3 minute read
Desert Swing
After a frustrating false-start in South Africa, external forces will again be at play behind the scenes as the DP World Tour season resumes in the UAE. By Kent Gray No matter where you stand on professional golf’s fascinating, multi-pronged and still thoroughly muddied tug-of-war, it’s hard not to feel genuine sympathy for Keith Pelley and his team at the DP World Tour. After a whiz-bang World Expo presser to announce the circuit’s historic new title sponsorship on the eve of the Race to Dubai decider, a bright new dawn beckoned. Eventual champion Collin Morikawa and Rory McIlroy ensured lashings of big-name drama at the last hurrah for the former European Tour and with that, everyone kicked back for the off-season. Four very short days later and the 2022 LET’S START season – remembering we are still in November of 2021 - began with the circuit’s welcome return to South Africa.
But just when it seemed all the health, logistical and fiscal challenges of the past 20 months had largely been navigated, the Omicron variant popped in to stymie CEO Pelley and Co. once more. There were actual storm clouds for good measure too.
The scheduled three-event SA swing lasted all of 36 holes. The only one who could take any solace from what was essentially a false-start to the first ever DP World Tour season was Thriston Lawrence. The 25-year-old Sunshine Tour member was declared the winner of the truncated Joburg Open when the scheduled third round – the event having already been reduced to 54-holes due to hastily imposed travel restrictions – was washed out. Zander Lombard and Ashley Chesters weren’t grumbling either after joining Lawrence in nabbing the three invites to July’s 150th Open at St. Andrews on offer at Randpark. It was some reward for two days work.
And so to the UAE and the start of the calendar year, traditionally when the big guns – and global eyeballs - return after a slightly more relaxing off-season.
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship (Jan. 20-23) and Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic (Jan. 27-30) offer a supercharged start to the new five event Desert Swing. Fans in Al Hamra will look forward to the Ras Al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital (Feb. 3-6) and expect FIFA World Cup-themed subplots at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters (Feb 10-13). There was still intrigue at the time of press as to where the fifth event of the swing – a “Middle East event TBA” according to the DP World Tour website – will be played from Feb.17-20. But it is the back-to-back Rolex Series events at Yas Links and Emirates Golf Club that will dominate attention before the Asian Tour steals the spotlight with its star-studded, $5 million season-opener in Saudi Arabia - directly opposite the new RAK event. After their indirect showdown at JGE, Morikawa and McIlroy are again the headline acts for the $8 million Rolex events. Morikawa returns to the UAE bolstered by becoming the first American to win the DP World Tour Championship and R2D title but also bruised by his final round meltdown at Tiger’s Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. Quite how he let slip a five-stroke, 54-hole lead and his chance to become world No.1 in the process will undoubtedly get some airtime in Abu Dhabi but don’t expect any lingering mental hangover. McIlroy has hinted at a return to his majorchampionship winning ways but will first want to shed his nearly-man tag in Abu Dhabi where he’s a four-time runner-up. Perhaps the much-anticipated move to Yas Links will signal a change of fortune; it will certainly be eye-candy for global TV audiences and thus a boon for UAE golf tourism. All the usual early season suspects, including Tyrrell Hatton and Paul Casey who will defend in Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively, are expected to return. But like the end of last season, the narrative for the start of the new year is likely to be focused on behind the scenes negotiations and manoeuvres across neighbouring borders as much as by what happens inside the ropes. AGAIN The golf world is being transformed before our eyes, whether traditionalists like it or not. And once again, the Middle East is the epicentre of change. Whichever way you look at it, it promises be compelling — and perhaps even more challenging for Pelley and co. than the past 20 months.
