Last Sunday Tommy Fleetwood arguably put on the Back Nine Rally Of The Year to win the HSBC Champions in Abu Dhabi. He shot a dazzling 30 on the back nine to overtake Ross Fisher for the title.
The European Tour stays in the United Arab Emirates for this week’s Dubai Desert Classic at the Emirates Golf Club. Sergio Garcia defends his championship and he’s fresh off that win in Singapore against a bunch of Asian Tour nobodies.
The competition will be a lot steeper for Garcia this week with Fleetwood on hand along with some pretty strong names like Henrik Stenson, last week’s runnerup Fisher.
But the guy everyone is eyeballing, much like last week, is Rory McIlroy. McIlroy showed impressive signs of life at times with a tie for third with Matthew Fitzpatrick. For the first 54 holes, McIlroy improved every day with rounds of 69-66-65. He was just a shot back going into the final 18 but with the winds up, he had trouble finding fairways off the tee. As a result, his approach shots from the deep rough simply didn’t get him close enough to the hole to make any kind of run and he closed with 70.
McIlroy’s had success at the Emirates Golf Club so this could be the week he ends his winning drought.
LEXI THOMPSON TESTS HER WRIST AS LPGA SEASON BEGINS
After a long vacation, the ladies begin their 2018 season this week in the Bahamas.
Brittany Lincicome is the defending champion, winning last years in a playoff with Lexi Thompson.
Thompson is the big question mark coming into the season opener. She’s been off for nearly a month after she experienced some pain and inflammation in her right wrist, the one she injured several years ago in a punching photo shoot.
China’s Shanshan Feng plays in her first event as the new world’s No. 1. She is one of four players in the field ranked in the Top 10 along with No. 3 So Yeon Ryu, No. 4 Thompson, No. 5 I.K. Kim and Ariya Jutanugarn who has fallen to eighth. Jutanugarn is looking to bounce back after a disappointing 2017.
