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Dubai Desert Classic attracts the finest

Being a golf in DUBAi ambassador, you'd expect me to say nice things about this week's Omega Dubai Desert Classic

  • By Jeev Milkha Singh, Special to Gulf News
  • Published: 00:00 February 7, 2012
  • Gulf News

Being a golf in DUBAi ambassador, you'd expect me to say nice things about this week's Omega Dubai Desert Classic, but I'd say the same things regardless of my association with the organisers — this is easily one of my most favourite weeks on the Tour.

Let's not forget that the Dubai Desert Classic has 23 years of history to back itself. Not many tournaments can boast that. Apart from its stature on the European Tour, and its historic significance to them, the event has also played a pioneering role in the development of golf in the Middle East and Asia.

The Dubai Desert Classic was among the European Tour's first forays into unchartered territories beyond the geographical boundaries of continental Europe. And if they are so well entrenched in Asia now, the European Tour has to thank this one tournament for showing them the way.

But no tournament can survive on the basis of its past reputation, and the Omega Dubai Desert Classic has also evolved through these years. The fact that a multinational company with proven sponsorship pedigree like Omega realised the worth and importance of the tournament and decided to become the title sponsors, is a validation of the hard work put in by Mohammad Juma Bu Amim and his men.

Year after year, the Desert Classic has attracted the finest of fields and invariably provided thrilling drama down the back nine on Sunday evening. All you have to do is just go a year back and replay Alvaro Quiros' final round to get a taste of what any final round in Dubai is like. The magnificent Majlis course, with its superb layout and the mint condition in which the course staff keep it every year, plays a major role in its success as well.

Led by the current world No 2 Rory McIlroy, No 3 Lee Westwood and No 4 Martin Kaymer, the field is again going to be extremely strong this year. You then have the defending champion Quiros, the red-hot Paul Lawrie, the evergreen Miguel Angel Jimenez, and the sweet-swinging Fred Couples, who was one of my childhood heroes along with Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros.

Personally, I was not too disappointed with the way I played in Qatar last week, even though I missed the cut by one shot. The conditions there were extremely tough, with a shamaal blowing. It was like getting sand blasted on to your face. It was tough to look ahead at times. Friday's play was abandoned and the tournament had to be reduced to 54 holes.

Being one of the last players to tee off on Thursday and the first to play on Saturday, I was in the worst possible part of the draw. But I certainly do not want to blame my rounds on the draw because I have been in the other side many times as well, and these things even out in the end. You cannot have Lady Luck smiling on you all the time.

Hopefully, I have saved all my luck for this week. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than a solid performance in front of my numerous fans and friends in Dubai. So wish me luck!

 

Jeev Milkha Singh is a three-time winner on the European Tour

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