By Kent Gray
The Emirates Golf Federation (EGF) amateurs are on the cusp of yet more Dubai Golf Trophy glory- and this time with a feel-good silver lining.

Following an afternoon of near utter dominance on the Faldo course at Emirates Golf Club, the EGF team will take a formidable 11-5 lead over the UAE PGA Tour pros into Sunday’s singles at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

The Mike Bolt-captained UAE PGA pros will need something special on Earth to reverse the six-point deficit in today’s 16-singles showdowns if they are to avoid a sixth successive loss in the Ryder Cup-style matches administered by Dubai Golf.

It will be no mean feat given the EGF players are also determined to seal Ahmed Skaik’s place in folklore as the event’s first Emirati – and winning – captain.

Things started well enough for the desperate pros as Saturday’s morning foursomes were shared 4-4 despite a mammoth 8&7 socking for Dong Lee and Jonathan Craddock at the hands of amateur talisman Josh Hill and Jay Mullane.

But it went horribly pear-shaped in the afternoon fourballs on the Faldo as the EGF amateurs won 7-1. Only Luke Plumb and Louis Gaughan saved the pros from an embarrassing whitewash courtesy of their 3&2 win over Max Burrow and Arjun Gupta. At the top of the order, their was another lesson for Lee and Craddock who were beaten 5&3 by Hill and Mullane.

Lee and Craddock will be happy to see the back of Hill and Mullane with veteran Dubai Trophy player Malcolm Young handed the task of taking on Hill in the singles while Mullane will face Pro Sports’ Graham Forbes.

HISTORY-MAKERS: Hyeonji Kang, Natalii Gupta, Anneke Strobach and Olivia Jackson.

It was also a tough day for the UAE Pro women who are playing the Dubai Trophy for the first time – this year in an exhibition match ahead of being incorporated into the event proper in 2022.

Olivia Jackson and Anneke Strobach were edged 1up by Hyeonji Kang and Natalii Gupta in the morning foursomes and then beaten comprehensively, 5&4, in the fourballs.

Jackson will play Gupta and Strobach will meet Kang on Sunday knowing they need to both win their singles encounters to level the exhibition.

But the focus will be on how Bolt’s pros responded to being cornered on Earth.

The post What on Earth can the UAE pros do to prevent a EGF amateur six-peat? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It was the serial UAE PGA Tour winner’s second title of 2018-19 in just six starts after a promotion to Operations Manager for the wider Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting & Golf Club recently has curtailed his golf this year.

After earlier edging Jumeirah Golf Estates’ Jordan Gallagher 1 up in a tense semifinal, Buchanan is chuffed to be taking some decent form into this week’s annual Dubai Trophy where he’ll captain the UAE PGA team against a selection of EGF amateurs chasing their fourth straight victory in the Ryder Cup-style matches.

Great to win my 3rd ?? PGA matchplay championship today.
2 nice matches and solid rounds. Onwards to next weeks Dubai Golf Trophy. #proteam pic.twitter.com/ewXmFpevrX

— Tom Buchanan (@tompro66) April 21, 2019

Buchanan just hopes he doesn’t suffer the same fate as his predecessor Ryan Smith who won last year’s UAE PGA Matchplay crown only to suffer a thumping in his singles match at the Dubai trophy as the amateurs sealed their hat-trick 19-13.

RELATED:  Thomas leads perfect trio as EGF amateurs seal Dubai Trophy treble

The respective Dubai Trophy teams and first-round pairings are due to be announced on Tuesday.

“Yeah we are on a bad run at the moment,” captain Buchanan conceded. “It’s always a tight affair and hopefully we can get it back this year.

“The Dubai Golf Trophy will be special as always and especially in its 20th year and as captain. The amateurs are strong and have more depth in their picks compared to us but we are all looking forward to it and hopefully we can get the win.”

Buchanan, who had previously won at The Track, Meydan Golf this season, drove the ball well against Gallagher to set up his advance the final where he played the outward nine in three under to give Bolt little chance.

