Joy's Diary: Football legend Figo admits he’s Fitzpatrick’s No1 fan

Joy Chakravarty 21:52 21/11/2015
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  • Matthew Fitzpatrick is a die-hard Sheffield United fan – “the best team in the world” – but remembers having a Portugal top as a kid with Luis Figo’s name on the back.

    But on Saturday, the roles were reversed with the former Barcelona and Real Madrid star acting the fan.

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    Figo, who became friends with Fitzpatrick after the two exchanged messages on Twitter in the wake of the 21-year-old’s British Masters win in October, followed him yesterday for nine holes.

    “It was great to have Luis here to support me and really nice of him to come and watch,” said Fitzpatrick, who is tied sixth.

    Figo, a 10-handicapper, was impressed with what he saw. “He’s doing fantastically – both this season and in this tournament,” the 2000 Ballon d’Or winner, said. “He has some more work to do in the final round but he’s in a good position.”

    Coming in from the cold
    England’s Lee Slattery has a terrible cold and has not been feeling right this week. He hasn’t practiced well, and it wasn’t a surprise he wasn’t playing that well when he reached the 14th tee on Saturday. At five-over par, the 37-year-old was rank last when things turned around in dramatic fashion. 

    Slattery hit a three-wood second shot from 270 yards on the par-5 14th to 15 feet and holed it. On the par-4 15th, with the tee pushed up, he hit a cut drive to eight feet and holed it for a second straight eagle.

    On 16, he hit a driver and eight-iron to eight feet and on the par-3 17th, a six-iron to six feet. Then on the par-5 18th, despite hitting his tee shot into the water, he finished with a par to be six-under for his last five holes.

    “I just don’t know what happened. I just stuck in there. Had a couple of putts lip out on the back nine and then just made the eagle and everything changed. To eagle the next straight after that is very rare,” said Slattery, who finished with a 68 and is tied 48th.

    Lee Slattery.


    The only way to travel

    The journey from Atlantis The Palm to the golf course takes about half an hour on a normal day. But some players have experienced timings as extreme as one hour 20 minutes, to just four minutes and 22 seconds.

    That’s the difference between getting caught in a traffic jam on Hessa Street, or travelling in the luxury of a Bell429 helicopter. Bell as one of the tournament sponsors, have been giving demo rides to players, VIPs and even the media.

    I enjoyed my short flight o Saturday. The chopper did live up to its reputation as the smoothest in its winged class, but I was taken aback by something else. When you see from above, the contrast of Jumeirah Golf Estates against its surrounding area it just blows your mind. It really stands out as a greenest possible in the desert.

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