The players to watch at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic
The DP World Tour Hero Dubai Desert Classicwhich begins Thursday at the Emirates Golf Club in the United Arab Emirates, has produced great champions over the past 35 years, including Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els, Fred Couples, Colin Montgomerie, Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy.
Will a big player take home the trophy again this time around? Or will someone lesser known emerge from the group and make a statement in 2024?
Here are five notable golfers:
Brian Harman
The coming months will reveal whether Harman’s surprise victory in last year’s British Open, where he won by six strokes at Royal Liverpool, was a fluke or whether he can prove he truly is among the best players in the sport.
Harman, who turns 37 on Friday, finished tied for fifth at the PGA Tour’s Sentry season-opener in Hawaii this month and tied for 18th at the Sony Open a week later.
“I’m excited to play in Dubai for the first time,” he said. said in december. “It looks like a beautiful venue that has identified great champions. I would like to add my name to that list.”
The Open triumph could not have come at a better time. Harman, with just two wins since joining the tour in 2012, appeared to be losing confidence.
“Earlier this year,” he admitted in 2023“I’ve already asked my agent to announce jobs. So we’re all getting there, we’re all having those thoughts. Everyone’s in a position where we’ve been operating on these razor-thin margins.”
Rory McIlroy
McIlroy, believe it or not, will be 35 years old in May. He turned pro when he was 18.
Even harder to understand is that his major championship drought has lasted nearly a decade, with the last time being at the 2014 PGA Championship.
He’ll pick up another major sooner or later, right?
McIlroy, ranked No. 2 in the world, has won the event in Dubai three times, including last year when he birdied the final two holes to beat Patrick Reed by a stroke. “It’s a great start to the year,” McIlroy said at the time, “and a really good base to work with.”
However, he won just one more tournament in 2023, the Genesis Scottish Open in July, when he birdied the final two holes again to beat Robert MacIntyre.
How McIlroy, who last week squandered a golden opportunity to win the Dubai Invitational, will be judged in 2024 will depend on how he performs in the four majors. He missed the cut at the Masters in 2023 but has had top-10 finishes in the next three, including a runner-up finish in the United States Open at Los Angeles Country Club.
Joaquin Niemann
Niemann25, plays for much more than this week.
He is playing to qualify for the Masters tournament.
To achieve that, Niemann, currently ranked No. 70, will need to be ranked 50th or better the week before the Masters in April. He finished 16th at the event last year.
Niemann, a member of LIV Golf, where players do not earn ranking points for LIV events, had fallen to No. 87 until he finished fifth at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship last month and won the ISPS HANDA Australian Open in a playoff against Rikuya Hoshino to qualify for the event in Dubai. He started the final round fourth behind Hoshino but closed with a 66.
“This season wasn’t the best for me,” he told the media. “I wanted to play more golf. It was great to come here, play some good golf and get a result.”
Niemann, the world’s top-ranked amateur for 44 weeks in 2017 and 2018, has won twice on the PGA Tour, including the Genesis Invitational in 2022. He joined LIV in the summer of 2022.
Cameron Jong
Young, Ranked No. 25, he was very impressive in his first two seasons on the PGA Tour with 12 top 10s. Four of the top 10s came in major championships.
Still, there’s one thing missing: a victory.
In the 2021-22 season, the 26-year-old Young finished runner-up five times, including at the British Open on the Old Course at St. Andrews, and was voted Rookie of the Year on the PGA Tour.
In 2023, he lost to Sam Burns in the final of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Texas.
“The way he played, nobody could have beaten him today,” said Young, who was 41 under par this week.
Young, whose father was the head professional at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Briarcliff Manor, New York, shot a 74 in the third round of the Sentry event this month, but recovered the next day with a 65 to finish tied for 33rd.
Father Harrington
It’s safe to assume that the three-time major champion Harrington, 52, will not make a serious bid for the title. He has not won on the DP World Tour since 2016.
On the other hand, Harrington has played well since turning 50. In 2023, he made the cut in three of the four majors, his best finish being a tie for 27th at the U.S. Open. On the PGA Tour Champions, a senior tour, he had 10 top 10s in 13 appearances last year, including victories at the DICK’S Sporting Goods Open and TimberTech Championship. He was even talked about in the media as a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup in Rome.
“I had to push through,” Harrington said in August, “but I don’t think I’ve played enough events yet to give myself a better picture. [chance].”
Harrington gave himself no chance at last year’s Desert Classic in Dubai, opening with an 81.
“It was one of those days,” he said afterwards. “You only get them once a year, hopefully, when you’re a bit of a klutz all day.” Harrington, who has three top-10 finishes in Dubai, recovered with a 65 on day two but missed the cut.
