Golf, by TourMiss

….. Emirates Golf Club, Dubai I sit here in the front row of the Media Centre overlooking the ninth and 18th greens at the 2023 Hero Dubai Desert Classic and it’s just not the same. The stunning Majlis host course remains a picture postcard setting but it’s outside the front gates that has changed as Dubai of 30-years ago, and in a gross understatement, is not the same as when I first attended the European Tour event in 1993. Thirty-years ago the Dubai Golf Club was still then well ...

…. Emirates GC, Dubai  Patrick Reed may consider turning left-handed after he borrowed Robert MacIntyre’s putter to hole a lengthy putt just minutes after the Texan’s second round at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in Dubai. Reed struggled with the putter as reflectred in a score of 70, picking-up three birdies in a five-hole stretch from his eighth to 13th holes ahead of a 15th hole bogey in a score of 70 for his eight-under tally on the Emirates course. Then as the Texan made his way ...

…. Emirates Club, Dubai For a golfer such as Ewen Ferguson growing up and living in Scotland you are used to rain. So in journeying to Dubai and this week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic you would not expect to be staring at stoppages due to rain, and not just one downpour but many more to further saturate an already soft host Emirates Club course. In fact, 61 millimetres had fallen on the first 18-hole grassed course to be built in Dubai from late Wednesday through to Friday morning. Up ...

.…. Emirates Club, Dubai Patrick Reed is boasting he won a ‘small victory’ after he and Rory McIlroy were back talking again less than 24 hours after we learnt the full details of ‘Tee Gate’. Reed was seen in video footage early this week gently tossing a golf tee in McIlroy’s direction after the visiting Texan sought to wish the World No. 1 a ‘Happy New Year’ but was snubbed by McIlroy. What since transpired has been worldwide reporting that Reed had launched golf’s equivalent ...

.… Emirates Club, Dubai  For a second, I thought it was Swede Sebastian Soderberg but as he walked closer to me as I stood ‘loitering with intent’ on the Emirates Golf Club range I recognised it was John Murphy. No offence to John but at this early stage of any new season, I am no alone in struggling with faces and names. “How are you, Bernie?  Good to see you”, said the affable Irishman. In the second I had to reply to his great welcome, I thought to myself is John into the field ...

….. Emirates GC, Dubai Can there be anything more rewarding sight for a golfer than to see your photograph among those featuring Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy as fellow former tournament champions. That was the scenario for Lucas Herbert as he worked on his putting ahead of this week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic. The Hero Motor Corp, and the world’s largest manufacturer of motor-cycles, has arranged here at the Emirates Golf Club for all 34 former Desert Classic champions photographs to placed ...

… Dubai, UAE Stephen Gallacher boasts he’s just as excited returning to Dubai as he was twenty-three years in making his debut in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Gallacher, 48, is contesting a 625th Tour event this week thanks to a sponsor’s invitation and after losing full Tour status at the close of the 2022 season. He said: “It was nice to receive the invitation because it’s been a tournament dear to my heart, so delighted to be here. “I was working for SKY at the Hero Cup in ...