Rory McIlroy may not have had the greatest of finishes on Sunday, but of the three top stars in action during the Dubai Desert Classic, it is abundantly clear that his game is in the best shape early in the season.
The Northern Irishman struggled to a 74 to slip down the leaderboard at tied ninth place, but even though he laboured with his driving and putting over the weekend, there is enough evidence that the problems of last year have been left behind and his game is back on track.
McIlroy is planning to stay in Dubai for a couple of weeks and continue working on fine-tuning all the good things he has achieved lately, and as champion Stephen Gallacher pointed out after playing three of his four rounds with the 24-year-old – there really is no reason why McIlroy should not be contending with Tiger Woods for the world No1 ranking soon.
As for Woods, it is obvious he hasn’t been able to shake off the dust from his off-season hibernation. The fact that he took time off is a significant change from how he has started previous years.
He has always been much sharper than what we have seen so far in Torrey Pines and Dubai. Perhaps it is down to the fact that age is finally catching up with him as he nears his 40s, or may be he just gave in to the temptation of spending some more quality time with his family.
Whatever be the case, these two weeks would have given Woods enough indication of what he needs to work on if he wants to make 2014 a memorable year.
Early signs suggest he will struggle to get closer to Jack Nicklaus’ magical mark of 18 Majors this year, but then golf can be extremely fickle and turnarounds can be engineered by just one shot – as Gallacher proved during the third round here on Saturday.
The third member of the superstar trio is Henrik Stenson, who has had a very quiet start to the season compared to the way he finished it.
And yet, the fact that he went on a couple of birdie runs in Qatar as well as in Dubai, is a great sign that things are not that bad with the Super Swede.
All he needs is some dedicated time in the practice range, something that he kept complaining he wasn’t getting enough of because of all the commitments off the course.
As for the Dubai Desert Classic, it was a memorable end to its 25th anniversary celebration as there was enough drama on the final day to keep the fans on tenterhooks throughout until the very end.
There were two new initiatives this year by the organisers – the Champions Challenge on Tuesday in which all the past champions played an 18-hole strokeplay event, and the $2.5 million hole-in-one prize on the par-4 17th – and both were very well received.
There was no payout on the hole-in-one but it added plenty of drama to the proceedings.
A special mention needs to be made of Craig Haldane and his course maintenance staff.
The golf course was in amazing condition and praised by all the players. As was planned, the course was presented in firm and fast conditions, and played a great role in making it a superb test for all-round skills.
