England’s Todd Clements held his nerve to secure a first DP World Tour title in Prague on Sunday as he held off Matt Wallace with a bogey-free 63 to win the Czech Masters.

The Englishman finished on 22-under, one clear of countryman Wallace at Albatross Golf Resort, with Dane Nicolai Højgaard four shots off the lead in third, one clear of Scot Robert MacIntyre, who extended his advantage in the race for the third spot on the Ryder Cup team available on the European Points List ahead of next week’s final qualifying event at the European Masters.

Swede Ludvig Aberg, German duo Nick Bachem and Maximilian Schmitt, Finn Sami Välimäki and Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti were also at 17-under.

Clements won the English Amateur in 2017 but had played events on the MENA Tour before turning professional following the 2018 US Amateur.

He claimed his first professional victories as he won twice on the EuroPro Tour in 2019, the same season he achieved two top-threes on the European Challenge Tour to help earn his playing privileges for 2020.

His big breakthrough came last season, with victory at the Irish Challenge helping him finish 16th on the Road to Mallorca, although he came into this week 151st in the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex, with a best finish of 21st in 11 made cuts from 21 events.

But he has now jumped 100 places after becoming the first Englishman to lift this trophy in just his 30th Tour appearance.

“Given the circumstances that’s got to be the best round of my life,” a delighted Clements said. “I’m over the moon. I’ve dreamt about winning for a long time and with my birthday coming up on Tuesday I couldn’t be happier.

“Three shots to make up is a tough ask but I knew I was playing well enough to get in amongst it. I feel like I did my job on every shot and obviously the luck was with me today because I holed a few long ones.”

The post Todd Clements holds off Matt Wallace for maiden DP World Tour win in Prague appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Zane Scotland’s evolution from battle-scarred tour pro to player-coach makes him a rich resource for youngsters making their way on the MENA Tour

By Kent Gray
The Golfing Machine owns pride of place in Zane Scotland’s golf library. The thing is, as much as he loves Homer Kelley’s classic textbook, he’s loath to recommend it for fear it might fall into impressionable hands. You’ve been warned.

One of the most comprehensive, and some argue complicated, tomes on the golf swing, The Golfing Machine is meant for professional instructors. It has enlightened those with the requisite base knowledge but with it’s “simple geometry and everyday physics” has also confounded just as many well-meaning but unqualified seekers of the secrets to golf for the past 50 years.

“There’s a book from years and years ago [it was first published in 1969], that if you try and read it, it messes with your life, let alone your golf,” says Scotland when pressed for the foundation of his coaching philosophy.

“It’s so confusing because there is so much stuff going on in it but pretty much, most modern coaching is based off of that or versions thereof.

Scotland was in hot demand in his heyday, including being summoned to a promotional photoshoot during the 2008 Malaysian Open. (Getty Images)

“So for me, from a technical point of view, there’s Mac O‘Grady, what Pete Cowen’s done is fantastic, a guy called Andy Plumber, almost too many to name, to be honest. So it’s The Golfing Machine but on top of that someone who I think does an amazing job is Butch Harmon who almost looks like he wouldn’t even use a camera so much, he just knows the person and can work from there.”

Just as Kelley’s fabled work doesn’t prescribe one particular style of swing, Scotland’s wide-spread coaching influences are a melting pot of the game’s best swing theorists. What’s not clouded is the 37-year-old Englishman’s growing reputation in the field of coaching, a vocation the MENA Tour’s most successful player has fallen into sooner than anticipated.

Scotland always envisaged this route in the game but not until his mid to late 40s. However,  after competing alongside and tinkering with the games of now rookie professional Todd Clements and the Englishman’s big-hitting compatriot Joshua White in 2015, the decision to delve into coaching fulltime was accelerated when the pair sought a more permanent relationship the following season.

Now, as well as his record 10 tour wins, Scotland boasts two titles as a coach although he humbly takes more credit for MG Keyser’s victory at the Dubai Open in March than he does for Daniel Gaunt’s emotional Troon Series-Al Zorah Open triumph the previous month.

The Englishman in action during the 2010 Open Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews. (Getty Images)

While South African Keyser is part of Scotland’s stable alongside Clements, White, fellow Englishmen Joe Heraty, Taylor Carter and Zak Morgan and Saudi Arabia’s pioneering professional Othman Al Mulla, Gaunt merely sought remedial help after a long layoff through sheer frustration with our maddening game. The Aussie has since gone on his merry way but wanders just off the M25 in Redhill south of London and you’ll find Scotland hard at work at Bletchingley Golf Club honing the games of clients at the ZS Academy, many of the MENA Tour’s biggest names regularly among them.

Scotland offers a holistic approach to game improvement at his “boutique academy”, from traditional swing mechanics to the perhaps more important mental side of making it in the cut-throat professional game.

“There’s the traditional swing coaching, game coaching, technical pieces which I’m good at and then the next part is like, how do you play golf for a living? Not every young golfer is going to be the next Rory McIlroy.”

