Rory looks to roar again in Dubai

The 26-year-old claimed his first European Tour title at the Emirates Golf Club in 2009 and has also twice won the DP World Tour Championship a few miles away at Jumeirah Golf Estates, including to seal the Race to Dubai title last November.

As the title sponsor of the longest-running European Tour event in the region, Omega will present an exclusive Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M Master Co-Axial to the first golfer to ace the par-3, seventh hole at the Majlis course.

“I would have loved to, I would still – hopefully if he can get healthy, I would still love to have a crack at him down the stretch in a major, I would love that, just once”.

McIlroy was idle this past week, while Day missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open, which he won a year ago. He came back to win from five shots behind or going into final round for fourth time in his career, and is up 12 places to 12th.

Thorbjorn Olesen seems to have found a good vein of form at present and at his best he is capable of beating this field.

On only two occasions since first played in 1989 has the event been played elsewhere, the Karl Litten designed Emirates Golf Club proving a popular and suitable venue for a tournament of this nature.

“This is the 10th year since I started coming here and playing in the tournament, twice as an amateur”.

“We are disappointed for a bit and then we realize, we try to put positive spins on it, and the nice thing is there’s always a next week in golf”.

“And they have got a lot of younger players who will want to make that team like Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed”.

Fresh from a runner-up finish at the Nedbank Golf Challenge and a tie for third at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, Henrik Stenson is also keen to extend his impressive record in the Middle East. He was average in Singapore last week but his 5th placing in Abu Dhabi the week before is perhaps a better reflection on his chances this week.

“The game feels good and I’m looking forward to getting started”, he said.

This article was written by James Jose from Khaleej Times and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.