– Laurie Canter (-4) is going to have some explaining to do when he gets to the clubhouse bar at his golf course. The reason is that he pumped his fist twice on Thursday to celebrate a two-metre birdie putt and another one-and-a-half-metre par putt. “A friend of mine says a professional golfer should only pump their fist to celebrate a putt when the prize it brings allows them to buy a house. Otherwise, it should be forbidden,” Canter explained after finishing his round. “When he sees this interview, he’s going to kill me,” he joked. British humour at its finest.
– Rory McIlroy (-6) has taken a giant step towards the seventh Race to Dubai. And yet he feels he left a lot out there. “I don’t want to sound arrogant, but it was the best iron day in a long time. I gave myself many chances and missed a couple of short putts on the back nine,” he explained. Going a bit beyond today’s round, Rory mentioned that, in his opinion, the key to his great 2025 lay in two areas: “The wedges and the putt.” For the first time in his career, he finished the year among the top five in putting statistics on the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, he has worked a lot on his wedges and feels he has made a quality leap. Always improving. Always moving forward. If Rory doesn’t rest on his laurels (or Scheffler), who will be authorised to do so?
– The leader Michael Kim (-8) put on a display. And not just because of his 64-stroke card. There’s an even more staggering statistic. He left himself eleven birdie chances from less than three metres. And he didn’t make them all. In fact, he left three out there. Brutal. The American claims that the best decision he made this year was to play more on the DP World Tour in the autumn. Undoubtedly, if he does well this week and wins the tournament, no one should doubt that it will cause a ripple effect, and we’ll see more PGA Tour players trying their luck in these months on the DP World Tour next year. Good news for the European circuit, perhaps not so much for its members.
– Thriston Lawrence (-6) has been one of the great disappointments this season. Practically all the experts tipped him as one of the revelations on the PGA Tour after earning his card last year through the Race to Dubai. In fact, some were certain he would bag a victory. Quite the opposite. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. A bad season and the card down the drain. The reason? “I’m not quite sure what happened because I’ve continued to play very well. I don’t have many complaints about my game. Adapting to the United States wasn’t difficult, after all, the same language is spoken every week, which is mine. Perhaps the key was that all the courses were new, and I struggled to get used to the greens.” His strong start in the Dubai Final puts him right in the fight to regain his PGA Tour card through the Race to Dubai. He’s close. He issues a warning. “It’s tough when you have to learn everything from scratch, but if I get another chance next year, it will be a different story.”
– Tommy Fleetwood (-6) keeps going. Another great round. Another week. Impressive. The Englishman doesn’t get too lyrical when trying to explain the leap in level this season. “We’ve been working hard for a long time. We’ve played very consistently for a long time, and now we’re just on a great run. Hopefully, it’s not just a run, and this is really my level of play, but we’ll see what happens in the future.” If you look up common sense in the dictionary, you’ll find Tommy’s face and hair.
– Leader at -8, top 5 at -6, and top 10 at -4. Last year, after the first round: leader at -5, top 5 at -3, and eleventh place at -2. Yes, the conditions are easier this year. We’ll see how it ends, as hard greens are forecast for the weekend…
