By Kent Gray
With his trademark plus fours and penchant for extravagant colours to match, Joel Sjöholm doesn’t exactly present as a golfer looking to fly under the radar. But that is exactly what the 32-year-old Chile-born Swede is hoping for as he eyes a return to the Middle East this month for the final fortnight of the Challenge Tour season.

Sjöholm is on the cusp of a return to the European Tour for the first time since 2013 after capturing his maiden professional title, July’s Italian Challenge Open, after nearly 10 years in the play for your mortgage ranks.

A beloved character in the UAE where he was once attached to Atlantis, The Palm Dubai, Sjöholm must finish inside the top 15 on the Challenge Tour money list to secure a main tour card for 2017-18. He is currently  19th after worryingly slipping eight spots following a missed cut at the Kazakhstan Open and nearly repeating the unwanted weekend off at the Challenge de Espana where he finished T-63 and banked just €560. But he plans to play the remaining four events of the season, two of them in China. before returning to the UAE for the 2nd Ras Al Khaimah 2017 Golf Challenge (Oct. 25-28) and the season-deciding NBO Golf Classic Grand Final at Almouj Golf in Muscat (Nov. 1-4)

The normally media-friendly former Georgia State University star initially declined overtures for an interview for our October issue, politely promising full disclosure only once the potentially career reviving season is done. He relented slightly, or more accurately had his arm-twisted to front a wider media gathering at Jumeirah Golf Estates on Sunday, but was again economical with his crystal-ball gazing.

“I need to dig deep to get back on the European Tour and until I get there I don’t really want to talk too much about it,” Sjöholm told Golf Digest Middle East before elaborating on Sunday. “I want it so much but I just have to be careful not to want it too much, not to get too far ahead of myself.”

Sjöholm said he was still lerning how to be more ruthless when he gets into position down the “stretch on the back nine Sunday”. A key part of that process has been learning to be more focused on and off the course as he admitted he had failed to live up to his own high expectations as a “golfer or a person”. Indeed, he admitted he had “never really regarded myself as a professional golfer” despite a decade in the pro ranks.

“I want to be more cocky on the course and more humble off it. It’s a narrow line for me.”

The desire not to jinx anything is understandable after a run of lean years bouncing between the tours. Sjöholm has career earnings in excess of €1.1 million in Europe but nearly €840,000 was banked in a three year run on the main tour from 2011, including his career best collect of €412, 376 in 2012 headlined by enjoyed four top 10s, one of them a €185,185 payday for a T-4 finish at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The €48,000 Sjöholm won in Sardina in July was certainly a timely boost, eclipsing in one cheque the prize-money he’d earned in six of his previous seven years on the Challenge Tour.

But it’s more what the win did psychologically, not to mention on the Race to Oman standings where he lept 93 places up to fifth at the time. The now world No. 485 had missed three successive cuts leading into Is Molas Resort but closed with a 65 to overcame a two shot deficit and win by four from overnight leader Neil Bradley (Scotland) and Chase Koepka, the younger brother of U.S. Open champion Brooks.

Often typical of a player bouncing around tours, Sjöholm only got into the Italian event on a sponsors invite.

“It feels amazing,” he said afterwards. “I never thought when I was 10 years old that I would have to wait until I was 32 before I earned my first victory as a professional. It is close to being the best thing that has ever happened to me. Obviously having children and getting married will always be the most special thing, but this is pretty incredible.”

So to, we suspect, will be the interview when Sjöholm hopefully boomerangs back on the European Tour. The dictaphone is poised.

Sjoholm with the European Tour’s Middle East Director Nick Tarratt.

The post European Tour hopeful Joel Sjöholm determined to let his game do the talking in RAK and Muscat appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The $1.75 million NBO Golf Classic will be played Feb.15-18 at Almouj Golf (pictured) amid The Wave Muscat development the week proceeding the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters at Doha GC (Feb.22-25).

The Doha tournament was traditionally sandwiched between the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and $3 million Omega Dubai Desert Classic but the two UAE events, as has been widely reported, are now scheduled back-to-back from Jan. 18-21 and 25-28 respectively.

For the past four seasons the NBO Golf Classic has been a European Challenge Tour event, the last two the secondary circuit’s season-ender and climax to the “Race to Oman” series. There is yet no word on a replacement decider or season-long “Race” for the Challenge Tour although it raises the prospect of Ras Al Khaimah, currently the circuit’s penultimate event, stepping up.

Muscat joins the Philippines Golf Championship (March 15-18) and the Belgian Knockout (May 17-20) as new events on the 2018 European Tour which will visit 30 countries and again include eight Rolex Series event, each with a minimum prize fund of US$7million. Morocco’s The Trophee Hassan II in Rabat, which enjoys close links with the MENA Tour, is scheduled for April 19-22.

Related: Ryder Cup star Thomas Pieters to host European Tour knockout event in 2018

With Abu Dhabi and Dubai proceeded by the Jan. 12-14 EurAsia Cup (an important Ryder Cup rehearsal) and leading into the Maybank Championship (Feb. 1-4), also in Malaysia, elite fields are again assured. It will be tougher for Muscat and Doha to attract the same calibre of players however as they are sandwiched between the  ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth, a popular addition to the schedule last season, and the $10 million WGC-Mexico Championship which makes a second early season sojourn to the Middle East unlikely for higher ranked players.

The 2018 Race to Dubai will again climax at Jumeriah Golf Estates where the $8 million DP World Tour Championship will celebrate its 10th anniversary from Nov. 15-18.

Keith Waters, the European Tour’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “We are delighted to be able to announce three new events as part of the 2018 European Tour schedule, providing vital playing opportunities for our members.

“It also combines diversity, visiting 30 different countries on the Race to Dubai, and innovation, through varied formats such as the new Belgian Knockout and GolfSixes alongside more traditional strokeplay events, including the eight Rolex Series tournaments.”

See the full 2018 European Tour schedule here

The post Muscat event added to 2018 European Tour schedule as the Desert Swing is split in two appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.