Omega Dubai Desert Classic R1

January 28 – 31
Emirates Golf Club, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
$3,250,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

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Richard Sterne produced an impressive eight under par round of 64 to open up a one-shot lead after day one of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

“It’s always good to get off to a good start. It helps you for the rest of the week, I think. I’ve come close here before so it would be nice to have a chance going into the weekend. I haven’t had many chances going into weekends for a long time, so it would be nice to get through tomorrow and place myself well and see how the weekend goes.

“I had a wrist operation in March last year, so I was out basically for the whole of last year. Played the last few events, which I played pretty decently considering I had not played for so long.

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“And then last week gave me a lot of confidence. I struggled the first few days, and played really nicely on Saturday. But finishing 25th there has given me confidence. I’m just trying to watch my back, so I haven’t put much preparation into this week. Just got nine holes in Tuesday yesterday and I didn’t even come to the course yesterday. So today, I was pretty happy with the performance.”

The South African, a six-time winner on the European Tour, birdied his final hole of the day at Emirates Golf Club to jump ahead of American Kurt Kitayama on seven under par, with Major Champion Sergio Garcia and fellow countryman Justin Harding a further shot back.

“I haven’t played this well in a while, so nice to get a round like this,” said Kitayama. “Just played as many games as I could back home and tried to feel pressure under the gun like in tournament conditions. Pretty much how I tried to stayed sharp.

“(The eagle on 17 was) a little into the wind. Hit it just short of the green in the fairway. It was just pretty standard chip up into the grain and I just holed it. It was nice.”

Garcia won this event in 2017 before going on to claim his maiden Major Championship at the Masters Tournament later that year and the Spaniard enjoyed his return to the United Arab Emirates, recording a flawless round of 66.

“I felt comfortable out there for sure. I felt like I hit a lot of good shots. Conditions obviously were good, but they were tricky.

“I think that it’s a big year, and hopefully I can be in good shape because I want to be a part of a lot of things this year.

“I still love to compete. I love to practice, try to get better and that’s what I try to do all the time. So it’s nice to see rounds like one today, because it shows that I’m putting some good work in there and just got to keep doing more of that.”

Englishman Paul Casey made a fast start before settling for a five under 67 despite leading for most of Thursday morning, and was later joined at that mark by Spaniard Adrian Otaegui, Belgian Thomas Detry and Scot Robert MacIntyre.

“This is a difficult golf course,” said Casey. “The last time I played here was seven years ago. It was difficult then. It’s grown some teeth in the last few years, some new tees. Very happy. It’s difficult to read the greens and make putts around here. They have always been tricky, a bit of grain in there. Yeah, very happy with that start.

“I feel lucky because golf courses are open in Arizona. Even various other places across the state line, they are not. I feel for everybody in the UK where golf courses are closed right now.

“To be honest I took advantage of it. I spent a lot of time playing. It’s maybe something I’ve not done as much of over the last few years. We are very lucky that we’re playing golf and I feel that sort of fortunate place that we’re in to play, I feel that I’m going to take advantage of that, while I’m out here, make hay.”