Scotland knows better than most that very few young golfers will ever be the next Rory McIlroy or Tiger Woods. The MENA Tour’s first life member actually won a competition to ‘find the British Tiger Woods’ in 1997 and went on to become the youngest Englishman to qualify for the Open Championship two years later, eventually missing the cut at Carnoustie the day before his 17th birthday.

But a stellar amateur career – he ascended to be Europe’s No.1 – is no guarantee in the game of life. Scotland turned professional in 2003 but a minor car accident that year proved a major pain in the neck, quite literally, to his progression in the pro game.

Scotland shows his style during the opening round of the 2015 Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates G.C. (Getty Images)

Scotland did tee it up in golf’s oldest major again in 2010, finishing a creditable T-55 on the Old Course at St. Andrews alongside, among others, Steve Stricker and above players the ilk of Jason Day and Ian Poulter. But the injury meant he was never healthy enough for long enough to keep a steady footing on the European Tour.

Rather selfishly, that’s been a boon for the fledging MENA Tour where Scotland has helped lift standards since the regional circuit’s inception in 2011.

Young players with big ambitious could certainly do worse than extract the choicest morsels from Scotland’s topsy-turvy journey through the game, from the highs of major championships to the lows of lugging his own bag on mini-tours playing for little more than beer money. So what wisdom would Scotland impart in such a conversation?

“Being honest with where you are. I think a lot of young guys, we’ve all done it, we hide away from the truth of what is actually happening,” Scotland beings.

“Especially in this day in age when social media is such a big part of life, everyone wants to look a certain way, to look like ‘I’m doing well’ instead of being okay with what you are not good at because then you can improve that.

“It’s about seizing your weakness or your downfalls as more fun areas that you can actually improve rather than hiding from them.”

Formulating that plan for improvement is one thing, building on it another.

“When someone is at the point of turning pro, just hitting lots of golf balls, ball beating, like, it’s lazy. It’s probably the 100 per cent easiest part of pro golf. What is difficult is trying to be smart… not many people do it.

Patron Darren Clarke and tour co-founder Mohamed Juma Buamaim surprised Scotland with a MENA Tour life membership at this media conference in 2017. (Getty Images)

“Someone that hits 500 balls a day, a 1000 balls a day, I’m not impressed. I’ve been there, done that and I’ve got the injuries to prove it. And you don’t get any better.”

Scotland’s perpetual quest for improvement as a coach means he is in no hurry to hang up his sticks. While he doesn’t have the time to beat balls to even a carefully prescribed practice formula like he once did, he’s trying to work smarter in a bid to add to his 10 wins, a legacy that included four titles in a breakout 2013 campaign where he ran away with the circuit’s overall order of merit title. Indeed, Scotland feels compelled to stay as sharp as possible inside the ropes.

“I’ve not had that much time to compete during the summer but you know, as any golfer can relate, I think to myself, if I can hit a golf ball, I could have a good week. That never leaves you,” Scotland said eyeing the MENA Tour’s five-event autumn swing which resumed late last month.

“I’m around good golfers and, you know what, I still try and play and practice just to remember how hard it is when you are teaching somebody. I think this is one thing a lot of coaches don’t do enough, they don’t play enough and practice themselves. You haven’t got to be amazing at it, you’ve just got to do it to be able to empathise with somebody. If you don’t, I believe you can lose touch with reality. It’s so important, a duty to the person you coach I believe.”

Scotland at a recent Mercedes Classic corporate day in England.
(Photo courtesy: TribecaMedia.co.uk)

While he hasn’t got rich from golf, the game continues to enrich the life of Scotland who is, coincidently, the nephew of the first woman to be appointed Britain’s Attorney General, Patricia Scotland QC, or just plain “Auntie Pat”.

Indeed, enriching lives is what makes the 20-minute drive from Scotland’s home in Banstead to the range at Bletchingley G.C. – like the regular trips to the Middle East – a breeze each morning.

“We’d like to think everybody could earn the 20 million that Rory’s going to earn this year but being realistic, that’s not going to happen,” Scotland says.

“Some guys won’t make a hundred grand in their career so if you can help them make 150-200 grand, that’s great isn’t it?  If you can at least double their career earnings or their earnings over a year by thinking better…”

Smart thinking. Now there’s an idea. Like getting someone else to decode The Golfing Machine for you. Scotland’s impressionable young chargers don’t know how lucky they are.

Photograph by Joy Chakravarty

The post Zane Scotland: MENA Tour record maker turned player creator appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

“My head was not in a right place and I felt I was just throwing away money when I had to take care of my four lovely kids and my mortgage,” the Surrey-based Australian said of his decision to quit the touring life in mid-2017 despite having previously captured two European Challenge Tour titles.

Gaunt duly found work on the maintenance team at his home Burhill Golf Club in Walton-on-Thames and the change of scenery slowly helped rekindle his love of the game.

