Joy’s Abu Dhabi diary: Fog causes problems, Ian Poulter hurts a digit and do the big three dress together?

Joy Chakravarty 20:20 22/01/2016
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  • The fog delayed the start of play.

    Things looked fine first thing when the players started arriving for the morning session tee offs, before the fog rolled in and limited the visibility on the course to less than a few meters.

    There was a delay of two hours and 45 minutes and the first group of the day, scheduled to go out at 7:20am, finally teed off at 10:05.

    That also meant the feature group in the afternoon – Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler – was delayed

    While the players may have been frustrated by the delay, the fans were seen having a great time at the Championship Village, that has been expanded further this year.

    There were long queues at the food stalls, and an even bigger clamour at the various experience stands.

    Patched-up Poulter

    What’s with the European Tour golfers? They seem to be having a bad time as far as appendages are concerned.

    First it was Jamie Donaldson, who almost cut off his little finger while using a chainsaw and had to pull out of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, where he is a past champion.

    And on Thursday night, it was Ian Poulter’s turn. He did not need anything as dangerous as a chainsaw, but was hurt by the one thing that he is extremely passionate about – a car.

    The Ryder Cup legend jammed his finger in the courtesy car door and took out a fair chunk of skin from his thumb.

    Despite playing with the taped-up thumb and the obvious discomfort caused, the 40-year-old Englishman still shot a three-under par 69 and improved to five-under par for the tournament.

    Great minds think…

    Do the top golfers in the world think alike? It certainly seemed that way with the feature group on Friday. All three – Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler – rocked up on the first tee wearing white trousers.

    Stat of the Day

    1 – Eagle made during the whole of the day’s action, compared to eight made in the first round, which included two holes-in-one (Thomas Bjorn and Gregory Havret, both on the 15th hole).

    The lonesome eagle in the second round came from China’s Wu Ashun, who smashed a three-wood second shot on the par-5 18th hole to 18 feet and made his putt.

    Quote of the Day

    “If someone asked me to throw a game, I would knock them out.”

    – Ian Poulter is clear how he will react if someone asks him to indulge in match-fixing.

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