muscat coastline in a novel nearest-the-pin contest.

You can check out some of the highlights of the challenge at the spectacular Greg Norman-designed layout here:

@EuropeanTour stars @ManasseroMatteo & @SiemMarcel are all aboard this year’s @OmanOpenGolf at Al Mouj Golf. Watch them take to the sea to hone their skills! #OmanOpen #GolfinOman #Oman #AlMoujGolf #AlMoujMuscat pic.twitter.com/bTC7SVpnkE

— Al Mouj Golf (@AlmoujGolfOman) February 27, 2019

“That was a fun way to start the week,” said Manassero, a four-time European Tour winner. “This tournament is renowned as being hosted on one of the most beautiful courses that we play on The European Tour, and to have another perspective on the 18th, hitting from the boat, was incredible. I think Marcel may have edged me with the nearest the pin, but hopefully I’ll have my revenge the next few days.”

Siem seemed to enjoy himself too.

“This is my second trip to Oman and the golf course is one of my favourites of the year; the setting, along the coastline, is beautiful and it’s in great condition again. The 18th is an iconic finishing hole, and it was a cool experience to go out with Matteo and see it from the sea, especially as I managed to hit one close at the end.”

Dutchman Joost Luiten is the defending champion this week.

The post Manessero and Siem ‘all-aboard’ for Al Mouj Golf’s second staging of the Oman Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Thomas Bjorn, Europe’s freshly unveiled captain for the 2018 Ryder Cup matches in France, led the out-pouring of grief after Zechmann collapsed near the 13^th green on the opening morning of the Ladies European Tour event at Emirates Golf Club.

Zechmann, pictured (far right) caddying for France’s Anne-Lise Caudal just moments before he collapsed, later died in Rashid Hospital. He is survived by his wife Elinor and three sons Maximilian, Ryan and Marco and had reportedly retired to Dubai two years ago after winning with European Tour players Marcel Siem and Marcus Brier.

“Dreadful news out of Dubai this morning. Thoughts are with loved ones and everyone involved. RIP,” Bjorn said.

Finland’s Mikko Ilonen added: “We’ve lost another great guy. RIP Big Max”.

We've lost another great guy.. ?
RIP Big Max

— Mikko Ilonen (@MikkoIlonen) December 7, 2016

Carly Booth, the 24-year-old Scot playing alongside two-time LET winner Caudal and US star Blair O’Neal, described the experience as “horrendous”. “Tough start today for our group to experience something so horrendous. Thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Max #sadday”

At a loss for words. The tragedy that happened today in our group really puts life into perspective. My goes out to the family #ripMax

— Blair O'Neal (@BLAIRONEAL) December 7, 2016

Fellow bagman Gary Marshall tweeted; “R.I.P. Big Max Zechmann. A true gentleman. Well done @LETgolf for your act of respect too. Sad days.”

Marshall’s comments come after officials were heavily criticised for allowing play to continue when 52-year-old Zimbabwean Ian MacGregor, caddying for Scot Alastair Forsyth at the Madeira Islands Open in May 2014, died in similar circumstances.

Zechmann’s death is a double tragedy for Emirates Golf Club after founding member and former captain Ashok Bakshi, then 75, died after suffering cardiac arrest on the range before the Pro-Am at the 2015 Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Play was officially suspended at 10.30am on Wednesday and abandoned for the day shortly afterwards as a mark of respect for Zechmann and the “shocked” players, caddies and tournament staff.

The €500,000 tournament will now be decided over 54 holes with the first round resuming at 8.15am on Thursday (UAE time).

SEE ALSO
Dubai Ladies Masters rocked by death of caddy

Florentyna Parker tops the leaderboard at -7 after the 26-year-old Englishwoman negotiated the Majlis’ homeward nine (after teeing off on the 10^th) in a scarcely believable 30 stokes, her only blemishes being pars on the 11^th and 14^th holes.

Cheyenne Woods (USA) was second at -4 while Whitney Hillier and France’s Jade Schaeffer were a further shot back. Australian Hillier’s -3 total through five holes included a hole in one on the 171 yard 4th hole.

But it all paled into insignificance on a day when golf was secondary as LPGA Tour hopeful/social media influencer Paige Spiranac, +4 through six holes, so poignantly tweeted.

“Praying for the family and friends of the caddy. It just shows you that there’s so much more to life than a good or bad round.”

Praying for the family and friends of the caddie. It just shows you that there's so much more to life than a good or bad round https://t.co/Tizleg3nc0

— Paige Spiranac (@PaigeSpiranac) December 7, 2016

Dreadful news out of dubai this morning.
Thoughts are with loved ones and everyone involved.@LETgolf
RIP

— Thomas Bjørn (@thomasbjorngolf) December 7, 2016

R.I.P Big Max Zechmann. A true gentleman. Well done @LETgolf for your act of respect too. Sad days.

— Tartancaddy (@tartancaddy) December 7, 2016

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