He still needed prompting to give pro golf another go and has a shot Wednesday at the MENA Tour’s $75,000 Troon Series-Al Zorah Open to give his closest supporters the ultimate payback.

A six-under-par 66 in Tuesday’s second round will see the Aussie go into today’s final round tied for the lead at -10, 134 with Scot Craig Ross. They are two shots clear of rookie English professional Todd Clements and former MENA Tour winner MG Keyser.

“There are friends, including [MENA Tour life member] Zane Scotland and a few others – they know who they are and I am indebted for their support – who believed in me and helped me financially to play golf again this year.

“So here we are…I am happy to be in the position I am in. I will go out and do exactly what I did the first two days. Come the last nine holes and we will see if I am in contention. I have full faith in myself. I have won before and I can do it again. I won’t be here if I did not believe I can win.”

Ross, who added a 66 to his opening-round 68 as well, went bogey-free on Tuesday and will look to add to the Clippers Logistics Championship he won on the EuroPro Tour last year.

India’s Dubai-based Rayhan Thomas birdied his final two holes and was the leading amateur following a two-under-par 70 round that took him to five-under par 139. The 19-year-old was three ahead of England’s Curtis Knipes (70), the amateur champion at Journey To Jordan-1, the inaugural event of the 2019 season.

Another Dubai-based teenager, the 14-year-old Josh Hill (72), was the next best on the amateur leaderboard at one-under par 143.

Thomas was solid for the first 11 holes with two birdies before a wobble cost him shots on the 12th and 14th holes. But a miraculous par on the 16th lifted his spirits and he birdied the last two return to the clubhouse a satisfied man.

“My ball was completely plugged on the 16th hole in the greenside bunker and I left myself a 12-footer for par after hacking it out somehow. Luckily, I made that putt and then stiffed it to two feet on the par-3 17th and got a regulation birdie on the par-5 18th,” said Thomas, who created history on the MENA Tour when he became the first amateur to win a title (2016 Dubai Creek Open).

“It was a good round, but like any golfer, I thought I could have shot a couple better. The conditions were perfect today and I should have taken advantage of it.”

Tuesday’s cut fell at one-over 145 with 50 professionals and 10 amateurs making it to the final round.

LEADING SCORES (After Round 2, par-72)
134 – Daniel Gaunt (AUS) 68-66, Craig Ross (SCO) 68-66
136 – Todd Clements (ENG) 71-65, MG Keyser (RSA) 70-66
137 – Seve Benson (ENG) 69-68, Jack McDonald (SCO) 70-67
138 – Benjamin David (ENG) 69-69
139 – Rayhan Thomas (IND-Am) 69-70, Lionel Weber (FRA) 68-71, Max Smith (ENG) 68-71, Tom Shadbolt (ENG) 70-69
140 – Antoine Schwartz (FRA) 70-70, Dominic Foos (GER) 69-71, Jack Doherty (SCO) 72-68, Joshua White (ENG) 72-68, Andrew Burmester (RSA) 70-70
141 – Daniel Hendry (SCO) 71-70, Rigel Fernandes (IND) 70-71, Oliver Jacobsson (SWE) 69-72, Robert Dinwiddie (ENG) 71-70
142 – Robin Roussel (FRA) 73-69, Harry Konig (ENG) 72-70, Robbie Busher (ENG) 72-70, Ahmad Baig (PAK) 69-73, Conor O’Neil (SCO) 72-70, Erik Jonasson (SWE) 70-72, Constantin Schwierz (GER) 71-71
143 – Gustaf Kocken (SWE) 72-71, James Allan (ENG) 71-72, Taylor Carter (ENG) 70-73, Maarten Bosch (NED) 74-69, Josh Hill (ENG-Am) 71-72

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The Abu Dhabi Amateur Championship will be a 54-hole strokeplay tournament open to male players and will be played on the Gary Player-designed seaside links from December 8-15.

It will be the first standalone event to offer WAGR points although the MENA Tour has offered this carrot for amateurs in recent seasons and helped the likes of Dubai-based Indian Rayhan Thomas and Englishman Todd Clements establish themselves in the global game.

“We have been contemplating hosting such an event for quite some time and after we hosted the [Abu Dhabi] HSBC qualifier last year we realised that there was an opportunity to create a larger amateur championship for not only the local players  but also many elite international amateurs,” said Matthew Waters, Saadiyat Beach G.C.s Golf Operations Manager.

“The process of applying for the WAGR status was surprisingly simple however there were quite a few requirements that we had to meet.”

The final category of the Abu Dhabi event will be determined by the R&A once the strength of the 72-strong field is assessed. Waters is hopeful the December slot will prove popular.

“We chose these dates specifically to accommodate for as many amateurs as possible. With the schools breaking up for the Christmas Holidays that week we hope to welcome many of the young up and coming elite amateurs as well as many college athletes on their way back to their home countries for Christmas,” he said.

