Golf News
Attentions turned to Dubai and America after a wonderful performance in Abu Dhabi last week by Tommy Fleetwood and the rest of the British contingent.
The Dubai Desert Classic was won by world number 60 Li Haotong, his biggest win to date. Rory Mcilroy squandered a 2 shot lead with 8 holes to play and he could not hide his disappointment in his after match interview. He again gained another 2 shot lead with 6 holes to play but again squandered the lead despite his superior ball striking.
However, Li will not want to dwell on Rory’s undoing but rather credit himself with shooting 4 birdies in the final 6 holes to steal the title from under Rory’s nose. Even Though Rory made 2 birdies in his final 2 holes, it was not enough for him to claim his first win in over 16 months.
Rory will take many positives as he was beaten in Dubai by the lowest score to ever win the competition. He is also 40 under par his previous 2 competitions and is showing some brilliant form leading up to the masters with finishes of 3rd and 2nd.
Tiger Woods made an appearance in the Farmer Insurance Open this week, which is his first full field appearance since he appeared in the same competition last year at Torrey Pines where he missed the cut.
Tiger was facing the prospect of missing the cut again by 1 shot when he bogeyed the 17th hole on day 2. But he dug deep and birdied the 18th hole with a humongous 2 putt much to the excitement of the watching crowd who were lined 6 or 7 deep around the green. I must say Tiger shot a very impressive -3 and with abit of tweeking on his long game to straighten out his drives he will be a force to be reckoned with.
The Farmers Insurance was forced to go to a Monday finish as Jason Day and Alex Noren could not be separated after 5 play off holes. Each of them having 3 birdies and 2 pars. The two of them were joined at -10 by Ryan Palmer but he bowed out at the first play off hole to leave the other two to fight it out.