DUBAI: Top draws Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy will go head-to-head over the first two rounds of the 25th anniversary Dubai Desert Classic tomorrow and Friday.
They will be hoping for a better showing than a year ago when both opted to start their season in nearby Abu Dhabi and, playing together, miserably missed the cut.
This time, both players have already lit the fuse to their new seasons with contrasting fortunes.
The 38-year-old Woods missed a Saturday, third round cut at Torrey Pines after matching his worst-ever score on US soil, a seven-over 79 for the most inauspicious of starts.
He made no comment afterwards other than a - “No I’m done” - when asked to comment on his round.
Of course Woods has rebounded from a poor showing in double-quick time before, notably last year when he went straight from Abu Dhabi to win the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines - the first of five titles in the year en route to another Player of the Year award.
In contrast, McIlroy came within a two-stroke rules violation of winning in Abu Dhabi which would have seen him take back-to-back titles following his victory in the Australian Open late last year.
He believes all is in place for him to produce another stellar year, rebounding from his travails of 2013 when an equipment change and business-related distractions left him befuddled.
“I have started off the year well,” McIlroy said.
“I was a little disappointed coming off the second place in Abu Dhabi. I felt like I should have won but there were a lot of positives to take from the week. I played very well.
“I felt like I could have done a few things better which I have worked on over the last week to go into this tournament in Dubai but all in all I am in a good place and really looking forward to 2014.”
What is sure is that he will be wary of the wounded Tiger, missed cut or no missed cut.
The two biggest names in golf have played together in tournaments several times but never down the home stretch in a major and they have yet to produce fireworks when in the same grouping.
“It’s great to have him here (in Dubai),” said McIlroy of Woods’ return to the bustling emirate after a two-year absence.
“He got off to a bit of a slow start to the season so he will be wanting to make up for that this week. I think he has still got a few good years left so I am looking forward to battling with Woods down the stretch a few times.”
Joining Woods and McIlroy will be defending champion Stephen Gallacher of Scotland, who is desparate to stash up some big Ryder Cup points to give himself a chance of making the European team for the showdown with the United States on home turf at Gleneagles in September.
In the strongest European Tour field of the season so far, world number three Henrik Stenson of Sweden, the 2007 champion, will be one to watch along with record three-time former winner Ernie Els, in-form Jamie Donaldson of Wales and 2012 champion Rafael Cabrera-Bello of Spain.
Former Dubai Desert Classic winners Henrik Stenson and Rafael Cabrera-Bello underlined their form going into this week’s 25th anniversary of the Gulf classic by jointly winning the Former Champions Challenge yesterday.
A pair of six-under 66s were enough to give the Swede and the Spaniard a share of the $500,000 prize (366,500 euros) fund in an 18-hole stroke play event that brought together 20 past winners -- the late Seve Ballesteros being the exception.
Woods started well at the Emirates Golf Club, where he has won twice, with three birdies in succession.
He then briefly moved into the lead on four under par after seven holes, but failed to maintain the momentum and sent his ball into the water at the last hole to settle for a round of 71.
McIlroy had a 68.
Spanish amateur Javier Ballesteros, who represented his late father, shot a two over par 74.
AFP
DUBAI: The Dubai Desert Classic celebrates its 25th anniversary this week with another flourish - in keeping with a tournament that blazed a trail for European Golf and indelibly marked sport in the Gulf region.
A quarter of a century ago in 1989, Dubai was little more than a sleepy United Arab Emirates (UAE) trading post with a couple of high-rise buildings and almost no standing or profile in sport.
But led by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice-president and prime minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, ambitions were high and the starting point was the development of the region’s first all-grass golf course at Emirates Golf club, hewn out of desert scrub on the long road out to Abu Dhabi.
Eyebrows were raised when the European PGA Tour accepted an invitation to stage a tournament, known initially as the Karl Litten Desert Classic, far from its heartlands in western Europe.
England’s Mark James was the first winner of what was initially a fairly low-key event.
But with its iconic Arab tent clubhouse, spectacular layout and finishing hole and the superb early year weather, television coverage soon had the golfing world sitting up and paying attention to what was heppening in Dubai.
The big names in golf started to beat a path to the emirate. Seve Ballesteros won in 1992, Ernie Els in 1994, Freddie Couples in 1995 and Colin Montgomerie the following year.
And then the biggest name in world sport, Tiger Woods, descended on Dubai for the first time in 2001, for a reported appearance fee of around $3m, sparking even more international interest.
The DDC soon became a fixture on the circuit and all around the course, Dubai sprouted up at an incredible speed to become a thriving international metropolis offering the very best of business, tourism and sporting experiences.
Others in the region tried to follow Dubai’s example with some success - notably the Qatar Masters and Abu Dhabi Championship - but the Desert Classic remains the jewel in golf’s Gulf Swing.
“The modern day Omega Dubai Desert Classic is simply one of the greatest golf tournaments in the world which consistently attracts the planet’s greatest players to one of the great modern courses,” commented European PGA chief George O’Grady in the official programme for this week’s event.
To mark the occasion of the 25th anniversary, organisers invited all 21 previous winners - Els won three times and Woods twice - to take part yesterday in a special Champions Challenge, an 18-hole stroke-play showpiece.
AFP
