Nicolai Hojgaard feels the heat at Ras Al Khaimah Classic as Fox stretches lead

As anyone who has ever picked up a club can tell you, golf can be such a fickle pursuit. One day you are on top of the world after a literal master stroke, the next you are at a loss about what to do next as nothing goes right and you cannot even buy a decent shot over 118 holes.

Just ask Nicolai Hojgaard. The Dane was the toast of the town as recently as Sunday as he claimed the inaugural Ras Al Khaimah Championship. Just five days later and he was packing his bags early and will play no part in the Ras Al Khaimah Classic, the second of two back-to-back DP World Tour events at Al Hamra Golf Club.

Hojgaard suffered a bit of a meltdown on Friday on a course he was the master of only a week earlier. Five bogeys and a double saw him sign for two-over 74 and a tie of 104th on one-over. The cut line was three-under.

In a role-reversal from last week, Nicolai shall watch from the sidelines and cheer on identical twin Rasmus over the final two rounds of a four-week UAE golf marathon that started with the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship back on January 20, before heading to the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic and the RAK double.

Rasmus is tied for 14th on seven-under after a roller-coaster four-under 68 has him six behind leader Ryan Fox.

The New Zealander stretched his lead to a three-stroke advantage from Round 1 thanks to some steady golf — following up his course-equalling record 63 with a 69 to move to 12-under. A chasing pack of five — South African trio Oliver Bekker, Justin Harding and Zander Lombard, plus Italy’s Francesco Laporta and Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal are one ahead of another large group that includes Jordanian Shergo Al Kurdi, Scots Connor Syme and Robert MacIntyre, Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura, and Swede Alexander Bjork.

Even though Fox’s landmark 63 was beaten by Bekker on Friday, the 35-year-old still increased his advantage. Fox is enjoying keeping the pace.

“It’s been lovely the last couple of days,” said Fox. “I think it was four hours and five minutes on Thursday and four hours and 10 this morning so hopefully the pace of play continues like that over the weekend. I played normally and we had two quick guys in our group, it was just nice being one of the first couple of groups out — we just had great conditions this morning as well — and it’s just been an enjoyable couple of days really.”

Bekker, meanwhile, broke the course record that lasted an entire week after Dubai-based Adrian Otaegui’s exploits in the RAK Championship. His 10-under round that included nine birdies, and eagle at the 14th and a solitary bogey, with the 37-year-old keeping up the form that earned him a top-10 finish at Al Hamra last time our.

“After yesterday’s start I knew I had to go low today so I kind of had nothing to lose,” said Bekker. “Then I left one short from 12 feet on the first hole and I thought: ‘Oh my word, you need to get it going.’

“I just need to keep on doing what I’ve been doing. Last week I had a good chance of finishing top-three probably and just fell away in the final round. Give myself chances, the more chances you get sometimes you’re going to take a few of them and then take it from there.”

It was not such a good day for Dubai-based Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello, who fell short of the three-under cut line by one stroke.