BlogDubai Classic Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

This event has always been one of the richest on the European Tour ever since it was first played in 1989.  Dubai is know for it’s wealth, it’s sky line is something out of a futuristic science fiction movie and you can buy just about anything know to humans, with the exception of alcohol which is scare because of religious beliefs.  Over the course of the last 26 years, this event has taken a bite on whatever west coast event is played on the PGA Tour, those that run Dubai would pay top dollar for the best players in the world.  But there is change in the air, frankly Abu Dhabi and even Qatar are doing a better job of getting better fields and for the first time in as long as anyone can remember an American isn’t playing this week.  The field is still good with 14 top-50 players but the emphasis is on getting more Europeans instead of the Tiger Woods.  Another problem that this event has is the purse is low so a lot of top European players like last week’s winner Branden Grace, Victor Dubuisson and Charl Schwartzel are taking a pass on playing.

Another sad thing, this event hasn’t gotten any marquee American players to venture over.  Of the whole field only three Americans are playing, amateur Bryson Dechambeau, European Tour member Peter Uihlein and David Lipsky so this tournament is not getting aggressive and bringing the best players over.  Frankly if Rory wasn’t playing, nobody would even know this event was around.  In the future it looks like the European Tour is going to get involved with the Australian Tour and their three main events could find a spot in the February schedule and if that’s the case, events like Dubai could become a tournament that marquee players skip.

Course Information 

• Played at the Emirates Golf Club
• Doha, Qatar – Par:  72 / Yardage: 7,316

Emirates Golf Club, not only hosts the Omega Dubai Desert Classic but also the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters in December.  It was the first all grass championship golf course in the Middle East when it opened in 1988. The club is part of a 54 hole facility with the Faldo Course and the Creek course, which held this tournament in 1999 and 2000.

The Emirates course was designed by Florida architect Karl Litten and lie amongst a plethora of sand dunes, on a site originally donated by Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al Maktoum, on whose instructions was that the desert flora was maintained in its natural state. Within a year of opening, the newly christened Majlis hosted the inaugural Dubai Desert Classic in February 1989.  The sprinklers on the Majlis course keep the Bermuda grass growing, alongside the indigenous desert flora, giving a picturesque contrast. The lush fairways and large greens provide a formidable test of golf, guaranteeing a magnificent finish on the 18th hole, a long dog-leg, which has seen as many inspirational finishes as watery disasters in its 19 year history.  Other course highlights include the par three 7th and the gruelling par four 8th.

There are 5 lakes dotted around the course with water coming into play on seven holes.  There are only 41 bunkers on the course but something a bit unique, five greens with no bunkers guarding them.  There isn’t that much rough but if you hit it off the fairway you could find yourself in desert scrub which is sometimes harder to hit out of than rough.  The course is always in great shape and in a way follow the same creed as Augusta National in which the staff works hard to maintain this course in a manner that many feel it’s always the best manicured course on the European Tour.

Just like last week the key to playing the course is to have windless conditions.  If by chance the area is hit by the Shamal winds it makes the course very tough, but this event has never suffered any weather problems like Qatar has experienced.  In looking at the weather forecast, there is zero percent chance of rain with temperatures in the mid 70s, with the wind blowing between 10 and 15 mph.  Thursday may be a problem as their could be gusts up to 25 mph so first round scores could be high.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic:

Key stat for the winner:

What is the key stat that helps players win in Dubai?  Seems that hitting lot’s of greens is very important.  Of the seven winners going back to 2009 all of them were in the top-15 with Rafael Cabrera-Bello leading that stat in 2012 while Stephen Gallacher was 12th in both his wins in 2013 and 2014.  Last year Rory McIlroy hit 60 of 72 greens and ranked T-5th so it’s important that the winner hits lot’s of greens.

Here are some more key stats to look to for this week:

• The Dubal Desert Classic has been known as a tournament that produces low scores as the winner has had an average score of 16 under par.  Last year Rory McIlroy was 22 under.  Again watch the winds, that has a lot to do with the scoring.
• You can’t call this course a long hitters paradise.  Yes Alvaro Quiros won in 2011 averaging the best of those in the field and the same with Rory McIlroy last year but the other winners have been in the middle in hitting it long.  Also hitting fairways is not very important and only one winner in the last seven years has been in the top-25 of this stat.  Last year Rory hit only 25 fairways and ranked T-65th.
• Mastering the par 5s is the key, last year’s winner Rory McIlroy may of only been 10 under while in 2009 McIlory played them in 12 under.
• The only way that a winner goes over par in any single round is because of the wind.  Henrik Stenson in 2007 was the last player to shot all four rounds in the 60s but only 3 champions (Alvaro Quiros 73, 1st rd in 2011, Tiger Woods 73, 3rd rd in 2008 and Jose Coceres 73, 4th round in 2000) have had a single round over par and that was on a day of high winds.

In the history of this event there has been one true gun that seems to play great every time he tees it up in Dubai and that is Ernie Els.  Unfortunately in his last three starts he has missed the cut twice and last year finished T-55th.  So we can’t give any kind of recommendation to Els who probably will miss the cut again this year.  Between 1993 and 2008 he played the Dubai Classic 11 times never finishing higher than 8th, winning it three times, finishing runner-up three times and 3rd twice.  For some odd reason this great streak ended in 2009 when he missed the cut and hasn’t been back to this event since.  So it will be interesting to see how he plays this week.

But while Ernie Els has gone dormant in this event, Stephen Gallacher has excelled. Gallacher has played 15 times in this event and after finishing T4th in his first start in 2000, he only chalked up one top-25 (T22nd in 2006) between 2000 and 2010.  But things started to click for him in 2011 when he finished T10th.  After that he was T2nd in 2012 and won in 2013 & ’14 as he is 55 under in those 12 rounds.  Last year Gallacher finished 3rd as he played his four rounds in 16 under which would of won half of the past Dubai Classics.