GLORIOUS EARTH

Earth isn’t every touring professional’s cup of English Breakfast but there is no doubt the 7706-yard, par-72 layout provides a suitably dramatic canvas for the European Tour’s final showdown. The final four holes, a 1,703-yard stretch designer Greg Norman calls the “Golden Mile” are potential card-wreckers all and provide risk and reward to the last stroke, particularly the fan favourite par-3 17th – Dubai’s answer to the famed Island Hole at TPC Sawgrass – and the 651-yard par-5 18th which has proved a watery grave to numerous title challenges over the past decade while also producing some of the most iconic finales, aka Henrik Stenson’s exclamatory eagle in 2013.

THE 18 TH HAS PROVED A WATERY GRAVE TO NUMEROUS TITLE CHALLENGES ... AND THE SCENE OF SOME ICONIC MOMENTS