“I was three up through nine, played really solid, then just kept applying pressure. Mike’s putter was cold on the day sadly for him but two very enjoyable games and to win it for the third time is great.”

The post Buchanan wins third UAE PGA Matchplay title but hopes it’s not a bad Dubai Trophy omen appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
A mild surprise at the UAE PGA Tour season-opener at Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting & Golf Club late last month was the performance of home club hero Tom Buchanan.

A serial winner on the regional circuit with four titles from nine starts last season, the Scot signed for an uncharacteristically sloppy 76 on his home track to finish near the foot of the leaderboard, not a place he is accustomed with.

“It felt horrible and I finished well down the field, and that was disappointing,” Buchanan told GolfDigestme.com of his tie for 15th in the Sept. 24 event won by The Address Montgomerie Dubai’s Ryan Smith.

Fast-forward a month to the fourth stop on the UAE PGA’s 17-tournament schedule and it is fair to say normal service has resumed. With a brilliant one-under 71 in blustery conditions at the perennially challenging The Track, Meydan Golf, Buchanan eased to a four-stroke victory over Luke Plumb, the UAE PGA chief executive’s Trump Dubai club-mate Mike Bolt and Monty head pro Martin Robinson on Sunday.

“I had my kids on the range with me [at AESGC] on Saturday night hitting a few shots and it started to feel good and thankfully it continued to Meydan,” Buchanan said, noting Sophia, 8, and two-year-old Andrew have become willing range-rats. Here’s the happy proof from Saturday night:

Sophia Buchanan

Andrew Buchanan

Buchanan bogeyed the Track’s notoriously tricky par-5 1st but made the turn one under courtesy of birdies on the 4th and 7th. Further gains followed on the 10th and 14th as Buchanan dipped to three under with four to play and while there were bogeys on 15th and 17th, it only served to highlight how dominant the 38-year-old’s performance was.

“I drove the ball very well and the greens were excellent so anytime I had a putt I thought it could go in. So another nice victory…just need to keep it going.”

Count on Buchanan featuring at Arabian Ranches G.C. (Nov. 5) and at Trump Dubai (Dec. 3) if his work schedule allows. He’ll definitely tee it up Dec. 10-11 at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club in what is the UAE PGA’s 36-hole qualifier for a spot in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.

Buchanan earned a cult following in last January’s European Tour Desert Swing opener and is desperate to experience that high again.

RELATED: Tommy’s honour as Buchanan bows out of European Tour debut in style

“The HSBC qualifier is on everyone’s calendar this year. The prize is so great that everyone will be doing a little more to try and win that event,” Buchanan said.

Whatever happens at Saadiyat Beach, the popular Scotsman has a date with destiny next May as the UAE PGA pros look to avert a fourth straight loss to the Emirates Golf Federation’s leading amateurs in the annual, Ryder Cup-style Dubai Golf Trophy.

“It’s a big year for me as captain of the Dubai Golf Trophy team, trying to wrestle that trophy back from the amateurs. Hopefully, with a good UAE PGA season under our belts, the lads can come good for that.”

RELATED: Rayhan Thomas leads perfect trio as amateurs seal Dubai Golf Trophy three-peat

The post After being ‘horrible’ at home, normal service resumes as Buchanan claims his fifth title in last 11 starts appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The Emirates Golf Federation amateurs are seven points away from an historic Dubai Trophy hat-trick after dominating the opening day of the annual Ryder Cup-style matches against the UAE PGA’s finest.

Max Burrow’s EGF team lead Ryan Smith’s pros 10-6 heading into Sunday’s singles matches after capturing Saturday’s morning foursomes and the afternoon fourballs on the Faldo course at Emirates G.C. by identical 5-3 margins.

