After last week’s Team Cup, the DP World Tour moves this week to the Emirates Golf Club in Dubai for the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, one of the major tournaments scheduled by the European circuit at the start of the year. This Tuesday, the tee times for the first two rounds have been released, and among the very good matches scheduled, the names of the players accompanying Luke Donald are particularly noteworthy…
In a Ryder Cup year, the captain of the Old Continent team usually takes advantage of the tournaments he participates in to closely follow players with the potential to be part of his chosen list. And this time, his focus is on the Dane Rasmus Neegard-Petetersen… and the Spaniard Ángel Hidalgo. Although for the golfer from Málaga, this decision by Donald seems to have caught him at a challenging time…
Ángel has not been able to do pre-season training as he had to undergo surgery this winter for a cyst on his back. To top it off, as soon as he arrived in Dubai a few days ago, he fell ill with a tonsil problem. Yesterday he couldn’t play the course, and today he had to settle for playing nine holes. It doesn’t seem like he’s in the best condition to try to show Luke that he could be a very valid option for the Ryder. But the good-natured Hidalgo takes it with enthusiasm and philosophy.
The first grass golf course in the Middle East ⛳️
Emirates Golf Club 25 years ago. #HeroDubaiDesertClassic | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/HkWe0olYQl
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) January 13, 2025
“The truth is, he could have chosen another week when I was better, but if I was lacking some energy due to what’s happening to me, playing with Luke Donald gives it to me,” confessed the golfer from Málaga to Ten-Golf in Dubai. His match on Thursday will start at 9.05 am (Spanish mainland time), just 20 minutes before the big match that Jon Rahm will play with Robert MacIntyre and Adam Scott (9.25 am) and shortly after the duel between Pablo Larrazábal, Adrian Meronk, and Alexander Bjork (8.45 am).
Rory McIlroy, another of the tournament’s and tour’s big stars, will play the most interesting match of the morning session, alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland (5.05 Spanish mainland time). Meanwhile, the other members of the Armada, besides Hidalgo, Rahm, and Larrazábal, will play as follows: Manuel Elvira, with Preston Summerhays and Jacques Kruyswijk (4.15 am), Nacho Elvira, with Ricardo Gouveia and Maximilian Kieffer (4.25); Alejandro del Rey and Alfredo García Heredia, with Adrien Saddier (5.15); Jorge Campillo, with David Ravetto and Yuto Katsuragawa (8.25); and Iván Cantero, with David Ford and Jason Scrivener (8.35).
