With the Saudi International and its ha-ha quite modest field now on the Asian Tour, and the DP World Tour's Qatar Masters having been cancelled, the Dubai Desert Classic is all that's left in terms of early-year familiarity on everyone's favourite circuit. This has been a mainstay of the schedule for 33 years now, Dubai itself a sprouting backdrop to an Emirates Golf Club which has seen some of the sport's modern greats take away the trophy.
It is in fact a fantastically eclectic roll-of-honour, which features collar-popping Robert-Jan Derksen sandwiched between the major behemoths Ernie Els and Mark O'Meara, and a foursome of multiple winners started by Els and Tiger Woods, completed by Rory McIlroy and Stephen Gallacher. McIlroy was beaten by Hao-tong Li and in-between the fancied pair Bryson DeChambeau and Paul Casey came a dramatic breakthrough for Lucas Herbert.
Notwithstanding the changes to DeChambeau's body and game in the interim, good drivers have always thrived here. That comment covers Gallacher and Herbert just as it does Sergio Garcia and McIlroy and it makes sense, because this parkland-style course allows players to use that club often. It also offers them the opportunity to drive not one but two par-fours, the second and 17th holes, and tips the scales heavily in one direction, more so if you happen to favour a draw.
Wiesberger was sixth last year despite a slow start, and that was his third top-10 finish at the Majlis Course. He led after round one before McIlroy took over in 2015, had stayed on for ninth a year earlier, and when he has missed the cut it's been exclusively by narrow margins.
He says himself that the course is a good fit, stating it 'probably suits my game the best' out of the three which previously made-up the Middle East swing, and I can't imagine Yas Links usurped it. Wiesberger is a decent seaside player who won the Scottish Open at The Renaissance and has twice coped with a decent breeze to win in Denmark, but his short-game means he's going to be best when a higher greens-in-regulation count is possible.
With the putting surfaces at the Majlis increased by an average of 33%, he should be able to hit more than the 55 he managed last week, when he was on course to bag a top-10 finish before three-putting the 17th hole. He followed that with another dropped shot at the last, his only mistakes of an otherwise excellent day, and it was a nice return to the fold having bowed out with a strange performance in the DP World Tour Championship two months ago.
He's just below his career-high 66th in the world, a ranking he achieved when finishing fourth on his final start of a breakout 2021 season. It was the year this huge talent graduated to what I'd call a fully-fledged European Tour winner, his previous victory having come on familiar and comfortable territory back home in South Africa.
That win in Tenerife wasn't a surprise, because the course allowed him to boss matters off the tee and certainly compares in some way to golf in the Middle East. Indeed, Rafa Cabrera Bello won this title a decade ago and remarked that it reminded him of playing golf at home in Las Palmas. Just as he and several other Spaniards have thrived here, so have a number of South Africans.
That last part is the obvious concern because it would be atypical for a maiden to win an event like this. However, Canter had every chance to do just that at the BMW PGA Championship with two holes to play and the same goes for the DP World Tour Championship in 2020. These are the biggest two events on the schedule, so a Dubai Desert Classic, in which he was fourth last year, is no barrier to playing well at the very least.
Last year's tie for fourth also leads to one of the best things about Canter from a punting perspective: his ability to brush off a missed cut. He'd departed early in Abu Dhabi last January, his first start in six weeks, but put that behind him at an ideal course. His runner-up finish at Wentworth came after three missed cuts in a row, and his closest call yet, when second to Ross McGowan in the Italian Open the previous October, followed a weekend off.
With fifth place at Celtic Manor also following a missed cut at the very same course, he's been one to forgive very quickly, and for all he's yet to reward backers in the best way possible, he's been profitable to follow. Canter has eight top-five finishes in 35 starts at this level since the Covid-19 pandemic began, and though we can never be sure, a continuation of his world-class ball-striking numbers should take care of business at some stage.
It doesn't hurt that he's friends with Pieters, but above all else I like the fact he missed the cut under totally the wrong conditions last week. Gallacher, Li and Miguel Angel Jimenez all won this after flattering to deceive in Abu Dhabi, Herbert had been 67th, Danny Willett had been 54th, and a sudden turnaround is even more likely now conditions are so contrasting.
The fact Canter putted well is somewhat encouraging and he's well worth backing to confirm a liking for this far more suitable course.
One of the few things the Hojgaard twins are yet to do is play well at the same time, but that could change here given that Rasmus was ninth last year. However, it's NICOLAI HOJGAARD who particularly interests me and he is another fancied to respond well to a missed cut at Yas Links.
Nicolai shot 69-79 last week, like so many caught out by Friday's brutal conditions. He actually fared well for a long time but came home in 43 to miss the cut by a shot, a frustrating way to exit given that conditions allowed some of those who did scrape through to make big moves up the leaderboard.
Detry won the World Cup with Pieters back in 2018 but what I really want to focus on here is how well he's driving the ball and how good a platform that provides at the Majlis, where he was the halfway leader a year ago.
Since then, Detry has gone close in a Rolex Series event only to run into Min Woo Lee at the Scottish Open, where he was really unfortunate. Standing over a short par putt when in the lead late into Sunday, Detry pulled the trigger just as the horn blew to suspend play, and duly missed.
He did really well to come back and get himself into a play-off and that'll stand him in good stead if he can emulate last year's effort, which saw him do everything well. He's driving the ball better now and if he can reproduce his approach play stats of the 2020 edition, when fifth in the field, then a big performance is on the cards.
Detry is another whose schedule beyond this week is a little up in the air, likely as things stand to involve trips to some low-key PGA Tour events, so he's been focused on this fortnight. That meant spending a couple of months in Dubai prior to the resumption, and hopefully he can reap the benefits this weekend.
This probably isn't an event for throwing darts at massive odds, though Daniel Gavins is very tempting at 250/1. He's spent a lot of time practising in Dubai over the years, including at the Majlis Course, and is sponsored by a hotel in this part of the world. He made a nice start to the season in Abu Dhabi and it's not difficult to be taken with some of the ball-striking stats he's produced since winning in Northern Ireland.
At similar odds, the name Daniel van Tonder also stands out. He did us two favours last year, both in Africa, but bagged a top-20 finish in Dubai in November and his long draw off the tee is likely to see him take to this challenge. It's a big ask, but he is capable of following Burmester's lead and establishing himself outside of his homeland.
But for all that both do make some appeal, there's only really one at three-figure prices I like and that's ROMAIN LANGASQUE.
The Frenchman is plainly on a path towards the top end of the DP World Tour and has been for some months now. First, he got his driver dialled in, producing some of the best displays around. Now, at last, the iron play seems to be falling into place too, culminating in a field-leading performance in Abu Dhabi last week.
Typical of this sport, his driver actually held him back but that's easy to forgive when the wind is howling off the sea, and he's going to be far more comfortable here. Langasque has course form figures of 20-27-MC, and even in failing to make the weekend last year had started with an eye-catching round of 69 to enhance an already strong record.
Further support and information can be found at and .