How does Collin Morikawa make golf look so easy, and how has he become such a cold-blooded competitor? We discover how in the February edition of Golf Digest Middle East with a deep dive into the extraordinary life and times of America’s top-ranked player.

We also enjoy a first look at Sir Nick Faldo’s latest design, Rumanza Golf & Country Club in Pakistan, and launch our exhaustive annual club test, the Hot List. This month it’s the best drivers of 2022.

All this and much more in the Feb. 2022 edition of Golf Digest Middle East. 

The issue is again free to our loyal audience. You can scroll through the ISSUU link provided here or download 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 February 2022 edition of Golf Digest Middle East FREE here today!  appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

SPONSORED CONTENT: At the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, DP World launched a campaign to support grassroots golf globally, transforming a 20-foot shipping container to collect used balls during the 2022 DP World Tour season and give them a second life.

With the help of its global network and end-to-end logistics, DP World will collect and transport golf balls from key locations on the Tour and re-distribute them to grassroots organisations.

DP World will deploy real-time tracking technology to the container, allowing golf fans to follow its journey between tournaments and contribute by donating their balls when the DP World Tour is in town.

To mark the occasion, Callaway Staff Professionals, including 2018 European Ryder Cup Captain, Thomas Bjørn, Marc Warren and Kiradech Aphibarnrat were challenged to chip the very first golf balls into the container at Emirates Golf Club.

We’ve created a one-of-a-kind container to collect used golf balls during the 2022 @DPWorldTour. At the end of the season, they’ll be redistributed using the power of our network, helping to drive the game at a grassroots level.#DPWorldTour pic.twitter.com/b1pQElMciO

— DP World (@DP_World) January 29, 2022

Travelling through DP World’s global logistics infrastructure and network, the container will visit six DP World Tour events, including the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in September and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates from November 17-20. 

Fans will be invited to donate used and unwanted golf balls, which will be redistributed to organisations that are championing golf from the grassroots up, to help grow the game globally.

The campaign also shines a light on how increasing popularity of the game and pandemic-induced supply chain challenges have impacted the sport industry, a challenge that DP World is uniquely positioned to solve.

Covid-19 has led to a surge in popularity for golf across the Middle East, putting pressure on supply chains struggling to keep up with demand. In the Middle East alone, trade in golf apparel is expected to surpass $45m by 2026, but a fall in production levels, driven by supply shortages, is significantly impacting imports.

Daniel van Otterdijk, Chief Communications Officer DP World

“Global supply chain disruptions triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic will continue to impact the import of sports and leisure equipment into the Middle East, including golf equipment,” said Daniel van Otterdijk, Chief Communications Officer DP World. 

“With our passion to support golf’s global ecosystem, combined with our world-leading logistics and supply chain solutions, DP World is perfectly positioned to alleviate this pressure and meet the rising popularity of golf.”  

Last year, DP World entered into a long-term title partnership to elevate the Tour in every way, grow the game of golf globally, and drive positive community impact. 

Through this partnership, DP World continues to play a central role in the golfing ecosystem, leveraging its global network and world-leading logistics and supply chain solutions to make the sport more accessible.

Guy Kinnings, Deputy CEO and Chief Commercial Officer of the DP World Tour said: “Our partnership with DP World has gone from strength to strength over the past 11 years, with DP World becoming the new title partner of the European Tour group’s main Tour from this season. 

“We are delighted to see our partner use the might of its global logistics infrastructure to support the growing demand and popularity of the game of golf worldwide, and we also thank DP World Tour official partner Callaway for supporting this important initiative.”

@IanJamesPoulter and @BWiesberger go head-to-head at our terminal in Jebel Ali for the @SlyncIO Dubai Desert Classic Port Challenge. Two golfers. 20 shipping containers. One unique challenge. pic.twitter.com/uuZmGN0RMK

— DP World (@DP_World) January 30, 2022

Ian Poulter and Bernd Wiesberger also made the most of DP World’s unique facilities, taking part in a contest filmed at the company’s Jebel Ali port in Dubai, wrapping up a fantastic weekend for golf, both on and off the course.

The post DP World creates unique shipping container as part of grassroots campaign to give used balls a second life appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
DUBAI — There’s an old golf proverb, penned by the legendary Herbert Longhurst Darwin, that says the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic doesn’t really begin until the 10th tee on Sunday. OK, not really. But on the evidence of this epic event, it would be difficult to come up with a more apt description of a race to the finish that produced a seemingly endless run of ups, downs and everything in-between over the closing nine holes. Old Willie Shakespeare himself would have been hard-pressed to come up with a more dramatic scenario than that which played out at the Emirates Club.

