DUBAI // While the Dubai World Championship was never going to be settled in the first 18 holes, the European Tour organisers would have feared that the early exchanges at the Earth Course yesterday could render the Race to Dubai an anti-climax.
And so it proved as Graeme McDowell struggled to recapture the nerveless form that helped him clinch the US Open and the Ryder Cup this year, buckling under the pressure of his head-to-head battle with Martin Kaymer at the top of the European money list.
More than €290,000 (Dh1.42 million) clear of his Northern Irish rival before play started at Jumeirah Golf Estates yesterday morning, Kaymer achieved what he set out to do: put himself in contention to win the tournament and take a significant, five-shot advantage over McDowell in their personal showdown.
McDowell, on the other hand, fell well short of his ambitions. His first priority was to get ahead of Kaymer and he failed dismally by suffering three bogeys on the way to a level-par 72.
That rendered his other objective of either winning this US$7.5m (Dh27.5m) showpiece or finishing in the top three and relying on Kaymer to come in among the also-rans, an unlikely scenario, bearing in mind that 24 of the 60 competitors here are better-placed than McDowell after the first round.
McDowell, who has worked hard to close the cash gap on Kaymer over the last month, finds himself starting among the backmarkers this morning, seven shots off the pace being set by Sweden's Robert Karlsson, who shot a 65.
"Obviously it was a tough day," said McDowell, who was three shots behind his playing partner after three holes. "Martin got out of the traps early and left me in the dust out there.
"But I certainly haven't shot myself in the foot just yet. I'm ready to go out there tomorrow and get myself back in the golf tournament."
Standing between Kaymer, who described this week as more important to him career-wise than the one when he won the US PGA Championship in August, and the leader Karlsson is the unlikely Korean figure of Noh Seung-yul. Jaidee Thongchai of Thailand is one stroke behind Kaymer, in fourth place.
Six players are tied for fifth, including the defending champion and world No 1 Lee Westwood, who cannot repeat last year's victory in the Race to Dubai but has every intention of making a successful defence to his Dubai World Championship title.
Westwood, whose earning potential has been restricted recently by a calf injury, has still managed to retain his tournament sharpness and lamented the fact that he did not turn his score of 69 into something much better.
"I'm disappointed with 16," he said of his only bogey, "but I have played only once in the last five weeks so it's pretty good that I'm coming out here and being competitive straight away."
Westwood will accompany the in-form Ian Poulter in today's second round. Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson, who each showed glimpses of the form which has recently deserted them, are also bracketed together at 69, as are Charl Schwartzel, who had a hole-in-one at the sixth, and Alejandro Canizares.
wjohnson@thenational.ae
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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
Voices: How A Great Singer Can Change Your Life
Nick Coleman
Jonathan Cape
Related
SPECS
Mini John Cooper Works Clubman and Mini John Cooper Works Countryman
Engine: two-litre 4-cylinder turbo
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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
Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)
How to get exposure to gold
Although you can buy gold easily on the Dubai markets, the problem with buying physical bars, coins or jewellery is that you then have storage, security and insurance issues.
A far easier option is to invest in a low-cost exchange traded fund (ETF) that invests in the precious metal instead, for example, ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU) and iShares Physical Gold (SGLN) both track physical gold. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF invests directly in mining companies.
Alternatively, BlackRock Gold & General seeks to achieve long-term capital growth primarily through an actively managed portfolio of gold mining, commodity and precious-metal related shares. Its largest portfolio holdings include gold miners Newcrest Mining, Barrick Gold Corp, Agnico Eagle Mines and the NewMont Goldcorp.
Brave investors could take on the added risk of buying individual gold mining stocks, many of which have performed wonderfully well lately.
London-listed Centamin is up more than 70 per cent in just three months, although in a sign of its volatility, it is down 5 per cent on two years ago. Trans-Siberian Gold, listed on London's alternative investment market (AIM) for small stocks, has seen its share price almost quadruple from 34p to 124p over the same period, but do not assume this kind of runaway growth can continue for long
However, buying individual equities like these is highly risky, as their share prices can crash just as quickly, which isn't what what you want from a supposedly safe haven.
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