“The weather is also perfect around that time of year so we hope that many participants can enjoy not only the championship but the many other attractions Abu Dhabi has to offer.”

Saadiyat Beach held a Pro-Am qualifier for last year’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. The new Abu Dhabi Amateur Championship doesn’t offer that European Tour lure, not yet anyway.

“Not yet….but would certainly be a great addition to the event,” Waters said.

To register for the Abu Dhabi Amateur Championship, click here.

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A frustrating second round 77 at Murcar Links on Tuesday will likely see the Dubai teen miss the 36-hole cut and resulting matchplay phase of The Amateur Championship for the second successive year.

The MENA Tour trailblazer had been T-22 after an opening 72 on the par 70 Royal Aberdeen on Monday and comfortably on track to make the top-64 at the 123rd edition of the British Am. But as was the case at the St Andrews Links Trophy at the Home of Golf the previous week, where Thomas went from contending after 27 holes to somehow missing the 36-hole cut, Tuesday wasn’t to be his day.

The world amateur No.26 started well at Murcar, rattling off three nerve-settling pars before a birdie on the par 5 4th got him back to one over for the championship. But a bogey-double bogey-par-bogey run upped the pressure and while he birdied the 9th, he went out in two over 38 and the cutline suddenly appeared on the horizon.

A triple bogey on the par-4 11th was a massive body blow and while he rebounded immediately with a birdie two, the damage was done as Thomas limped home with four more dropped shots against one gain in the final six holes.

He eventually finished +9 for the championship and was T-156th midway through the second round. The projected cut as at 5.30pm UAE time was +5.

More to follow…

Thomas well placed as The Amateur Championship cut looms
The matchplay phase of The (British) Amateur Championship is within Rayhan Thomas’ grasp but the Dubai teen will have to overcome the demons of last year, and last week, when he tees it up in the final round of qualifying on Tuesday.

Thomas carded a two-over 73 in his opening round of the 123rd edition of the R&A-organised event at Royal Aberdeen on Monday, overcoming breezy conditions for a share of 22nd place. The 18-year-old world amateur No.26 must finish among the top-64 players to advance to the matchplay knockout rounds (all to be played at Royal Aberdeen) and started his second round on the notoriously tricky Murcar Links at 8.50am (11.50am UAE time) Tuesday with a two shot buffer over those on the cut line.

Related: Thomas in a positive mood ahead of the 123rd Amateur Championship 

Thomas’ matchplay pedigree is without question – his historic run to the semifinals of the Junior U.S. Amateur ample proof of his one-on-one ability. But the MENA Tour star has struggled capitalising on strong strokeplay opportunities of late, notably slipping from contention through 27 holes at the St Andrews Links Trophy to missing the 36-hole cut.

He also has the heartache of last year’s British Am to erase from his mind as he prepares to tee it up at Murcar; the Dubai Creek player saw a four-footer burn the final hole at Royal St. George’s last summer as he missed the 36-hole cut by an agonising stroke.

South African 18-year-old Wilco Nienaber fired an four-under 66 on the par-70 Murcar Links to lead the way after the first day. The Bloemfontein teen, beaten in a playoff for the prestigious Brabazon Trophy earlier this month, took a two-shot lead into the second round of strokeplay qualifying over Australia’s David Micheluzzi and Canada’s Sam Meek. Micheluzz and Meek signed for 69s on Royal Aberdeen but face the tricker Murcar Links on Tuesday like Thomas.

Reigning MENA Tour amateur order of merit champion Todd Clements blew out to a 10-over 81 on Royal Aberdeen in his opening round. The Englishman was T-228 and needed a very low red number today for a chance to make the matchplay.

Dutch teen Pierre Junior Verlaar, just the second amateur after Thomas to win a MENA Tour title (the 2017 Royal Golf Mohammedia Open in Morocco) slumped to 83, 13 over, on Murcar in a further indication on Monday’s tough conditions.

Related: Dutch prodigy Pierre Junior Verlaar triumphs in Morocco 

For live second round scoring, visit the R&A leaderboard HERE

FIRST ROUND LEADERBOARD – 123rd Amateur Championship

First round leaderboard from the 123rd Amateur Championship. Courtesy R&A.

The post UPDATED: Thomas suffers another second round reverse to (likely) miss Amateur Championship cut appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Todd Clements has waltzed through the final stage of Sunshine Tour Q-School in South Africa but won’t be relinquishing his amateur status immediately.

The MENA Tour’s runaway 2017 amateur order of merit champion finished second of the 108 starters at Randpark G.C. in Johannesburg, a second round eight-under 64 highlighting the brilliant performance in the 90-hole marathon.

However, the 21-year-old still has amateur ambitions, chief among them being selected to represent England at the Eisenhower Trophy in Ireland this September. The world amateur teams championship will be played at Carton House near Dublin from Sept. 5-8 and would be a fitting sign-off to a stellar amateur career which included victory in the 87th English Amateur Championship at The Berkshire last August.