It means the amateurs need to win just six of today’s 16 singles matches at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club to guarantee a halved match and retention of the trophy as defending champions. But they’ll want to do it in style with seven or more points and Smith’s team are up against it in more ways than one; not only do they need to win the singles 11-5 or better, they will have to overcome a confident team and a suffocating sandstorm that has swept across Dubai.

World amateur No.17 Rayhan Thomas and experienced Bayhaan Lakdawala combined for two wins for the amateurs on Saturday, easing past Jack Woods and Jordan Gallagher 4&3 in the foursomes and David Gray and Mikael Gartner 3&1 in the foursomes.

Newly minted EGF OOM Championship winner Nathan Fisher and Mike Mezei, the latter a captain’s pick like Lakdawala, are also unbeaten after 3&2 and 2up victories over Malcolm Young and Jonathan Craddock in the foursome and fourball matches respectively.

Tough conditions for Day 2 of the Dubai Golf trophy @DubaiCreekGolf | For live scoring: https://t.co/GUeQhE6cxT or download the Golf Genius Software Application and log in using the code DUBAIGOLFTROPHY pic.twitter.com/rEel5NUVFu

— Dubai Creek Golf (@DubaiCreekGolf) May 13, 2018

Teens Josh Hill and Arjun Gupta are also unbeaten (as were Lawry Cook and Bradley Mogire), coasting past Trump Dubai’s Luke Plumb and Mike Bolt 3&2 in the foursomes before an epic halved fourball match against the same opposition.

“We were rubbish in the morning but in the afternoon we were seven under better ball to halve,” said Plumb. “We played out of our skin to halve with them,” the UAE PGA chief executive continued before admitting he was pleased to avoid Hill in today’s singles. “Arjun was good too to be fair.”

Shane Peacock has drawn the short Hill straw for the singles which began at 11.30am. The Al Ain pro will fancy his chances; he was unbeaten alongside club mate Tom Buchanan on Saturday.

Also recording a pair of wins for the pros were Joe Way and Mike Major who will enjoy home course advantage on Sunday.

For those wanting to follow the scores you can download Golfgenius app and can log in with the GGID code DUBAIGOLFTROPHY

— UAE PGA (@uaepga) May 12, 2018

The post EGF amateurs on brink of Dubai Golf Trophy treble as UAE PGA pros left with it all to do in Sunday singles appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 36-year-old South African captured the biggest win of his eight years in the region Sunday when he beat former UAE PGA chief executive Steven Munro 4&3 in the final of the tour’s matchplay championship at The Els Club.

Smith took advantage of some unlucky breaks for Munro to take the final by the scruff of the neck at 3up by the turn and never relinquished his stranglehold, all after edging David Laing 1up in an altogether more intense semifinal earlier on Sunday.

The win earned the Address Montgomery Dubai tournament co-ordinator 300 points and saw him close the gap on UAE PGA Order of Merit (OOM) leader Stefan Wears-Taylor (Al Zorah) to 80 points ahead of the season-deciding UAE PGA (Strokeplay) Championship at Arabian Ranches on April 30-May 1. It means Smith has given himself a shot at overhauling Wears-Taylor, the UAE PGA Championship’s defending champion, for the circuit’s year-long title.

“It’s was a big win, a great day and now we’ve got the two-day [36-hole] tour championship next week so hopefully I might be able to do the double,” said Smith.

“That would be great and I’m captaining the Dubai Trophy team so it’s quite nice to go there in some form. It’s going to be tough again with all those youngsters coming through… [including runaway EGF OOM leader] Josh Hill…amazing!”

The UAE PGA Matchplay semi finalists (L to R) Steven Munro, Mike Bolt, Ryan Smith and David Laing.

Smith didn’t know much about Hill when they met him in a foursomes match at last year’s Dubai Trophy. But the now 14-year-old teen’s magical run of form, including course records at Trump and The Track Meydan Golf and a runaway victory in the Faldo Series Middle East Championship, has turned Hill into the hottest golfer in the land.

