DUBAI // Alvaro Quiros came through one of the most incident-packed rounds of his career to hang on to the narrowest of advantages and prevail in a blanket finish to the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and claim his sixth European Tour title.
A hole in one, a chip in for an outrageous eagle two and a calamitous seven following two penalty strokes – one for getting his ball out of a palm tree – featured on a day when the Spaniard also needed medical attention for a damaged right forearm.
All the dramatic moments could not deflect him from his mission to add this honour to his other Gulf success in the Qatar Masters two years ago and he eventually held off the challenge of South Africa’s James Kingston and Denmark’s Anders Hansen to post an 11-under-par winning aggregate of 277.
Kingston qualified for the weekend by the skin of his teeth, his first two level-par rounds leaving him right on the line of the halfway cut, but the South African moved into overdrive in the second half of the tournament.
Two 67s enabled him to set a clubhouse target of 10-under par which nobody could surpass until Quiros hit his birdie putt at the 18th to within a few inches to remain at 11 under.
Hansen had a 25-foot putt to tie Quiros at the last but was well wide and had to settle for a share of second place with Kingston after starting the day as one of three joint leaders.
Three players – Scott Strange, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet and Alvaro Valasco – tied for fourth place a further stroke behind as the predicted late surge by the more famous figures in the game failed to materialise.
The prospect of a shoot-out between some of golf’s biggest names loomed large at the start of play as Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood and Segio Garcia planned a route past Rory McIlroy, the tournament pacesetter, over the closing 18 holes.
The large galleries that followed those leading attractions were left disappointingly short of highlight moments, however.
Garcia briefly shared the lead after an early birdie but that was as good as it got for the Spaniard as he seeks to recapture the form that made him such a force.
Woods left himself with too much to do in his quest to end his own barren spell after dropping shots on two of the first three holes.
The American kept battling but mistakes at key moments kept hampering his progress and his misery was compounded by seeing his routine approach to the last fall short and roll into the lake.
Successive birdies by Westwood at 13 and 14 took the world No 1 to within a shot of the lead but a drive into a palm tree at 17, after which he was unable to say for certain that it was his ball, forced him to be driven back to the tee on the way to a crushing double bogey.
Like Woods, he too, ended dismally with a penalty at the last for under-hitting his approach.
McIlroy, who had been atop the leaderboard at the end of the first three days, clung on grimly to make it four out of four but did not play well enough to merit a second win here and three successive bogeys on the homeward stretch sealed his fate.
The Northern Irishman’s body language suggested he knew it was not going to be a second Desert Swing celebration to follow his 2009 victory here.
Quiros gave the opposite impression from the outset. He had his share of good and bad luck, the favourable rubs of the green just outweighing the unfavourable moments. After driving through the green at the 351-yard second, he then outrageously holed his five-yard chip for an eagle for what was shaping up to be shot of the day.
He then bettered that with a hole in one at the 11th, watching in delight as a 161-yard wedge shot soared into the green and trickled into the hole.
That massive fillip followed the deflating incident that would have finished off less determined characters.
A wayward drive down the eighth found an unplayable lie in a bush and a penalty drop; his recovery lodged in a tree, incurring another penalty and a chip and two putts later he was walking off the green with a triple-bogey seven.
That he could so swiftly turn adversity into triumph speaks volumes for the ever-smiling Spaniard.
wjohnson@thenational.ae
About Proto21
Date started: May 2018
Founder: Pir Arkam
Based: Dubai
Sector: Additive manufacturing (aka, 3D printing)
Staff: 18
Funding: Invested, supported and partnered by Joseph Group
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Company Profile
Company name: OneOrder
Started: October 2021
Founders: Tamer Amer and Karim Maurice
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Industry: technology, logistics
Investors: A15 and self-funded
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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)
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