Photo courtesy Sunshine Tour

There is a chance he could cut the amateur umbilical cord in August if he were to miss Eisenhower selection although that appears unlikely barring a massive loss of form. At 18th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR, a spot behind Dubai prodigy Rayhan Thomas), Clements is the highest ranked Englishman and is set to be named in a four-man team for next month’s European Nations Cup in Spain in what is a precursor to Eisenhower selection.

Whenever he turns professional, the Londoner will have options as he eyes the ultimate goal of a 2019 European Tour card. He can take up the Sunshine Tour card at any stage this season and is also likely to play the remodelled MENA Tour which has been shortened to an August-November season with expanded 72 hole (from 54) events offering more prize money and Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points.

Clements opted to play in Joburg for the experience of cut-throat Q-School pressure looking ahead to the European Tour qualifiers, the first stage of which he will automatically skip if he can get his WAGR inside the top 15. He handled the Randpark test with aplomb too, rounds of 67-64-68 and “bad day at the office, it happens” 74 taking him into the final round with a share of the lead. He had led by as many as seven strokes at one stage during the week only for a self diagnosed intercostal muscle strain (rib area) picked up on the range ahead of Friday’s final round seeing him blow out to a closing 75 and second place at -12. He finish four shots behind South African professional Thriston Lawrence (closing 65) and a shot ahead of fellow amateur Louis Albertse (RSA).

“I actually picked up a slight injury in the morning so to go through the pain barrier and get finished and finish second overall was quite a delight actually,” Clements told GolfDigestme.com

“The whole experience exceeded my expectations in all honesty. I went to further my experience in the golfing world so to be able to compete straight away was a delight really. That was the goal, to give myself options when I do turn professional and now I’ve got those options.”

Clements finished leading amateur in seven of the nine events he entered during last season’s MENA Tour including the last six events of the year on the trot. There were runner-up finishes at the Dubai Creek Open (T-2 with Thomas) and Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open as he finished 110 points ahead of compatriot Sam Hobday despite playing six fewer events.

The developmental Middle East and North Africa circuit is meant as a finishing school for aspiring pros and is certainly proving its worth in Clements’ case. The Colchester lad seems at ease with his game after one of the most mentally challenging examinations.

Photo courtesy Sunshine Tour

“It’s a longer tournament so your concentration levels have to be a bit higher but I actually found it very similar to any other events which is great,” Clements said of Sunshine Tour Q-School.

“When it comes down to it, you are just playing golf every day whether you’re playing for a living, the Eisenhower, the Nations Cup or European Tour Q-School, you just try and play golf. That was actually quite reassuring that there isn’t much of a difference and if you get that kind of mind set, you can definitely compete.”

Clements intends having the rib injury checked upon his return to London on Monday. He puts it down to overuse after a hectic schedule which included representing Europe in the Bonallack Trophy in Doha a fortnight ago. “Hopefully it’s not too serious,” he said.

Related: Thomas adds Bonallack Trophy to amateur CV

.@ThristonL claims a four-stroke victory over England’s @ClementsTodd at the final stage of qualifying school @RandparkGolf

Read more: https://t.co/z2KnN4zNhR pic.twitter.com/MKvh2wCZcg

— Sunshine Tour (@Sunshine_Tour) March 24, 2018

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The 18-year-old added a career first hole-in-one to his already glittering collection of accolades at his home club during a friendly round on Friday.

Thomas conquered up the perfect shot with a seven iron from 172 yards on the water-guarded par-3 14th en-route to a causal three-under par 69 as he continues his buildup to the prestigious Sir Michael Bonallack Trophy.

Related: Thomas grinds ahead of Bonallack Trophy

“I did see it go in, it took one hop about two feet short of the cup and dropped straight in. As soon as I hit it…I hit a great shot and I thought it was going to be pretty close but didn’t expect it to go in. When the ball disappeared I was surprised how I excited I got. It was pretty cool,” Thomas told GolfDigestMe.com  

“I was super stoked I was able to get that hole in one, my first one ever. I’ve had a couple on the par 3 course bit it was finally good to get one on the main course.”

It comes after the now world amateur No.18 created history by becoming the first amateur to win a MENA Tour event in 2016 before sensationally equalling the world record for successive birdies in a pro event during his defence of the Dubai Creek Open title in September. He went on to finish tied second with former English Men’s Amateur champion Todd Clements in MENA event won by South African Mathiam Keyser.

Related: Watch Rayhan Thomas equal the a world record for successive birdies

Thomas’ next big examination is the Bonallack Trophy from March 8-10. He’s a key member of the Asia Pacific team and will line-up against reigning MENA Tour Amateur Order-of-Merit champion Clements who was deservedly confirmed in Europe’s lineup for the Ryder Cup-style matches at Doha Golf Club overnight.

