by garlicsauce

Last week in the Qatar Masters finished 2nd -10, 4 shots behind the winner Thomas Bjorn. Poor 1st round of 75 cost him, but backed that up with 69/68/66 not quite good enough in the end. Moved up to 5th in the Race to Dubai rankings after 3 events and has 4 European Tour wins to his name. This season so far has a 45.24% Diving Accuracy and GIR 75%, which is ok. Going to go one better this week and ...

by mercer

This event will be a tough one to call and expect a tight finish just like last year and going for Anders Hansen to go one better and win this year and make up for his second last year

Anders Hansen has played two events this season and made the cut both times and posted two cracking effort and got 14th in the HSBC and lst week got 12 in the Qater and would have been closer if there was a final ...

by jimmywomble

The final leg then of the Desert swing and off to Dubai. The big headline obviously is the top 3 in the world all competing. Off the 3 only Tiger has won here before in 06 & 08, he was 3rd in 07 & 5th in 04 as well. Defending champ is Miguel Angel Jimenez. As one of the main events of the year in Europe the field is always strong and so the list of previous winners is impressive. Els has 3 (94, 02 ...

by Micko70

Jaco is in decent form in 2012, he has played the weekend in all 4 tournaments he has played this year, including 2 top finishes, he finished 4th in the Africa Open with a score of 23 under par, then a week later he finished 3rd in the Joburg Open.
He has only had 1 round over par this year from 11 rounds, he finished 2011 by playing the weekend in his last 10 tournaments of the year, he also top ...

by mercer

Jaco Van Zyl is some player and another future top South African player and started the season off well in his home country with a third and a fourth but disappointed a little bit the last two events in the desert so risky backing him here on this course but will come good soon and based on ability is well over priced

Jaco Van Zyl had some season last year and posted many top 25 efforts and fee ...

by mercer

James Kingston is a very big price and feel he will do very well here like he did last year when second and comes here in very good form so looks value for a place without a doubt

Not played that well here before apart from last year but will take alot of confidence from that and knows this course holds no problems for him

Comes here in good nick with two good efforts in the Qater and HSBC a ...

by bluemal

WESTWOOD, WOODS and KAYMER all out together in the 1st round with Woods still trying to find some sort of form and comes here looking to win it for the 3rd time KAYMER has done well in the Arab states but still not won this event same goes for WESTWOOD who looks the best bet price wise of these 3 players as WOODS at 13/2 is still a bit of hit and miss when playing KAYMER is fav at 5/1 and suppris ...

by petrus79

This event boasts a cracking field as for the first time since 1994, outside of the Majors and the World Golf Championships, the leading three players in the world will compete in a mainstream European Tour event. Martin Kaymer knows a victory here this week could enable him to claim the #1 from Lee Westwood and that is sure to be a motivation for a man who thrives under pressure and seems to have ...

by garlicsauce

Title holder Miguel Angel Jiminez is 31/1 for the Dubai Desert Classic. Had a poor time last week at the Qatar Masters, finishing 74th 8 72/72/79/72 , never in contention. 11th in the Race to Dubai rankings after 3 events. Driving accuracy 63.1% and GIR 68.52%. Other 2 selections this week are much higher on the stats, so needs to improve. Has experience of 18 European Tour wins under his belt. G ...

by swashbuckler

Oliver Wilson is another player that I was on at last weeks Qatar Masters and given his performance in that tournament I think he is worth a eachway interest here in Dubai this week in the hope that he will carry on the good form that he showed in Qatar.Wilson finished a decent T12 last week and that was following on from a T41 in Bahrain and a T42 in Abu Dhabi so it seems his recent swing changes ...

by jimmywomble

The European Tour has the last, & longest running, desert swing event the Dubai Desert Classic from the Emirates GC. Won last year by Alvaro Quiros, and in the past by McIlroy, Woods & Stenson.

