Golf, by TourMiss

….. Fatiha Betscher, Al Hamra GC, RAK  There has been strong praise for this week’s inaugural Ras Al Khaimah Championship host course at Al Hamra. The Al Hamra course, laid out very close to the Arabian Sea shoreline, is no stranger to top golf having hosted some years back the final event of the secondary Challenge Tour. A large number of players who competed here in 2018 have returned including the Scottish duo of Robert MacIntyre and Grant Forrest who earned their European Tour cards ...

……. Saudi Arabia  Greg Norman’s fractured relationship with the R & A will continue with the double Open Champion declaring he will not be attending celebrations centered around this year’s 150th Open Championship. Norman has not been sighted at an Open since the then 54-year-old missed the cut in 2009 Open at Turnberry, and where in 1986 he strode triumphantly to a first of two Claret Jugs. Golf’s Great White Shark has refused all requests to return to golf’s oldest ...

… Saudi Arabia Olympic Games gold medal-winning Xander Schauffele has a problem. He can’t get his Japan victory medal off his parents – Father Stefan and mum Ping. The champion American is on a maiden visit to Saudi Arabia having flown from Los Angeles into Dubai for the nearly three-hour flight to Jeddah and was asked if his gold medal traveled with him. “I do not (have the medal with me)”, he said.  “I can’t get it off my parents (smiling)”. Though while the gold medal ...

The disappointment was obvious but Wade Ormsby bravely took it on the chin the decision by the R & A to strip the Asian Tour of the reward of the yearly end-of-season No. 1 ranked player earning an automatic spot into the Open Championship. Ormsby was heading to the tail of 2021 leading the Asian Tour Order of Merit, and on track to earn an exemption into his first Open Championship, to be staged this year on the famed Old Course at the Home of Golf. All the 41-year-old Adelaide golfer had to ...

When it comes to the items needed to play, the ancient club-and-ball game has been under the microscope for far too many years now. First, it was the golf ball, and with the late Peter Thomson and also golf’s greatest champion, Jack Nicklaus sounding the alarm bells for the golf ball. Golf then had issues with the anchoring of the long-handled putter. In recent times it’s been the driver and the fears the longest club in the bag is damaging the game by shortening the courses. This year we’ve ...

… Fatiha Betscher in Dubai Viktor Hovland won his first Rolex Series title as he completed a sensational finish with a play-off victory over Richard Bland at the 2022 Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic. The Norwegian was barely in the picture when he missed a short putt and made a bogey on the 15th but he finished birdie-eagle-birdie to sign for a 66 and post the target at 12 under. Bland joined him in the clubhouse with a birdie-birdie finish of his own in a 68, with two-time champion Rory McIlroy finding ...

Rory McIlroy reckons living in Ernie Els’s former Florida abode is good enough to join Els as a three-time Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic champ. McIlroy was at his best on day three on an Emirates Club course he’s won twice before, in eagling the 10th and then snatching an all-important birdie at the last in a score of 69 and ending the day in second place at 10-under-par. South African Justin Harding continues to lead the $8m Rolex Series event adding a 71 to move to 12-under in ideal scoring ...