Golf In Dubai Championship Tips

The market principals this week all have their merits: Robert Macintyre’s 6^th place finish last week at Leopard Creek suggests that he’s not content to dine out on his breakthrough European Tour victory in Cyprus 3 weeks ago; Bernd Wiesberger’s 4^th place at the RSM Classic at PGA Tour level on his last start is clearly more tangible form than most here can muster; and Martin Kaymer, with 4 top-10 finishes in his last 6 starts, is clearly very close to top gear and could well go into overdrive should he overcome the Sunday wobbles. Perhaps this week’s event finishing on a Saturday will provide the necessary tonic in that regard.

A case can be readily built for all 3 of those, as it could to a slightly less convincing degree for Thomas Detry, Thomas Pieters and Aaron Rai, however of the leading half-dozen or so I’m favouring Matt Wallace.

The big prize is clearly next week in terms of prize money and prestige, however at 50^th in the Race to Dubai, the Englishman would need to go win-win to even get within a sniff of the leaders.

There is, however, a more immediate target for Wallace and that’s to cement his position in the OWGR top 50 with a win here this week. At 51^st in the rankings as the penultimate week of the year begins in Europe, Matt knows that gaining entry into that elite club before year end is an absolute must if he’s going to get access to 2021’s biggest events as he attempts to qualify for the delayed Ryder Cup.

Results in recent weeks have kept him on the brink as he’s hopped either side of 50^th place almost on a weekly basis. 30^th at the Scottish Open and 24^th at the BMW PGA Championship were useful warm-ups as he ventured back this side of the Atlantic and those outings almost reaped its rewards at Fairmont St Andrews where only the red-hot putter of Adrian Otaegui stopped the Hillingdon man from winning his 5^th European Tour title.

46^th at The Masters was a fair effort and his first weekend made at Augusta, and 37^th at the RSM Classic promised much with the putter – potentially important coming to a week such as this where birdies are there to be made.

2^nd at the Earth Course at the end of 2018 is undoubtedly form that can’t be ignored despite the differences in set-up between the two tracks, and 2^nd again the following January at the Dubai Desert Classic shows a certain liking and aptitude for golf in the Gulf. He’s hinted on Social Media that his game is in a good spot right now and I think the desire to succeed this week and next will push him on to big things in the immediate future. RESULT: T2

As a big fan of Alex Levy, it’s been really encouraging to see him finally find some form in recent weeks.

With back issues and subsequent recuperation hampering his 2019 campaign, the 20 weeks off that the Frenchman was forced to take due to Covid lockdown appears to have done him the world of good. He’s now swinging as well and as freely as he has done in years, and that makes him a danger on a course that should reap a low score.

After some fairly innocuous efforts following the restart of professional golf, the Scottish Championship was the first real spark we saw in El Toro’s game, eventually finishing in a tie for 16^th courtesy of a closing round of 66.

7^th at the Cyprus Showdown followed a couple of starts later where his long game really shone, ranking 2^nd for Driving Accuracy and 1^st for GIR of those who made it through to the weekend. 6^th last week at Leopard Creek was another fairly obvious sign that he was playing some nice golf and crucially that was on a tough setup that doesn’t necessarily play to his attacking strengths – this week should be far more to his liking in my view.

Since the start of 2018, the 30 year-old has finished 7^th in Abu Dhabi, 4^th at the Dubai Desert Classic, 4^th in Oman and 5^th at the Saudi International to more than hint that he’s comfortable in this part of the world and with 5 years experience of the Earth Course under his belt which he’s never quite mastered despite the odd good round, this week’s less demanding layout should suit him nicely. RESULT: MC

While many of this week’s field have been jet-setting around South Africa over the past few weeks, Marcus Kinhult has kept his powder dry since narrowly missing the Saturday night cut at the Cyprus Showdown, despite producing rounds of 68/68/69 in that most brutal of formats.

A missed cut on the same track immediately preceded that effort, however prior to that we saw far more tangible form with 6^th at the Scottish Open and 10^th at the BMW PGA Championship, and on that evidence he’s got to have a chance this week.

The equation is quite simple for the Swede: at 61^st in the Race to Dubai and a number of his closest-ranked peers also playing this week either here or in South Africa, this is the time to ensure a good enough performance and finish to guarantee a start on next week’s finale at the neighbouring course. 2^nd at the Nedbank in the equivalent event in the schedule last year is encouraging and suggests he’s quite capable of raising his game before the final hurrah.

A cursory look at his performances in the Middle East shows a 4^th at the Ras Al Khaimah Golf Challenge on the 2^nd Tier back in 2016, where he led going into Sunday, as well as 16^th at the Earth Course last year where he was 6^th heading into the final day. 2^nd at the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final in Oman in 2017 is another 2^nd Tier pointer and he sat 6^th heading into the weekend in Oman again on the main tour a year later. He was 8^th at halfway at this year’s Saudi International and has finished 3^rd and 7^th from 3 attempts at the Qatar Masters on its 2 different venues. In summary, he seems really quite happy playing in this neck of the woods.

Game-wise, we’ve seen a field-leading putting performance at the Scottish Open and top-10 Accuracy and GIR rankings at Wentworth in recent outings to suggest that his game is in good shape overall, and with the hint of something linksy in places here this week from reports of the course, we only have to look at his success at Hillside last year for further justification. RESULT: T62