New champion
From being a mere mortal to being made for greatness. There have been some very illustrious names on the roll of honour of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic over the years.
The likes of Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods, arguably two of the greatest golfers ever as well as Rory McIlroy, Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie, to name a few, have graced the Major of the Middle East.
These galaxy of superstars and winners have come from the US of A, Latin America, Europe,Oceania and Africa, until now that is.
The Desert Classic, the jewel on the European Tour, produced its first Asian winner after unheralded China’s Li Haotong tamed blustery conditions as well as Rory McIlroy to land the biggest prize of his fledging career.
The 22-year-old from Hunan held his nerves and turned it on just when it mattered against a former world No.1 to win the 29th instalment of the Dubai Classic on Sunday.
Li, who provided a glimpse of his potential with third at The Open last year, edged McIlroy by one-stroke.
Li, who won the co-sanctioned 2016 Volvo China Open for his first victory on the European Tour, carded a threeunder 69 and 23-under 265 for the tournament, to nick what was virtually a shoot-out with McIlroy.
In doing so, Li also denied the Northern Irishman a record-equalling third Desert Classic. McIlroy had won in 2009 and 2015 and was within striking distance of going level with ‘The Big Easy’ Ernie Els. But then, it was not to be. McIlroy has now gone 20 events without a win, with his previous victory coming at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open hosted by the Rory Foundation in 2016.
Apart from being the first Asian, Li also broke the record for the lowest under par winning score. The previous mark was 22-under 266 jointly held by Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn (2001), Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher (2013) and McIlroy (2015).
This was Li’s second victory on his 61st appearance on the European Tour. He had finished tied for 39 in his only previous experience at the Classic last year.
The victory moved Li from 60 to 32 in the Official World Golf Rankings and also earned him 523,650 Race to Dubai Points. It could also vault him from 84th on second in the Race to Dubai. It was a day of attrition with Li and McIlroy battling nerves as well as the elements at the Majlis Course and the duo were Li Haotong (CHN) 66-66-64-69 Rory McIlroy (NIR) 65-64-68-69 Tyrrell Hatton (ENG) 64-72-66-66 Alexander Levy (FRA) 67-67-65-70 Chris Paisley (ENG) 65-69-68-69
Richie Ramsay (SCO) 70-69-69-64, Chris Hanson (ENG) 67-70-70-65, Jason Scrivener (AUS) 70-68-68-66, Henrik Stenson (SWE) 70-64-70-68, An Byeonghun (KOR) 72-67-65-68, Tommy Fleetwood (ENG) 69-69-66-68, Alexander Bjork (SWE) 65-68-70-69, Ian Poulter (ENG) 68-70-6569, Wang Jeung-hun (KOR) 69-66-67-70, Rafa Cabrera-Bello (ESP) 69-69-64-70, David Lipsky (USA) 69-66-67-70, Dylan Frittelli (RSA) 69-67-66-70, Andy Sullivan (ENG) 67-70-63-72 brought down to being mere mortals.
Neither one of them could go for broke and were quite tentative and a bit erratic through the front nine.
Li had the worst of starts and it seemed nerves were indeed catching up with him as he bogeyed the first hole, his third of the week, after landing his 330-yard drive into the sand bunker. McIlroy did have hiccups too but he managed to make par.
Li was one-over after the first and McIlroy’s par meant they were level on 19-under. Li and McIlroy both birdied the third and went on to birdie the seventh as well to go equal at 21-under.
james@khaleejtimes.com