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Pos.	Player	To Par	R1
1	Richard Sterne	-8	64
2	Kurt Kitayama	-7	65
T3	Justin Harding	-6	66
T3	Sergio Garcia	-6	66
T5	Paul Casey	-5	67
T5	Adrian Otaegui	-5	67
T5	Thomas Detry	-5	67
T5	Robert MacIntyre	-5	67
T9	Martin Kaymer	-4	68
T9	Wade Ormsby	-4	68
T9	Kalle Samooja	-4	68
T9	Romain Langasque	-4	68
T9	Adri Arnaus	-4	68
T9	Kiradech Aphibarnrat	-4	68
T9	Ross Fisher	-4	68
T9	Tommy Fleetwood	-4	68
T17	Lee Westwood	-3	69
T17	Scott Hend	-3	69
T17	Jeff Winther	-3	69
T20	Mikko Korhonen	-2	70
T20	Marcus Kinhult	-2	70
T20	Pablo Larrazabal	-2	70
T20	Alexander Levy	-2	70
T20	Shane Lowry	-2	70
T20	Matthew Fitzpatrick	-2	70
T20	Jayden Schaper	-2	70
T20	Joakim Lagergren	-2	70
T20	Laurie Canter	-2	70
T20	Brandon Stone	-2	70
T20	Antoine Rozner	-2	70
T20	Matthias Schwab	-2	70
T20	Andy Sullivan	-2	70
T20	Nicolas Colsaerts	-2	70
T20	Scott Jamieson	-2	70
T20	Takumi Kanaya	-2	70
T20	Shubhankar Sharma	-2	70
T37	Ignacio Elvira Mijares	-1	71
T37	Fabrizio Zanotti	-1	71
T37	Padraig Harrington	-1	71
T37	Sami Valimaki	-1	71
T37	Collin Morikawa	-1	71
T37	Justin Rose	-1	71
T37	Sebastian Heisele	-1	71
T37	Guido Migliozzi	-1	71
T37	Alexander Björk	-1	71
T37	Oliver Fisher	-1	71
T37	Ashun Wu	-1	71
T37	Jordan Smith	-1	71
T37	Sean Crocker	-1	71
T37	Matt Wallace	-1	71
T37	Thomas Pieters	-1	71
T37	Chris Wood	-1	71
T37	Masahiro Kawamura	-1	71
T37	Richie Ramsay	-1	71
T55	Dean Burmester	E	72
T55	Julian Suri	E	72
T55	David Horsey	E	72
T55	Victor Dubuisson	E	72
T55	Justin Walters	E	72
T55	Victor Perez	E	72
T55	David Lipsky	E	72
T55	Aaron Rai	E	72
T55	Robert Karlsson	E	72
T55	Julien Guerrier	E	72
T55	Connor Syme	E	72
T55	Benjamin Hebert	E	72
T55	Tapio Pulkkanen	E	72
T55	Kristoffer Broberg	E	72
T55	Steven Brown	E	72
T55	Ashley Chesters	E	72
T55	David Law	E	72
T55	George Coetzee	E	72
T55	David Langley	E	72
T55	Joachim B. Hansen	E	72
T55	Rasmus Højgaard	E	72
T55	Søren Kjeldsen	E	72
T55	Haotong Li	E	72
T78	Bernd Wiesberger	1	73
T78	David Howell	1	73
T78	David Drysdale	1	73
T78	Chris Paisley	1	73
T78	Rafa Cabrera Bello	1	73
T78	Ryan Fox	1	73
T78	Eduard Rousaud (a)	1	73
T78	Gavin Kyle Green	1	73
T78	Ernie Els	1	73
T78	Andrew Johnston	1	73
T78	Zander Lombard	1	73
T89	Eddie Pepperell	2	74
T89	Wilco Nienaber	2	74
T89	Henrik Stenson	2	74
T89	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	2	74
T89	Miguel Angel Jiménez	2	74
T89	Danny Willett	2	74
T89	Lorenzo Gagli	2	74
T89	Matthew Southgate	2	74
T89	Sebastian Soderberg	2	74
T89	Renato Paratore	2	74
T89	Grant Forrest	2	74
T89	Lucas Herbert	2	74
T89	John Catlin	2	74
T89	Joost Luiten	2	74
T89	Thomas Bjørn	2	74
T89	Stephen Gallacher	2	74
T105	David Hague	3	75
T105	Callum Shinkwin	3	75
T105	Jason Scrivener	3	75
T105	James Morrison	3	75
T105	Nino Bertasio	3	75
T105	Alvaro Quiros	3	75
T105	Matthieu Pavon	3	75
T105	Paul Waring	3	75
T105	Robert Rock	3	75
T105	Min Woo Lee	3	75
T115	Edoardo Molinari	4	76
T115	Graeme McDowell	4	76
T115	Maximilian Kieffer	4	76
T115	Oliver Wilson	4	76
T115	Haydn Porteous	4	76
T115	Shergo Al Kurdi	4	76
T115	Ian Poulter	4	76
T115	Tyrrell Hatton	4	76
T115	Ross McGowan	4	76
T115	Garrick Higgo	4	76
T125	Jorge Campillo	5	77
T125	Gaganjeet Bhullar	5	77
T127	Richard McEvoy	6	78
T127	Michael Lorenzo-Vera	6	78
T129	Raphael Jacquelin	7	79
T129	Curtis Knipes (a)	7	79
131	Karim El Hali	10	82
WD	Andrea Pavan	5
22	Thorbjørn Olesen	E
WD	Andrea Pavan	5