The DP World Tour began its 2023 season last weekend starting the Middle East swing at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. It also opened with a winner for this column as Frenchman Victor Perez won for us at 35-1 (the market opened anywhere from 50-1 to 55-1).
Perez spun a bunker shot back into the hole for birdie at No. 17 and celebrated wildly on the way to shooting 6-under 66 for a one-stroke victory at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Sunday, earning him his third and easily biggest DP World Tour title. After the round, he called it "probably the greatest shot I've ever hit."
The Frenchman, 35-1 to complete the Abu Dhabi-Dubai sweep, finished -18 and one stroke ahead of Min Woo Lee and Sebastian Soderberg. Padraig Harrington was looking to become the oldest player to win on the DP World Tour but settled for fourth. Francesco Molinari and Alex Noren finished T-5 while Tyrrell Hatton, Shubhankar Sharma and Jason Scrivener finished T-7.
This week, the DP World Tour stays in the UAE with the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Two-time DDC champion and OWGR No. 1 Rory McIlroy (2009, 2015) makes his usual calendar year debut this week at Dubai. McIlroy, the overwhelming favorite at +350, arguably has a score to settle with this event considering he should have won the event but elected to go for the green in two over water on the 72nd hole and ended up wet. He ended up third and missed the playoff (won by Viktor Hovland over Richard Bland) altogether.
Hatton (12-1) won in the Emirates two years ago in Abu Dhabi and has three top-4 finishes here including a fourth last year. Shane Lowry (16-1) co-held the 54-hole lead with Min Woo Lee (22-1 this week) and Francesco Molinari (35-1 this week) last week in Abu Dhabi but struggled to a 76 after finishing bogey-bogey-triple bogey-bogey to finish T-28. Tommy Fleetwood (18-1) is a two-time winner in the Emirates with consecutive wins in Abu Dhabi (2017, 2018) but seeks his first win in Dubai.
Robert MacIntyre (25-1) finished third here in 2021. Adrian Meronk (33-1) finished T-10 last week in Abu Dhabi and was fourth here last year.
Lucas Herbert was the 2020 champion here in Dubai. He is priced at 35-1 along with Thomas Pieters, who missed the cut last week in defense of his Abu Dhabi title.
The Event
The Dubai Desert Classic was founded in 1989 and became the first European Tour event to be staged in the Arabian Peninsula, where it is now one of six events to be played there. The tournament was created by a Dubai government golf program to develop and promote professional and casual golf tourism in the city of Dubai and throughout the United Arab Emirates. The event is also notable because it was one of the first tournaments to embrace the concept of paying appearance fees to attract top players. That strategy has proved to be largely successful as the list of winners include many big names including Tiger Woods (2006, 2008), Rory McIlroy (2009, 2015), Ernie Els (1994, 2002, 2005) and other major champions such as Seve Ballesteros (1992), Fred Couples (1995), Jose Maria Olazabal (1998), Mark O’Meara (2004), Henrik Stenson (2007), Danny Willett (2016) and Sergio Garcia (2017). This event is also notable in terms of how it changed the way we watch golf on television. The Dubai Desert Classic was the first event televised live on Golf Channel when the network was founded in January 1995. Hero MotoCorp, a motorcycle and scooter manufacturer based in New Delhi, India, takes over as the tournament's title sponsor. The event also has been upgraded to a Rolex Series event with an increased prize fund of $9 million.
