Hello golfers,

In this week’s email, we re-cap the Midweek Stableford, we highlight the importance of having a fitting, and we also take a look at the Dubai Dessert Classic. Enjoy the read.

Midweek Stableford

A stellar 42pts from David Barnett which included a four over front nine (not bad for a 17hcp) saw him record a runaway victory in the Midweek Stableford played on the West course and with it a healthy reduction of his handicap to 15. In his wake Gary Bowley shot 38pts to take the runner-up spot, Gregor O'Brien took third spot with 36pts.

Vanishing Lofts!!!

A trend in recent years has been for iron manufactures to increase potential distance by reducing the loft of their clubs. In fact Callaway have just launched their Rouge X iron which includes a PW with only 40.5 degrees of loft, that is 9.5 degrees less than a traditional PW of 50 degrees (used by Tiger Woods in every single one of his 14 major championship victories).

This extra distance sounds great in principle but there are reasons to be wary. Lower loft alone will increase ball speed, however the ball will fly lower and not stop as quickly on the green so you must be careful when choosing this path. It’s like putting your 6 iron head on your 8 iron shaft and thinking it will fly the same.

Tommy White was very interested in TaylorMade's new P790 irons (which use stronger lofts than most irons available currently), so he did the wise thing and booked a fitting.

Testing the P790s we observed immediate distance gains of over 10 yards but surprisingly the ball flight was actually a little higher than his current irons and the ball dropped a few degrees steeper (see the FlightScope data) - this means that Tommy's irons will now fly farther but stop quicker, a perfect combination!

Interestingly we did not observe the same trend when Tommy tested other strong lofted models, proving that without data from a launch monitor Tommy could have chosen a new club that actually made the game harder!

Click here if you would like to book a fitting with us.

Dubai Desert Classic

The European Tour remains in the Middle East this week and a strong field has been assembled at the Emirates GC for the Dubai Desert Classic.

Last year, Sergio Garcia won his 12th European Tour title by fending off Henrik Stenson. He then went on to win at Augusta, just like the previous year’s champion Danny Willett. Garcia won the Singapore Open last week in his first tournament using new equipment, it will be interesting to see if he can successfully defend.

This year there’s a stellar cast of names competing including Rory McIlroy, Garcia, Stenson, last week’s winner Tommy Fleetwood and a number of European Ryder Cup hopefuls like Matt Fitzpatrick, Thomas Pieters, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Ross Fisher and Tyrrell Hatton.

The history of this event goes back to 1986 when His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum approved the construction of a golf course in the desert. The Emirates Club opened two years later and the next season Mark James was winner of the inaugural Karl Litten Desert Classic (the competition was originally named after the designer of the course.)

The Dubai Desert Classic is the longest-running European Tour tournament in the UAE, contested every year since 1989 barring 1991.

Previous champions of this event include Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els, Tiger Woods, Fred Couples, Henrik Stenson and Rory McIlroy. Ernie Els has won this tournament three times and holds the course record of 61. Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and Stephen Gallacher have all won here twice.

The Majlis Course at the Emirates Club was the first all-grass layout in the Gulf and it’s still recognised as one of the finest tracks in the Middle East.

Travelling through the desert dunes, fairways pass seven lakes, desert areas, indigenous flora and the “Majlis” themselves. Arabic for meeting place, these tent-like structures are a distinctive feature sitting between the 8th and 9th holes.

The tournament is a week earlier than usual this year, so that means there is no Tiger Woods who tees it up on the PGA Tour in the Farmers Insurance Open.

Click here to keep an eye on this week's leaderboard.