The UAE will once again host four European Tour events after the AVIV Dubai Championship was added to the calendar for a second year.
With the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the Omega Dubai Desert Classic – won by Tyrrell Hatton and Paul Casey respectively – placed as the first two events of this year, the European Tour will close out the 2021 season with back-to-back events in Dubai.
Scheduled for November 11-14, the $1.5 million AVIV Dubai Championship will be played on the Fire course at Jumeirah Golf Estates and precedes the final Rolex Series event of 2021, the DP World Tour Championship, which will bring the curtain down on this year’s Race to Dubai on the neighbouring Earth course.
The AVIV Dubai Championship was introduced last December, then known as the Golf in Dubai Championship presented by DP World, as part of a revamped 2020 European Tour schedule, which was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
France’s Antoine Rozner was the inaugural champion, finishing two strokes clear of compatriot Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Italian Francesco Laporta and English pair Andy Sullivan and Matt Wallace.
This year, the tournament will be title sponsored by AVIV Clinics, the healthcare partner of DP World.
The tournament replaces the cancelled Nedbank Golf Challenge Hosted by Gary Player in South Africa, which will now return for its 40th anniversary in 2022.
It forms a new-look end to the European Tour’s 2021 season following the recent additions of the Mallorca Golf Open (October 21-24) and Portugal Masters (November 4-7).
Players in those two events, and the AVIV Dubai Championship, will be aiming to secure their spot in the $9m DP World Tour Championship, which will comprise the leading 50 available players on the Race to Dubai.
“Last year’s tournament on the Fire course, created to complete our 2020 schedule, was a great success and we are delighted to bring the AVIV Dubai Championship to our schedule as the final piece in our jigsaw this season," Keith Pelley, the European Tour’s Chief Executive, said.
“It means we will have two strong ‘Swings’ to end our 2021 campaign – the Iberian Swing in Spain and Portugal and now this Dubai double-header at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
“Once again, I would like to thank the leaders of Dubai, DP World, AVIV Clinics and Jumeirah Golf Estates for helping us to play this event and we look forward to a terrific fortnight as we conclude another Race to Dubai on the Fire and Earth courses.”
PROFILE OF CURE.FIT
Started: July 2016
Founders: Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori
Based: Bangalore, India
Sector: Health & wellness
Size: 500 employees
Investment: $250 million
Investors: Accel, Oaktree Capital (US); Chiratae Ventures, Epiq Capital, Innoven Capital, Kalaari Capital, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Piramal Group’s Anand Piramal, Pratithi Investment Trust, Ratan Tata (India); and Unilever Ventures (Unilever’s global venture capital arm)
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Wenger's Arsenal reign in numbers
1,228 - games at the helm, ahead of Sunday's Premier League fixture against West Ham United.
704 - wins to date as Arsenal manager.
3 - Premier League title wins, the last during an unbeaten Invincibles campaign of 2003/04.
1,549 - goals scored in Premier League matches by Wenger's teams.
10 - major trophies won.
473 - Premier League victories.
7 - FA Cup triumphs, with three of those having come the last four seasons.
151 - Premier League losses.
21 - full seasons in charge.
49 - games unbeaten in the Premier League from May 2003 to October 2004.
JAPAN SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Masaaki Higashiguchi, Shuichi Gonda, Daniel Schmidt
Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Tomoaki Makino, Maya Yoshida, Sho Sasaki, Hiroki Sakai, Sei Muroya, Genta Miura, Takehiro Tomiyasu
Midfielders: Toshihiro Aoyama, Genki Haraguchi, Gaku Shibasaki, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Shoya Nakajima, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Ritsu Doan
Forwards: Yuya Osako, Takuma Asano, Koya Kitagawa