The Field
Ludvig Aberg
Issa Abou El Ela
Abraham Ancer
Marcus Armitage
Adri Arnaus
Oliver Bekker
Wil Besseling
Alexander Björk
Thomas Bjørn
Richard Bland
Dan Bradbury
Julien Brun
Rafa Cabrera Bello
Jorge Campillo
John Catlin
Aaron Cockerill
George Coetzee
Nicolas Colsaerts
Sean Crocker
Louis De Jager
Luke Donald
Jamie Donaldson
Hennie Du Plessis
Victor Dubuisson
Nacho Elvira
Ewen Ferguson
Ross Fisher
Tommy Fleetwood
Grant Forrest
Ryan Fox
Jeremy Freiburghaus
Stephen Gallacher
Daniel Gavins
Gavin Green
Julien Guerrier
Chase Hanna
Justin Harding
Padraig Harrington
Tyrrell Hatton
Marcus Helligkilde
Lucas Herbert
Angel Hidalgo
Calum Hill
Nicolai Højgaard
Rasmus Højgaard
Sam Horsfield
Daan Huizing
Scott Jamieson
Jazz Janewattananond
Miguel Ángel Jiménez
Andrew Johnston
Matthew Jordan
Masahiro Kawamura
Maximilian Kieffer
Nathan Kimsey
Marcus Kinhult
Søren Kjeldsen
Alexander Knappe
Espen Kofstad
Mikko Korhonen
Jacques Kruyswijk
Joakim Lagergren
Romain Langasque
Pablo Larrazábal
David Law
Thriston Lawrence
Min Woo Lee
Alexander Levy
Haotong Li
Zander Lombard
Hurly Long
Shane Lowry
Joost Luiten
Robert Macintyre
Richard Mansell
Rory Mcilroy
Tom Mckibbin
Adrian Meronk
Guido Migliozzi
Edoardo Molinari
Francesco Molinari
James Morrison
Lukas Nemecz
Niklas Nørgaard
Shaun Norris
Thorbjørn Olesen
Adrian Otaegui
Yannik Paul
Matthieu Pavon
Eddie Pepperell
Victor Perez
Thomas Pieters
Ian Poulter
Tapio Pulkkanen
Richie Ramsay
Patrick Reed
Jc Ritchie
Antoine Rozner
Kalle Samooja
Marcel Schneider
Jason Scrivener
Jack Senior
Shubhankar Sharma
Callum Shinkwin
Jordan Smith
Sebastian Söderberg
Matthew Southgate
Henrik Stenson
Sepp Straka
Ockie Strydom
Andy Sullivan
Connor Syme
Santiago Tarrio
Michael Thorbjornsen
Sami Välimäki
Darius Van Driel
Johannes Veerman
Nicolai Von Dellingshausen
Matt Wallace
Justin Walters
Jeunghun Wang
Paul Waring
Marc Warren
Lee Westwood
Dale Whitnell
Bernd Wiesberger
Oliver Wilson
Jeff Winther
Ashun Wu
Fabrizio Zanotti
Top 50 players in 2023 Hero Dubai Desert Classic field
1. Rory McIlroy
21. Shane Lowry
24. Tommy Fleetwood
26. Tyrrell Hatton
27. Sepp Straka
30. Ryan Fox
34. Abraham Ancer
39. Thomas Pieters
50. Min Woo Lee
The Course
The Majlis Course at the Emirates Golf Club has hosted the Dubai Desert Classic every year, except for 1999 and 2000, since its inception in 1989. This track, a par-72 of 7,428 yards, is an exposed desert layout designed by Karl Litten that is shorter than last week’s Abu Dhabi course and includes several dogleg holes that provide a bit more of a strategic test where wind can play more of a factor as it did last year. Be on alert for potential draw biases as the afternoon groupings often deal with substantially stronger winds than the morning groupings. The Bermuda greens are relatively quick (12-13 on the stimpmeter). There are four par-5s on the course, but three of them are on the back nine.
Recent History/Winners
2022: Viktor Hovland (-12/276); 10-1*
2021: Paul Casey (-17/271); 25-1
2020: Lucas Herbert (-9/279); 200-1**
2019: Bryson DeChambeau (-24/264); 10-1
2018: Haotong Li (-23/265); 110-1
2017: Sergio Garcia (-19/269); 20-1
2016: Danny Willett (-19/269); 40-1
2015: Rory McIlroy (-22/266); 7-2
2014: Stephen Gallacher (-16/272); 45-1
2013: Stephen Gallacher (-22/266); 70-1
2012: Rafael Cabrera-Bello (-18/270); 125-1
2011: Alvaro Quiros (-11/277); 16-1
2010: Miguel Angel Jimenez (-11/277); 66-1***
Playoff win over Richard Bland - *
Playoff win over Christiaan Bezuidenhout - **
Playoff win over Lee Westwood - ***
Selections
Tommy Fleetwood (18-1, BetMGM)
Despite finishing 12th here last year, Fleetwood led the field for Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green and Strokes Gained: Approach.
A disappointing outing at Abu Dhabi after captaining the GBI side at the Hero Cup can be excused. Despite McIlroy being the proper favorite here, Fleetwood has drifted up a bit too much in the market.
Min Woo Lee (22-1, BetMGM)
Min Woo missed the cut here in his only appearance two years ago but is a much higher-class player in 2023.
He finished T-2 last week and was top-6 in the field for both Approach and Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green.
Robert MacIntyre (26-1, Boyd Sports)
MacIntyre might have been in contention last week if not for his putter.
Despite leading the field for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee and being third Tee-To-Green, Bobby Mac was 63rd of 68 players that made the cut in putting.
Adrian Meronk (33-1, BetRivers)
Meronk finished fourth here last year and was T-10 last week in Abu Dhabi.
Like Perez last week, there is room for younger European players to make their case for making the Ryder Cup team. Meronk won twice in 2022, including last December at the Australian Open.
Thorbjorn Olesen (80-1, PointsBet)
Olesen has good form here with four finishes of eighth or better over the last 10 years.
The Dane revitalized his career last year with a victory at the British Masters, his first win in four years.