Three men were involved before Rory McIlroy launched his 3-wood approach into the water fronting the 18th green en route to a ruinous bogey. Then two in a playoff in which Viktor Hovland defeated Richard Bland with a birdie at the first extra hole. But those barest of facts conceal an afternoon like no other in the 33-year history of the longest-standing member of DP World Tour’s “Middle East Swing.”

Consider this. Standing on that fateful 10th tee, long-time leader Justin Harding was tied with McIlroy on 11 under par. A host of players were piled up behind, just about the least obtrusive being Hovland. At that stage the fifth-ranked player in the world (he’s now two places higher) was eight under. Only three shots back and clearly not out of contention. But it’s safe to say few if any in the large crowd were paying the Norwegian any attention.

Hold on though. Things were about to happen. While McIlroy’s 6 at the par-5 10th was bad enough, when Harding made the same score on the par-3 11th all hell suddenly broke loose. And when McIlroy followed up that fine putt on 10 with two more for birdies on the 11th and the 13th, it looked for all the world as if the Northern Irishman was cruising to his third victory in this event.

Then he wasn’t. Up ahead, Hovland followed a seemingly ambition-ending three-putts for bogey on the short 15th with an inspired burst of play he would later call the best of his life “in the circumstances.”

MORE: Watch Rory McIlroy find the water and splash away his chances in Dubai

A “bomb” of a putt for birdie at the 16th disappeared below ground before a “great drive” on the penultimate hole found the putting surface on the 359-yard par 4. In went the eagle putt from 10 yards. Suddenly, Hovland was thinking “win” rather than “high finish.”

“I didn’t even know how far 17 was playing,” he said. “But I knew that it was playing downwind and that I had to give it all that I had. I hit a little high toe on the face, which was pretty nice, and just launched a little higher, knuckled a little bit. I don’t know where it pitched but probably just short of the green and released to 30 feet.

“I knew standing over the putt that it was to tie the lead,” he continued. “But I also knew that the guys behind still had the [reachable par-5] 13 and some easier holes to make birdie on. So I knew I probably had to birdie the last as well to get them thinking a little bit.”

He was right in that assessment. And he did make the birdie on 18 that saw him land on 12 under par after a Sunday 66 and set what was still a formidable target.

Playing the 14th, McIlroy knew he needed to play the last five in one under to pip Hovland. And, as it turned out, Bland.

Almost unobtrusively, the unassuming Englishman—an unlikely first-time winner of last year’s British Masters in what was his 478th European Tour event—was picking his way through the back nine. Birdies on 10 and 11 were followed by a string of pars before a third dip below par took him to 11 under. A birdie on the 18th would tie Hovland and maybe increase the pressure, if only a little, on McIlroy.

Unable to reach the distant green in two, Bland laid-up short of the pond and wedged to roughly 25 feet. Knowing he had to hole it, the 48-year-old Englishman (who led last year’s U.S. Open at the halfway point) rolled it in for a closing 68. Bland had his tie with Hovland and when McIlroy made a water-strewn bogey on the final hole, the playoff was set.

Ross Kinnaird
A 25-footer for birdie on the 18th hole put an excited Richard Bland into the playoff in Dubai.

One more hole was all it took, Hovland’s two-putt birdie enough to clinch his sixth career victory, his second on the DP World Tour and the $1,360,000 first prize.

“I didn’t really think this was possible going into today,” was Hovland’s understandable reaction. “I knew I had to shoot a really low number, but a lot of things had to go my way and thankfully they did.”

Yes, yes. But was this really the best finish of his life? On second thoughts, maybe not.

“I do distinctly remember a little match that I had in college,” Hovland said. “We used to do a little Ryder Cup thing, me and Kristopher Ventura against Zach Bauchou and Sam Stevens. We were basically playing for dinner in stroke play best-ball. It was kind of getting dark and pretty feisty. We all didn’t want to lose, believe me. Anyway, we were down three strokes with three to go, and I finished birdie, birdie and then eagle on the last to beat them by a shot. They were so mad, and it just brought me so much joy. So I will always remember that one. It was pretty satisfying.”

But not nearly as lucrative.

The post Viktor Hovland keeps piling up wins after taking Dubai title with a wild Sunday charge appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Can South African pacesetter Justin Harding hang on at Emirates Golf Club? Will McIlroy join Ernie Els as just the second three-time winner of the $8 million DP World Tour event? Will Dubai teen Josh Hill climb even higher up the Rolex Series event leaderboard?