Despite still being very young this will be Rory McIlroy's 7th visit here. He missed the cut in 2 of his first 3 visits, but had his breakthrough win in 2009 which he followed up with 6th & 10th last y ...

by Micko70

Robert Rock is on fire in 2012, he has finished in the top 12 (including a win) in his last 4 tournaments, he has made the weekend in 10 of his last 11 tournaments which is great going and only once in those tournaments did he finish with a score above par.
He finished 20th here last year despite a first round 73, he also finished 20th in 2010 after a 2nd round 74, a better start this week will se ...

by swashbuckler

These odds are quite short especially if you consider that for all McIlroys undoubted talent he still has only two professional titles to his name but its easy to forget that he is still only 21 years of age and with the game he has it is only a question of time before he adds some more titles to his C.V and given his record here in this tournament I think he just might add to that C.V this week.I ...

by petrus79

This event boasts a cracking field as for the first time since 1994, outside of the Majors and the World Golf Championships, the leading three players in the world will compete in a mainstream European Tour event. Rory McIlroy won this event in 2009 when he putted and struck the ball very well (2nd GIR at 83.3%) and last year finished 6th when 5th in GIR. He seems to have developed a real consist ...

by gecko6

kaymer is my current world no 1 but at 9/2 its scary... will avoid that - tiger should go very well here and might be value ins ome eyes at 6/1 but I'll watch and wait on him

doubt rory will win although probably a solid top 5 bet

anyway - vlaue hunting means looking elsewhere - ross FISHER is a class act tee to green and may well play well this wk... hope so as I will have a dabble on him as h ...

by swashbuckler

I was on Ross Fisher at last weeks Qatar Masters and although he missed the cut there he did show that he is close to returning to some decent form with a encouraging second round of 68.Last week Fisher opened up with a disastrous first round of 80 which really ended his tournament there and then but Fisher bounced back with a second round 68 to only miss the cut by a shot and if he can bring that ...

by Andymac1

The second of my Danish contingent this week is the two-time Tour winner and world number 256 Soren Hansen. Hansen had a pretty miserable 2011 with just 3 top ten finishes and a best of 5th place at the Irish Open in Killarney. For the rest of 2011 he looked anything like a previous Tour winner with poor results and an astonishing 16 missed cuts. He found some form in Doha last year with a 6th pla ...

by swashbuckler

Soren Hansen has had a quiet 11 months or so on the Euro Tour but there is no doubt that he is a talented golfer and after last weeks T6 in Qatar I think Hansen might be nearing a return to form and after watching his fellow Dane Thomas Bjorn winning last week that might just be the trigger for Hansen to put in a good performance here in Dubai this week.Hansen started his 2010 Euro Tour season in ...

by garlicsauce

Scotsman Stephen Gallacher is 61/1 for the Dubai Desert Classic. Nephew of Ryder Cup Captain Bernard Gallacher has 1 European Tour win, Dunhill links 2004. Last week was a creditable 12th in Qatar -4 with rounds of 72/73/69/70 and previous to that 4th in the Volvo -18, so in decent form. 15th in the Race to Dubai after 3 events. Driving accuracy 44.05% dropped from last season 64.9% (so can improv ...

by ran9ger

This looks a competitive field in a competition that often throws up big priced placed players so the strategy is to find someone to be competitive at value odds.

Steve Webster has strong connections with Dubai through his sponsors and coaches and is a player who has always looked like he should do well here.

He had a very strong finish last season and has given himself a decent break so comes ...

by Andymac1

I backed Bjorn to defend his Qatari crown last week as a man in form and on the back of some very consistent golf at the Abu Dhabi tournament but unfortunately he managed to find trouble at every turn in windswept Doha during the first round and recorded a very un-Bjornlike 7-over 78 to put himself out of the running. He then bounced back and produced a scintillating 65 and a 68 over the next two ...

by garlicsauce

The last 4 winners here in the Desert were 2008 Tiger Woods, 2009 Rory McIlroy, 2010 Miguel Angel Jiminez and 2011 and defending champion Alvaro Quiros. A fine pedigree indeed. This week's selection (as was last) THOMAS BJORN finished T25 in last week's Qatar Masters after the tournament was reduced to three rounds due to the weather. He probably would have been much higher if the tournament had g ...

by swashbuckler

Thailands Thongchai Jaidee is in my opinion, a underrated golfer and I believe he does not get the credit he deserves on the world stage even though he has numerous international wins including been a four time Euro Tour winner but a win here in Dubai this week would change all that and looking at his previous record in this tournament I would not rule out his chances of doing so.Jaidee last Euro ...

by Andymac1

Victor Dubuisson had a consistent 2011 with 8 top twenty finishes including a season best 5th place at the Austrian Open in September. He started this year at the Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi but never got going and missed the cut. He bounced back last week with 3 solid rounds in Qatar to finish in a healthy 9th place on 7-under and now heads to Dubai with confidence good and conditions similar ...