Related: Hill sets Track course record, waltzes to sensational sixth EGF title

“I remember playing him and Arjun [Gupta] in a foursomes match and thinking we can’t get beaten by two 12 year olds. Luckily we won but the juniors are just incredible now, fearless.”

Smith thought his matchplay run was over with Laing playing nicely in their semifinal as he ‘scrapped for pars”. But a couple of late birdies got Smith to the 18th all square and he pounced when Laing found a tough desert lie on the right of the closing hole and proceeded to thin his approach through the back, and then thin his chip shot.

Munro progressed to the final with a 2&1 victory of Mike Bolt (Trump Dubai).

Meanwhile, Shane Peacock recently claimed his his maiden UAE PGA victory at Jumeirah Golf Estates with a fine score of 71.

Peacock, right, receives the spoils from UAE PGA CEO Luke Plumb.

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But the Trump International Golf Club Dubai Senior Golf Instructor was shocked to find his signature on the three-over effort was good enough to earn a playoff at the Abu Dhabi PGA Open Monday.

The 28-year-old Englishman didn’t need a second invitation, a regulation par on Yas Links’ 1^st hole edging Rory Young in overtime after the Al Ghazal pro (clearly not unfamiliar with sand) tangled with both a fairway and greenside trap en-route to a bogey five.

“’I’m delighted to get off the mark,” Bolt told Golf Digest Middle East of the win. “I came second last week with a three-under 69 at Arabian Ranches so the game is starting to come together after some work on the range over the last few months.

“The goal has been to make the Dubai Trophy team [an end-of-season, Ryder Cup-style event against a team of Emirates GC and Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club amateurs] and that looks likely now which is nice.”

Bolt, who hails from Bournemouth and joined Trump Dubai in December after a three-year stint at London’s Royal Wimbledon GC, wasn’t the only one to struggle with some tight pins at Yas Links despite the relatively benign conditions.

“My iron play was pretty solid but I couldn’t get my putter going…I had five straight birdie chances inside 10 feet [from 9-14] and only holed one of them,” he said.

“Then I dropped four shots in my last five holes including a double on 15 when I left it in a fairway bunker. I made what I’d call a ‘regulation bogey’ on 16, birdied 17 to get it back to two over but then three-putted 18 after I spun my approach off the green.

“I walked off the 18th green a little bit disappointed but when I spoke with [UAE PGA chief executive] Steven Munro and found out I’d made it into the playoff, it was a nice little surprise.”

Young, who had been in one of the first groups out and could never have imagined a 75 would get him into a playoff, was unlucky in sudden-death.

“Rory hit his drive into a fairway bunker and had about 80 yards into the green. He hit it straight over the flag into a back trap and got unlucky with a tough downhill lie. He did well to get it too about 20 feet but unfortunately didn’t make it. “

There are two further order-of-merit events – at Trump Dubai (April 18) and Al Ain (April 24) – before the 2016-17 season closes with the UAE PGA’s two flagship events: the UAE PGA Matchplay Championship finals at Trump on April 25 and the UAE PGA Championship at Al Zorah on May 1-2.

Defending champion Callum Nicoll (Abu Dhabi GC) will face Young (Al Ghazal) in the first of the matchplay semifinals while Munro is set to meet either David Gray (DG Golf) or Tom Henderson (Jumeirah Golf Estates) in the other.

Munro then defends his UAE PGA Championship (strokeplay) title over 36-holes at Al Zorah, Ajman’s mint-condition Nicklaus Design course.

The top 12 professionals on the final UAE OOM and four “captain’s picks” will then look to avenge their loss to the amateurs in the annual Dubai Golf Trophy on May 20-21.

Abu Dhabi PGA Open – Leading scores
75 – *Mike Bolt (Trump), Rory Young (Al Ghazal)
76 – Callum Nicoll (Abu Dhabi GC), Alex Nicholson (The Track, Meydan), Pruna Sharman (Pro Sports), Jaco Stander (Saadiyat Beach GC)
* Bolt won at the first extra hole

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