When Rory McIlroy described his tee-peg spat with Patrick Reed on Tuesday as a storm in a teacup, he could have done with something to offer some perspective.
The elements were only happy to oblige on Wednesday night, providing the sort of deluge that really was worthy of the name. In the early hours of Thursday, there was even thunder and lightning to go with it.
It left the Emirates Golf Club staff faced with one mighty task to get the course suitable for play to start in Round 1 of the 2023 Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
Roads surrounding the course were impassable, meaning the public could not come and watch. Players were kept away from the course altogether until around midday.
Greenkeepers had to drain standing water from areas which had scarcely seen moisture ever before. After all, in the previous 33 years of the Dubai Desert Classic, more time had been lost to wind and fog than rain.
Back in 2017, play was halted on the opening day of the tournament because high winds brought down trees, and might have endangered spectators had the organisers not acted swiftly to evacuate the Majlis Course.
The heavy rainfall of Wednesday night did not have quite such a dramatic impact. But staff did have to act to repair damage, too, including a collapsed face of a bunker next to the first fairway.
How they got it playable within around six hours, with scarcely a scar, just a tell-tale white line to mark ground under repair, was remarkable.
All of which brought the attention back to the competition, rather than who threw what at whom, and who-subpoenaed whom and when.
For which McIlroy himself seemed glad enough. When he greeted his playing partners at the 10th, he seemed relieved to be getting his 2023 season under way, albeit belatedly.
His match was a treat. Given the circumstances, it was a pity that only a lucky few got the chance to tramp the soggy course with such a stellar crew as the world No1, plus Tommy Fleetwood and Ryan Fox.
It started with McIlroy and Fleetwood following each other into one of the Majlis’ many new water hazards. They each found the same puddle on the wasteland to the right of the 10th fairway, but both finished the hole with birdies.
It ended happily, too. Just before the horn blew in the fading light of the evening, McIlroy fired his tee shot at the 7th to inside four feet. And Fox followed him to within a foot, which would have looked like an incoming ace from the tee-box.
The New Zealander opted to tap his in, to take him to 3-under. McIlroy marked his ball overnight, and will head straight to it to finish off at 8am on Friday, hoping to join Fox on 3-under.
They are two shots off the lead, held by Thomas Pieters, who reached 5-under in the 15 holes he completed on Thursday.
“I think it played fair,” Pieters said of the novel challenge of a sodden Majlis.
“Obviously they guarded against some of the conditions, and they moved a few tees forward on holes like [the par-4 12th], where you normally are hitting long irons, and you're hitting short wedges.
“If you found fairways and had ball-in-hand, it was definitely playable.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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SPECS
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
Building boom turning to bust as Turkey's economy slows
Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage - hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle.
Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.
The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry - a key sector - as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn.
After a long period of solid growth, Turkey's economy contracted 1.1 per cent in the third quarter, and many economists expect it will enter into recession this year.
The country has been hit by high inflation and a currency crisis in August. The lira lost 28 per cent of its value against the dollar in 2018 and markets are still unconvinced by the readiness of the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to tackle underlying economic issues.
The villas close to the town centre of Mudurnu in the Bolu region are intended to resemble European architecture and are part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project.
But the development of 732 villas and a shopping centre - which began in 2014 - is now in limbo as Sarot Group has sought bankruptcy protection.
It is one of hundreds of Turkish companies that have done so as they seek cover from creditors and to restructure their debts.
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mountain%20Boy
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
