Golf, by TourMiss

Darren Clarke is just one round shy of winning back-to-back Champions Tour titles in sharing the lead heading into day three and the final round of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in Hawaii. Clarke added a 68 to his opening sizzling 63 to be tied with American Jerry Kelly who has signed for scores of 64 and 67 for 13-under par totals. Clarke superbly rebounded from a bogey on the 11th with four straight birdies. “I just didn’t really have it today, to be honest with you,” ...

Marc Warren celebrated the first event of a 15th season soaring high with a tournament career equal low 66 second round at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Warren brilliantly drained a 12-footer for an eagle ‘3’ at the last to be sharing sixth place on six-under par in the £5.86m event in the UAE capital. England’s Tyrrell Hatton opened-up an impressive five-shot lead, moving to 12-under par and still with five second round holes to play when play resumes early Saturday (UAE time). The ...

Rory McIlroy painfully had the wind sucked from his new season sails to sink seven shots off the lead while Shane Lowry and Graeme McDowell anxiously awaited their fate when poor light halted play on day two of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. McIlroy was soaring clear of his rivals at 10-under par after just three holes of his second round but as the wind picked-up, the World No. 6 was going backwards to be at seven-over par through 15 holes. England’s Tyrrell Hatton opened-up an impressive ...

Fans of professional golf are so used to seeing either a gleaming new car, jewellery, watches or cash on offer for a hole-in-one during competition. And the par-3 seventh on the National course in Abu Dhabi there is not a prize but a ‘promise’ on offer, the like that has never before been offered in major tournament golf. When I first travelled to Abu Dhabi for the inaugural 2006 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship the prize, and usually at the par-3 15th, was a few nights, all expenses paid ...

Stephen Gallacher delighted in celebrating the start of a 25th full season with a gutsy 69 on day one of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Gallacher emerged from a near 3-hour fog delay and race to three-under par through just five holes but then gave the three shots back at the 10th and 11th holes in the UAE capital. The Bathgate pro bogeyed the par-5 10th and doubled the next to find himself back at level par before superbly regrouping with birdies at 13, 15 and 17 for his 69.   He said: “I ...

Rory McIlroy brilliantly emerged from a near three-hour fog delay to find his way into the clubhouse lead with an eight-under par 64 on day one of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Once the fog lifted the current World No. 6 was at his perfect best in seizing eight birdies to produce his lowest Abu Dhabi score in 39 rounds of the National course in the UAE capital. McIlroy headed to the clubhouse a shot clear of England’s Tyrrell Hatton who snatched two eagles in his round, at the par-5 10th ...

Four-time Major winning Rory McIlroy returns to competition this week in Abu Dhabi seeing the first step in a bigger picture European Tour and PGA Tour merge as a means of mending current ‘fractures’ in the professional game. The European Tour had announced in late November that the long-time rival PGA Tour had acquired a minority stake in the European Tour’s media production company as part of an alliance. The announcement was seen as a big first step toward developing a more unified ...