All this and much more in the Sunday edition of the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic ‘Daily News’ FREE here. Get up to speed with all the news and scores from Saturday and plan your day with Sunday’s tee times for round three by scrolling through the ISSUU link below or download Saturday’s Daily News to your favourite device to read offline or keep for prosperity.

Enjoy and stay tuned to GolfDigestme.com for full coverage of the final round.

The post Get the Sunday edition of the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic ‘Daily News’ FREE here appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The driver is working and the trademark skip in his step itching to come out for another circuit of the Majlis. Rory McIlroy looks to have rediscovered his mid-to-long iron striking of old too with three back-nine examples of exquisite quality on Saturday.

But it’s tactics and patience that the world No.8 reckons will prove the difference when the 33rd Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic is decided today.

McIlroy limited the damage when he needed to and pounced on the par-5s to sign for a 69 on Saturday and ease within two strokes of thus-far wire-to-wire leader Justin Harding.

Ernie Els is the only three-time winner of the ‘Major of the Middle East’ but mightn’t be for long if McIlroy can keep his patience and somehow conjure in a few putts on what he describes as “crusty greens”.

Yeah, I’m excited,” said the 2009 and 2015 champion. 

“I had a really good chance in 2018 and let it slip through my fingers there when Haotong won. Good to give myself another opportunity.”

It will be, as McIlroy puts it, a “proper test”, regardless of how anyone else plays. The Majlis’ freshly renovated putting surfaces, dry and fast, will make sure of that.

“You’ve got to hit it in the fairway to get control of your golf ball and get some spin on it, and then if you miss the greens, it’s really difficult to get the ball up-and-down. Today tested all aspects of your game off the tee, iron play, chipping, putting and probably most importantly, your sort of mental side of it.

“I think everyone felt the same thing. It’s tricky out there, a bit of breeze, firm greens, pins are tucked away, it’s almost better off to have a 50-footer on the green than hit a good shot and then it run-off the green and you’re chipping on to those firm greens, is tricky.

“So there’s a lot of tactics out there and just sort of A to B and trying to put yourself in the right spots. Overall, I thought anything in the 60s today was a good score.”

The highlight of McIlroy’s 69 was his eagle three on the 10th. He also hit a 5 iron into 13 to set up a two-putt birdie before a 4-iron into 18 set up another gain.

“It would be nice to get another win, especially here in Dubai. But it’s obviously nice to get a win anywhere early in the season. So I’ve just got to go out there w and try to play a good round of golf and hopefully it’s good enough.

“There’s a great atmosphere out there. Hopefully another great atmosphere tomorrow. I mean, I’ve played in a lot of final groups here, so it’s nothing new to me at this point and I’m excited for it.”

The post Ready the Rors for a record-equalling third Dallah? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
You wouldn’t begrudge Josh Hill even a momentary leak of emotion given the amateur’s giddy Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic debut thus far. Instead, the 17-year-old is impressively flat-lining his way through the biggest week of his young career.

A three-under 69 on Saturday made the Dubai-born world record holder one of the more noteworthy climbers on moving day at the $8 million Rolex Series event, up to a share of 23rd place. You may be familiar with a few names surrounding the Trump Dubai club member on the leaderboard: Open champion Shane Lowry and 2020 Dubai victor Lucas Herbert are also on three-under. Former Masters champion Adam Scott and Collin Morikawa, the current world No.2? They’re only a single shot to the good. 

Excited? Hill surely must be but it’s hard to tell with that veteran game face masking his actual adolescent one. Like he did at Yas Links last week, when Hill made three birdies in his final four holes to make a first DP World Tour cut on the number, he’s taking it all in his stride. When you’ve been on the fast-track to a professional career since childhood, it’s nothing out of the ordinary. You’ve pounded thousands of balls to get here after all.

Making the weekend in Abu Dhabi gave Hill the confidence that he truly belongs and he’s making the most of it in this week’s comfy surroundings on the Majlis.

“I hit it a lot better today than I did yesterday. I think a quick range session last night was important and it showed today. I had the same amount of control on the ball as I did in the first round,” Hill said in an answer encompassing his scores of 70-74-69 heading into Sunday.

Even the way Hill dead-batted his post-round media huddle was striking, like a player who’s been around the block a bit rather than someone who still needs parental approval to leave the house.

He could easily have been sucked into a teenage gaff when a reporter jokingly asked if he’d like a “blow up” the notoriously difficult 9th ala Tyrrell Hatton after his repeated run-ins with the 18th at Yas Links.

