The DP World Tour has already landed at the The Royal Golf Club in Bahrain, a course that this week, from Thursday, will host the Bahrain Championship presented by Bapco Energies, the fourth consecutive stop on the circuit in the desert after the two in Dubai and Ras al Khaimah. It returns to a course where it was only once in 2011 for the first edition of the now defunct Volvo Golf Champions, an attempt that did not take off as a champions tournament in the image and likeness of the one held on the PGA Tour.
Thirteen years have passed since that visit. Many things have changed. Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood were fighting for the Number One in the world. It would be good to know if at that time, at that precise moment, they would have also signed for LIV Golf. What things.
There have also been modifications to the course, and more specifically to its greens. Nothing else was talked about in 2011. Because of the size, some huge like the 17th, with 1,200 square meters, and because of the movement. Extreme undulations in some cases and all dotted with sinuous humps. Pablo Larrazábal, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Stephen Gallacher, Edoardo Molinari, Richie Ramsay, Matteo Manassero, Soren Kjeldsen, Oliver Wilson, Thomas Bjorn, James Morrison and Marcel Siem, the eleven horsemen of the apocalypse, the only ones playing this week and who were also there eleven years ago, will remember that.
Well, those diabolical curves that came out of the imagination and pencil of Colin Montgomerie, the course designer, have disappeared, or at least have been softened. Just last summer, when it was known that the European Tour was returning to this course, a deep renovation of the greens began with the aim of making them more ‘normal’, flatter. With this, above all, more flag positions are gained.
The truth is that the work that has been done in record time on the course has been fantastic. The greens of the 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14 and 15 have been remodeled and the 2 has been completely redesigned. There were greens that even had escape areas inside. Some player described those surfaces as mini golf. A bit crazy.
Those curves are no longer there and everyone appreciates it, but there are others… One is the rough. Powerful, solid, dense, juicy, spicy. The first cut is cut to 30 millimeters, the second to 75 and the rest to 100. It will not be touched anymore, so on Thursday it will be even more grown. So much so, that if you or I go, balls can be lost. It reminds of the rough of the Emirates Golf Club during the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Fasten your seat belts and hold on to the track, otherwise, making birdies will be a torment.
The other curves, very serious ones, are brought by the weather forecast. At this time a gale is expected on Friday and a lot of wind on Saturday and Sunday. What does gale mean. Well, gusts over 55 kilometers per hour. Be careful. On Saturday it could reach 40 kilometers and on Sunday it will reach 32.
Thursday blows a little less, but it is going to be a crucial factor this week. In fact, work is already underway to prevent the wind from causing more damage than necessary. The greens have started to slow down and the goal is for them to be at ten on the stimpmeter on Friday so they can be playable. Even so, it will be difficult to complete the round. Curves…
In 2011 the tournament was won by Paul Casey with a score of -20. If the forecast does not change, it seems very difficult to reach that winning score, rather you would have to think of a score around -10 and -15. By the way, Miguel Ángel Jiménez finished second just one stroke behind the Englishman.