The post UPDATED: Rayhan Thomas is a Dubai Creek ace appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray

1. Tommy Take Two

No one can ever take the 2017 Race to Dubai title off Tommy Fleetwood but the fact Justin Rose so nearly did on the final Sunday of the season lingered in the younger Englishman’s craw as 2018 opened.

The 27-year-old admitted as much on the Tuesday of his Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship title defence.

“The biggest thing for us after last year, I had had the year of my life by a long way, was to make sure that we kept progressing, kept improving,” the Southport lad said. “We sort of really wanted to look at the year like, you know, if Justin Rose had shot level par on that back nine on Sunday [at the DP World Championship; Rose was two-over, slipped to T-4 and eventually finished runner-up in the season standings to Fleetwood], then I wouldn’t have had The Race to Dubai title.

“So it was sort of important to maybe try and prove as if you were hurt and you had not had that whole euphoria of achieving something amazing in your career.”

Fast-forward to Sunday evening at Abu Dhabi G.C. and it was mission accomplished. With masterful ball-striking and some equally silky putting, Fleetwood scorched around the back nine of a wind-swept National course in a scarcely believable 30 strokes to sign for a 65 and join Martin Kaymer as a back-to-back winner of the Falcon trophy.

Talk about vindicating the Seve award he received on the Tuesday after being voted Players’ Player of 2017 by his peers.

“To sort of validate your position of Race to Dubai champion or Player of the Year so early on is really sort of nice and satisfying,” Fleetwood said after capturing his fourth European Tour title.

The scintillating finish didn’t go unnoticed by Rory McIlroy who hailed Fleetwood as a “great addition to the world of golf, a great addition to The European Tour and will be a great addition to The Ryder Cup team in September.” The latter is still to be achieved but the world No.12’s defiant grittiness looks set to make him an integral figure in golf’s global conversation more and more.

“I want to go places in the game. So to have your peers talk about you like that, Rory, obviously has done it all in the game, is very nice.”

2. Tom Buchanan – Dreams are made of this

Ain’t golf great. Big Tom Buchanan mightn’t have survived the weekend in Abu Dhabi but the fact the Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting & Golf Club head pro got to peg it up in the €3 million European Tour event proves even the giddy upper echelons aren’t out of reach for your Average Tom, Dick or Harry.  Bobby Jones famously said “Nicklaus played a game of which I am not familiar” after Jack won the 1965 Masters so you can imagine what Buchanan, teeing it up in the same field as world No.1 Dustin Johnson and returning Rory McIlroy, felt. But just to have a shot at testing himself in such esteemed company after winning a UAE PGA qualifier at Saadiyat Beach before Christmas was something out of The Boy’s Own Annual.

“For us guys to have the chance to play an event like this is incredible. Hopefully, the people who have come with me [Buchanan’s Brigade] are enough to cement it for the next wee while as well because for us as club PGA pros, for an 18-hole shootout to get into what is now the premier event in Europe, is just incredible.”

Buchanan lapped up every minute of it and even saw the funny side of the odd ropy swing during rounds of 74-75 which left him 119th in the 126-man field and very much in awe of golf’s best.

The Scot, who celebrated his 38th birthday on the Tuesday of the championship, was asked if he had any regrets moving to the UAE six years earlier?

“When I left Duddingston I came over here with a holdall and my set of golf clubs. Now I’ve got a wee bit more than a holdall; a wife, two kids, and still the same set of golf clubs [laughter].” And now, golf memories to last a lifetime. Well played Tom, the UAE PGA, IMG, Abu Dhabi Sports Council and Abu Dhabi G.C.

3. We’ve got a Topgolf Crush

Every year the organisers of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship somehow up the ante with their off-course entertainment but they truly outdid themselves this time.  The double-decker  Top Golf Crush in the always family-friendly Championship Village was a brilliant innovation. Who knows, maybe a future Fleetwood, Rory or DJ will recall making his first tentative swings there someday. It certainly has us amped for the introduction of TopGolf proper to the Middle East at Emirates G.C. next year. We can’t conclusively say Abu Dhabi does the best championship village on the European Tour, but if last year’s Open at Royal Birkdale is any measure, it’s surely close.

4. The Tiger effect

What a week it was for Todd Clements at the Desert Classic, the world amateur No.30 making the cut on the record -5 number with rounds of 69-70 before finishing 68th with weekend rounds of 71-76.

The 21-year-old former English amateur champion is a product of the MENA Tour and fits the profile mentioned by another MENA Tour star, Jamie Elson, the latter sadly unable to cash-in on a fine opening 68 as the scoring got seriously silly on Friday and spilt into the weekend.

“I think it’s the Tiger Woods effect really,” said Elson, a worthy ambassador for region’s developmental circuit. “I think the kids that he inspired to start the game are now 25 years of age and they’re pros, and they’re, you know, flying it 300 yards through the air. I mean you look at the scores, never used to shoot scores like that around this sort of golf course, but you know that’s the standard these days and that’s what you have to do.”

