By Kent Gray
After winning his debut MENA Tour start by a record-equalling eight strokes last week, it’s hardly breaking news that  Robin ‘Tiger’ Williams has ridden into this week’s Abu Dhabi Open by Arena with oodles of confidence.

But surely Yas Links, one of the toughest tests in the Middle East and especially so when the wind puffs up off the Arabian Gulf, has given the 18-year-old English amateur pause for thought? Apparently not.

“I think the wind will play a very big factor, the same as in Jordan [but] the course is not necessarily a difficult links course in that it’s quite wide fairways, the greens are very big and undulating and it’s very soft,” Williams said.

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“You can land the ball right at the flag and the drives are not really rolling anywhere. So it plays a little differently as a links course but we are right next to the coast so the wind is going to play like a links course so …you’re going to have to control your ball flight.”

The field for this week’s $US75,000 event, which was scheduled to start at 7am today with Austria’s Karl Ableidinger having the honour on the 1st tee, can’t say they haven’t been warned.

It’s not like Williams doesn’t know links golf. After growing up in South Africa, he moved to Scotland when he was eight and joined Royal Aberdeen, as he revealed to MENA Tour media manager Joy Chakravarty in this interesting tweet about how he was given the middle name Tiger. The teen also reveals his one-on-one with Woods at last year’s Ryder Cup where he teed it up for the European Juniors. Check it out:

‘I owe a lot to @TigerWoods.’@IAmRobinTiger reveals the story behind his nickname and how the 15-time major champion continuously inspires him.

Dare we say the England amateur’s win in Jordan last week was almost Tiger-like?#HarderBetterFasterStronger pic.twitter.com/4rOUEIFCcQ

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) October 6, 2019

Just in case Williams does need some strategic advice before his 9am tee time in the company of Englishmen James Allan and Craig Hinton, he need only seek out Luke Joy who has the penultimate 12.30pm tee time.

The Englishman, a two-time winner on tour, knows the test of the Kyle Phillips layout better than most as a Yas Links-attached player.

How do you tame a course that has consistently won accolades as one of the most strategic golf courses in the region?

We thought there was nobody better than @JoyBoy59 to ask the question. After all, @YasLinksGC has now been his home course for several years. pic.twitter.com/PFulatxlXa

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) October 6, 2019

After his Senior Open heroics at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, the performance of Steven Kelbrick will also be closely followed this week. The Trump Dubai amateur is off at 8.20am in the opening round of the 54-holer, 70 minutes after Journey to Jordan leader MG Keyser who will be hoping for benign early morning conditions in his 7.20am three-ball including amateur contender Curtis Knipes.

Steven Kelbrick made the cut at the Senior Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
Getty Images

Like Joy, Daniel Gaunt, second to Keyser in the OOM race and the tour’s new anti-plastic bottle poster boy, will face the afternoon conditions when he tees off at noon with Englishman Max Smith and Eliott Bradley.

After missing the cut at Ayla G.C. last week, 15-year-old Josh Hill will be hoping for better things this week. The Trump Dubai member certainly seemed to be swinging it well in practice, a day that looked super busy for his father Russell, a Studio City-based osteopath now helping out on tour. Make sure to scroll to the ‘injury’ shot in Russell Hill’s Instagram post…ooch! 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Very interesting day out on @yaslinksgc for the @themenatour practice round, had a bit of everything, on course treatment, accidents and great shots! @dubai_osteopath @optimaltherapydxb @optimalfitnessdxb #golfrehab #golfrehabilitation #golf #osteopathyworks #osteopathy #sportsrehab

A post shared by Russell (@russellhillgolf) on Oct 6, 2019 at 1:17am PDT

Zane Scotland, the tour’s most successful player and this month’s Golf Digest Middle East cover star, is out at 11.10am in the company of Americans Nicolas Wade and Ben Schlottman.

Do pick up a copy of @GolfDigestME this month. It features the most successful player in the history of our Tour – @ZaneScotland, a 10-time champion. pic.twitter.com/4lKo1hzypy

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) October 6, 2019

The post Red hot Robin Williams ready for test of ‘soft’ Yas Links appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Williams’ runaway victory at the $100,000 Journey to Jordan-2 Championship on Wednesday was indeed Tiger-esque. Not only did the Peterborough player close out his final round 66 at Ayla Golf Club with five successive birdies to become just the third amateur to win on the regional Pro-Am circuit, he equalled the tour record for the biggest winning margin in a 54-hole event, set by Matthew Baldwin in the season-opening Journey to Jordan-1 event.

With rounds of 68-66-66, the Junior Ryder Cup rep gapped another English amateur, Jack Floydd, by eight shots to become the 20th player to win wire-to-wire and the 25th to win with three sub 70 scores. It was the first amateur one-two in MENA Tour history while Williams’ -16 aggregate of 200 was just three strokes outside the tour’s 54-hole record score – 197 established by MG Keyser at the Dubai Open in early March.

Just remember that name!

T.I.G.E.R.

Amateur Robin ‘Tiger’ Williams is our Journey To Jordan-2 champion. pic.twitter.com/F5MzeD3N9K

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) October 2, 2019

For the record, Keyser finished tied third at Ayla with Australian professional Daniel Gaunt. Keyser leapfrogged from third to the top of the season-long Journey to Jordan standings with the $15, 061 he and Gaunt each banked. The South African now has $39,531 in season earnings heading into the $75,000 Abu Dhabi Open by Arena starting Monday (Oct. 7-9), $5,235 ahead of now second-placed Gaunt.

In what was a memorable week for the amateurs, Curtis Knipes finished T-5, albeit 10 strokes adrift of Williams. Frustratingly for Knipes who has played six events, he has surrendered his lead atop the amateur Journey to Jordan standings to Williams who earned 18,000 points – it would have been a cheque for $18,000 if he were a professional – for his victory. Floydd is second on 15,802 points with Knipes down to third on 11,522.

Dubai-based English teen Josh Hill, who missed the cut at Ayla, is fourth but a distant 13,988 points adrift of Williams. Arjun Gupta was the best of the “Three Musketeers” – Hill, Gupta and Toby Bishop – in Ayla, finishing T-31 on four-over-par alongside Jordanian amateur Shergo Al Kurdi. Bishop also missed the 36-hole cut.

But the story of the week was clearly Williams who is set to soar from his current position of 100th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). His previous best was 75th. The teen is also set to enter the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) for the first time.

Currently without any @OWGRltd points, @IAmRobinTiger wins three precious points for his @theMENATour triumph. He should be checking in around the 1,250th place when the new rankings are released next Monday.#HigerBetterFasterStronger pic.twitter.com/jnYUC5EQZU

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) October 2, 2019

The post Amateur Robin ‘Tiger’ Williams wins (by a record-equalling eight strokes) in dream MENA Tour debut appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.