After dropping four shots in three visits to the par-4 so far, including a three-putt bogey in the third round, the England international has every right to feel a bit miffed with the outward nine’s final, water-guarded hole. Bernd Wiesberger, Paul Casey and Richard Bland all found H2O later to highlight the difficulty. But Hill is clearly as level-headed as he is hard-working, giving a thoughtful answer with zero chance of causing offence.

“I think it’s the hardest hole on the course but I think it’s a fair hole and If you hit a good shot, you’re going to get rewarded as well, if you hit a bad shot… so I wouldn’t say I’d want to bomb it. Of course I’d like to take it off my scorecard but you can’t do that, so…”

“Pretty annoyed” by the three-putt, Hill regathered himself to birdie his next three holes – with an 8 iron into the par-5 10th, a 9-iron to a foot on the par-3 11th and then a chip-in three on 14. There was a sloppy bogey on 16 but Hill rallied again to finish with a flourish.

“I wanted a birdie down 18. I mean I hit a bad two-iron but it ended up in a perfect spot and I made a nice up and down so it was a good finish and a good way to get into tomorrow.”

Hill faded to a share of 58th in Abu Dhabi so will be hoping to comfortably better than in Dubai. Surely though, with all the big names around you, you must be feeling the blow torch of expectation?

“I feel like I normally do in a normal tournament to be honest,” the youngest winner of an OWGR event, the MENA Tour’s Al Ain Open in 2019, said with another of his matter-of-fact responses.

Sure, but how are you going to approach Sunday? “Play good golf. There’s not much to think about, it’s just another round of golf, isn’t it. Just go and play golf and see what happens.

“There’s just a few bigger names around me but I haven’t let that affect me. I’m just playing like it’s another amateur championship.” 

“Like it’s the Abu Dhabi Amateur championship [which Hill won to qualify for last week’s Role Series event at Yas Links],” a reporter posed. “Yeah, just like it’s the club champs,” Hill said, breaking into a rare laugh.  

There it was. The kid does have a pulse after all. And, after this week, a new legion of admirers as well.

The post Dubai amateur Josh Hill is taking his dream Desert Classic debut in stride appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Justin Harding plodded patiently on moving day at the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic while all around him superstars were spluttering along. Those who weren’t inexplicably slamming their title hopes into reverse that was.

On a day when a perfect storm of tough pins and the Majlis’ freshly renovated and increasingly firm greens saw Shane Lowry’s 68 somehow emerge as the lowest score, Harding ground out a relatively stress-free 71.

It saw the 35-year-old South African start and end a dramatic Saturday at Emirates Golf Club with a two-stroke lead.

After a topsy-turvy 69, Rory McIlroy is ominously Harding’s closest pursuer heading into Sunday and perhaps now favoured to join Ernie Els’ as a three-time winner of the Dallah trophy.

Then again, Tommy Fleetwood (69) and Erik Van Rooyen (71) are just three back and among the few to survive the third round without too much mental scarring. Defending champion Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton are among a group in the mix at eight-under although both suffered third round setbacks.   

Hatton was among those to go backwards spectacularly. He got it to 12-under for solo possession of the lead by the 5th and with four Rolex Series gold stars already, looked the man to beat. But his five-star Saturday turned turtle with four dropped shots in a miserable four hole stretch from the 12th. 

The Englishman frustratingly parred in from there but at least he didn’t bleed late oil like Lee Westwood. So close so many times on the Majlis, the 48-year-old was just two shots out of the lead when he reached the 18th. But after driving left, barely escaping the hardpan, laying up in the hay, fluffing it in the water, wedging again and two putting, he signed for a snowman eight in the desert. Westwood will start Sunday at seven-under. And thoroughly deflated.

If Westwood can draw any inspiration, it will be from the fact he’s in the fourth from last group out with Padraig Harrington and Hatton, a dangerous position from which to set a tough clubhouse target. Fleetwood, winless since the Nov. 2019 Nedbank Golf Challenge, will tee it up in the final three-ball alongside Harding and McIlroy with visions of a Dallah to go with his two Abu Dhabi Falcons. 

Harding can become Dubai’s third South African champion after the late Wayne Westner and Els. It would be a first gold star, as it would be for McIlroy whose European résumé strangely includes a Rolex Series asterisk. With all those par 5s and his brilliant iron play from Saturday to draw on, McIlroy will take some beating. Mind you, Harding has already shown slow and steady might just win this race.