There are those who prefer a stiffer test for the best, Pablo Larrazabal apparently among them as this tweet from the 2014 Abu Dhabi champion pointed out. “We must tight[en] the fairways, grow the rough and firm the greens to make it tougher…nowadays, all about hitting it hard and a putting contest…-5 cut at the #ODDC18 is crazy.”

It sure was crazy…crazy good to watch. We get where the Spaniard is coming from and yes, balls that spin less from drivers with larger sweet spots are apparently an issue… blah, blah…

But there’s a reason nobody goes to watch the monthly medal. We’ll take birdies and eagles over a par snore-fest any day. That’s no way to grow a game the likes of Clements and co. are now making an utterly absorbing watch.

5. Rory was the story

Haotong Li richly deserves these column inches for his spirited performance down the stretch on the Majlis. Rory McIlroy, despite the expert predictions, simply didn’t bring his best stuff to the final round of a historically low Desert Classic, two back nine bogeys in a 69 leaving him contemplating what could have and probably should have been back-to-back wins in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

By contrast, Li “hit some of the best shots in my life” to match the three-under 69 and ride the one stroke cushion (over McIlroy) he started Sunday with all the way to a -23 aggregate, a score that eclipsed by a shot, the previous Majlis benchmark jointly held by Thomas Bjørn (2001), Stephen Gallagher (2013) and McIlroy (2015).  In golf, you can only control your own game and Li did that better than McIlroy; the plaudits and associated riches – $500,000 and a giddy ride up the world rankings from 60th to 32nd – flowed and will continue to do so.

But for all Li’s grittiness and that glorious putting, McIlroy dominated the over-arching narrative from the first half of the now split Desert Swing.

Save for a sloppy Sunday on The National where he carded a 70 (compared to Fleetwood’s 65), the three-putt par on 13 and an off-piste bogey on 16 at Emirates G.C, the world No.11’s comeback would have been utterly exceptional rather than merely brilliant.

“If someone had told me at the start of the year you’d finish third and second your first two events, I’d say, yeah, I’d take that.” Except McIlroy couldn’t accept it. “But being in the positions I’ve been in and having two close calls the first couple of weeks of the year, it’s a little difficult. The competitor in me is very disappointed right now. I wanted to win. I always want to win, and I just didn’t do enough when I needed to.”

The consolation was a swing that looks more silkily synchronised than ever before. The 324-yard 3-wood on 13 Sunday was exhibit A (just don’t mention the three-putt!) and he has plenty of reps before Augusta to iron out the slight big stick misses and those uncharacteristic “mental errors” that marred his Dubai bid. If his blade comes to the party, watch out world. Sure, a first Falcon and a record-tying third Dallah would have been nice, but we suspect a career Grand Slam-sealing green jacket will be ample consolation. McIlroy MkII certainly looks capable.

6. Bjørn again…and again

Thomas Bjørn couldn’t have scripted a better start to the Desert Swing, what with Sergio Garcia winning in Singapore and Jon Rahm in California on the same weekend as Tommy Fleetwood repeated in Abu Dhabi (it didn’t hurt that he made the cut on the National either). But the smile was short lived and not because Europe’s Ryder Cup captain had an unwanted weekend off in Dubai. These are going to be a stressful nine months for Bjørn as we witnessed first hand playing the Pro-Am with the quiet but oft-volcanic Dane on the eve of the Desert Classic. Not a hole went by when either a fan or a TV cameraman wanted a piece of the 46-year-old. He handled it with aplomb but clearly has the weight of Europe on his ample shoulders. Walking off our final green Bjørn agreed it was going to be nice to get his quiet life back post Le Golf National “but we’ve got some Americas to beat first”.  Here’s hoping he gets some breathing space to achieve just that.

7. The stars align

Not to be outdone by Abu Dhabi, the Omega Dubai Desert  Classic’s ‘Constellation Clinic’ was a doozy. A doff of our cap to Rory McIlroy for giving his precious time, a lesson and a shiny new set of TaylorMade sticks to young Arjun Gupta, and to the organisers for coming up with competition that saw young Irish lass Saoirse Lambe play the Pro-Am with McIlroy and Niall Horan. There are those unconvinced by the increasing influence of social media on golf and more than a few naysayers when Dubai announced Paige Spiranac, golf’s Instagram Queen would be the event’s official starter. But you only had to see the gaggle of teenage girls swooning over Horan to understand that golf is going in, ahem, one direction. Whether many or any, will be lured to the game by the boy band heartthrob is a moot point; you’ve got to get the next generation through the turnstiles somehow and Dubai leads the way on that front. The 600,000 and counting (even past its used-by date) impressions a tweet we posted, merely mentioning golf nut Horan was starring at the clinic, was a case in point. The birdie count on the Majlis almost matched those metrics and it all added up to a Ror-ing success.