The post With McIlroy and Ryder Cup friends lurking, Justin Harding won’t rest easy on his Dubai lead appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Justin Harding reckons it’ll be just another “day at the office, really”.

With Rory McIlroy just two shots adrift and Ryder Cup stars lurking everywhere behind the Northern Irishman, the South African pacesetter’s premonition of Sunday at the 33rd Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic was kidding no one.

Mind you, the way Harding rode the roller-coaster ride that was moving day at Emirates Golf Club on Saturday, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised if he goes wire-to-wire to a third DP World Tour victory.

The 35-year-old started the third round two ahead, found himself two behind by the 11th and finished two in front again as the sun set on Emirates Golf Club.

A younger man might have said, well, I need to press and catch up because I’m losing ground, but you didn’t and stayed patient?

“I think it’s just that type of golf course,” said Harding. 

“The greens are tough. They are concrete and when you are chipping into them it’s difficult to chip them up close. You find yourself making 4- or 5-footers all day long.

“On the front nine, there are a couple of strong par 4s and 15 and 16 are two holes that you need to get through on the back nine.  I didn’t take advantage of 17 or 18 today. But I’m quite happy with it, and yeah, go again tomorrow.

“I thought I played quite solid. It was a difficult day to be fair, and it had some tough flags to get at. There were times when I didn’t quite put the ball in play, and I couldn’t really go anywhere near them. The one bogey made was from long range with the putter, a bit disappointing and would have loved to have snuck one coming in, 17 or 18, but I was happy with those.

So, to Sunday where a first Rolex Series gold star beckons. You’re in pole position, but wow, there’s some good players chasing down. 

“Look, at the end of the day, I’ve just got to go out and keep doing what I’m doing, and make a couple birdies and shoot 70, 69, something like that, and make them shoot 5- or 6-under par, credit to them.

“Yeah, just another day at the office, really, to be fair.”

The post Dubai Pacesetter Justin Harding adamant ‘I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Things didn’t auger well when the Kiwi due-sweeper started bogey-bogey-par but the 35-year-old’s fortunes changed with a perfect swing of his 9 iron on the par-3 4th.

? HOLE IN ONE ?

An ace for @ryanfoxgolfer at the fourth hole!#SlyncDDC | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/TaMwUTWuiw

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) January 29, 2022

The ace from 175 yards was the 31st in the 33 year history of the DP World Tour event and the first since its elevation to $8 million Rolex Series status.

It eventually propelled Fox, the son of former All Blacks flyhalf Grant, to a 69, up to a share of 33rd place and comfortably into the final round. 

“That was as good a shot as I could have hit on four, it was nice to see it go in but to be honest I would have been just as excited if it had been a birdie putt, given the start I had just had,” said Fox.

“It was the perfect number for a nine iron for me, I tried to hit left and use the slope and I got the shot I wanted – quite surprising after the first three holes. There was a fair bit of luck but it was the shot I wanted to hit.” 

With more than 78 players (81 in total) making the 36-hole cut on Friday, an additional 54-hole cut to reduce the field to 72 players and ties was announced.

Starting at one-over in the third group out on Saturday alongside China’s Ashun Wu and Victor Perez of France, Fox didn’t make things easy for himself even after the ace. He dropped further shots on the 5th and 8th but roared home with birdies on the 9th 10th, 12th, 17th and 18th.

The hole-in-one sealed an eventful week for Fox, who led his fourball to victory in the pre-tournament Pro-Am on Tuesday.

For the record, the players who made the 36 hole cut but not the third round chop will be paid on their third round position but will not play the final round. 

The post WATCH: Kiwi Ryan Fox found a novel trigger to make the Desert Classic’s rare third round cut appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The South African will take a two-stroke lead into the third round at Emirates Golf Club but has plenty of big names in hot pursuit.

In the third edition of the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic ‘Daily News’, we’ve got the story behind Tyrrell Hatton and Rory McIlroy’s wedge-led charge into contention on Friday, Paul Casey’s neck injury and how Richard Bland has overcome a knee op, COVID-19 and a Christmas tree mishap to be in the mix.

Enjoy the latest edition of the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic ‘Daily News’ FREE here. Get up to speed with all the news and scores from Friday and tee times for round three by scrolling through the ISSUU link below or download Saturday’s Daily News to your favourite device to read offline or keep for prosperity.

Enjoy and stay tuned for the Daily News final round preview, out bright and early Sunday.

RELATED:
Official Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic ‘Daily News’ Issue 1
Official Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic ‘Daily News’ Issue 2

The post Get Saturday’s official Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic ‘Daily News’ FREE here appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.