The post Seven Things from the Desert Swing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The MENA Tour champion fired a fine 68 in his opening round but given Thursday’s red-hot scoring, he figured four under was the least he had do to have a crack at the halfway cut and with it keep alive the long shot of a return to the European Tour full-time.

Elson has three confirmed starts – he’s playing Malaysia next week and Morocco in April courtesy of topping the developmental tour’s order of merit – and will need to excel in all three to have even a remote sniff at a 2018 card (save for qualifying via Q-School at the end of the season).

As the first round scorning showed, that’s no cinch. And for that, Elson reckons Tiger has a lot to answer for, in a very positive way.

“Obviously everyone that’s playing here wants to do it on a regular basis, not just two or three times a year. But it’s hard going, I mean the standard in the last five or six years has just gone through the roof,” said Elson.

“I think it’s the Tiger Woods effect really. I think the kids that he inspired to start the game are now 25 years of age and they’re pros, and they’re, you know, flying it 300 yards through the air. I mean you look at the scores, never used to shoot scores like that around this sort of golf course, but you know that’s the standard these days and that’s what you have to do.

“You see Rory just flicks it round, seven under like he’s in his sleep, seemingly. I know he puts a lot of hard work in to it but he’s that good. He drives it that well, he’ll probably shoot that score every day if the weather stays the same.”

Elson was pretty chuffed with his own driving Thursday in a bogey-free loop of the Majlis that left him in a share of 26th place overnight. Still, he knows he has work to do to make his second Desert Classic weekend; he finished T-63 in his maiden pro event here in 2003 but missed the cut a year later when Tiger contended.

“Yeah, no complaints with that. I’ve not had a card in my hand since King Hamad Trophy in November so no matter how much you practise, you don’t really feel that prepared unless you’ve played a couple of tournaments leading up to it. Sort of thrown in at the deep end to a certain extent.

“I just drove it quite nicely which I think that’s the most important club in the bag really, its very much a long game course. If you’re knocking it in the fairways you’ve not got a huge amount left to do.”

Elson was the best of the four MENA Tour players Thursday though amateur Todd Clements followed closely with a 69. Yas Links attached Englishman Luke Joy also dipped into the red with a 71 while Indian 18-year-old Rayhan Thomas has the most work to do to make the weekend after a 73.

“It’s obviously a great incentive when you’re playing on the MENA Tour to be able to peg it up in these sort of events and test yourself against the best.”

So far, so good, Tiger effect and all.

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The 18-year-old Dubai-based Indian amateur announced himself to the wider golfing world when he made his first European Tour cut with the help of an eye-catching opening round 68 at the $3 million event last year.

Thomas’ return to his home Emirates Golf Club has been sealed with a special sponsors’ invite and he’ll be joined on the Majlis from Jan. 25-28 by MENA Tour qualifiers Jamie Elson, Henric Sturehed, Luke Joy and Todd Clements, the latter also an amateur.

“I can’t wait to get started,” said the world amateur No. 20 who finished T-60 last year and went on to equal the world record of nine consecutive birdies in an official World Golf Ranking event at the 2017 Dubai Creek Open.

“I am feeling confident about my game, just working on my wedges and putter as short game will be crucial to going to low.”

Thomas won the Omega Watches Emirates Amateur Open last week by going low, closing with a 69 to fight back from six shots adrift before emerging from a three-way playoff with a birdie on the second hole of overtime.

It was a timely boost for the Junior Presidents Cupper who has verbally committed to play collegiate golf in the U.S. for Oklahoma State University from 2019.

Related: Rayhan Thomas is a Cowboy and Rickie Fowler is delighted

“The [Majlis] is like my home course. Having played there numerous times, I know it like the back of my hand. I see no reason why I shouldn’t do well there. It was nice making the cut last year, but just didn’t play that well on the front nines.”

Joining Thomas in showcasing the MENA Tour will be the top three Order of Merit professionals – Elson, Sturehed and Joy – and the leading amateur Todd Clements.

It will be a first Desert Classic start for Clements and Sturehed, who earned a 2018 European Tour card via Q-School. Like Joy and Thomas, Elson has played the “Middle East’s Major” before but is taking a laid back approach to his late career resurgence.

“I want to take a really positive, relaxed attitude into the tournament. Hoping to play some good golf and see where that leaves me,” said Elson, who won the Challenge Tour’s Finnish Open in 2003 shortly after turning professional. “I’m not putting any extra pressure on myself.”

Related: Els hopes Desert Classic return will trigger change of fortune

Daily tickets, priced at AED 175, are available online at omegadubaidesertclassic.com 

Season passes, which provide access to Emirates G.C. all week, are available for AED 500. Under 16s gain free entry with a adult carrying a valid ticket for the day.Season passes, which provide access to Emirates G.C. all week, is available for AED 500. Under 16s gain free entry with a adult carrying a valid ticket for the day.

The post Thomas trending nicely for Desert Classic return appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.