What Is The Emirates Golf Club Course Record At The Dubai Desert Classic?

Stand by for birdies. And eagles. Lots of them. Only once has the Dubai Desert Classic - which has been held at Emirates Golf Club on all but two occasions since 1989 - been won with a total score in the single digits under-par.

Mind you, low scores are pretty standard on tour these days.

The Majlis course, the first grass layout in the Middle East when it opened in 1988, has developed a reputation worldwide as a testing track for the world's best players.

But the cream of the crop - and this is an event that usually attracts a very high-class field - usually find a way to post low scores, even on demanding layouts.

The late, great Seve Ballesteros won the 'Major of the Middle East' at Emirates Golf Club in 1992 with a total score of -16.

The roll of honor also includes Ernie Els (1994, 02, 05), Fred Couples (1995), José Maria Olazábal (1998), Mark O’Meara (2004), Tiger Woods (2006, 08), Rory McIlroy (2009, 15, 23, 24), Sergio Garcia (2017) and Bryson DeChambeau (2019).

DeChambeau's statement win was his first DP World Tour title, and his 24 under total was a record.

But no one has gone lower than Els on the Majlis course, at least not during the Dubai Desert Classic.

Els completed his first round of the 1994 edition in just 61 blows, which really didn't look on when he followed his birdie at the first with a bogey at the very next hole.

However, this was to be the year when the great South African, then aged 24, truly announced himself on the global stage.

Playing alongside one of his heroes, Sandy Lyle, he birdied six of the opening nine holes to go out in 32 - very good going but a score that gets posted fairly regularly.

But then he caught fire on the back nine, coming home in 29 to break Eamonn Darcy’s 1990 course record by three shots.

A chip-in for birdie helped, and he needed just 22 putts in total (21 of them on the green).

They say it's hard to follow a really low round with another. Els' 69 the next day looked rather average compared to his opening round, as did his 67 in the third round and the 71 on the final day.

Els would not have been at all bothered, for his six-shot victory over Greg Norman meant he was no longer 'just' that talented youngster who'd been tearing it up on the Sunshine Tour.

"I like the lines off the tees and I tend to see shots in my mind’s-eye very clearly," said Els, who won the title again in 2002 and 2005, and describes that 11-under 61 as "one of the best rounds of my life".

"That summer I went on to win my first Major, the US Open, and my first World Matchplay title, and a lot of that was due to what happened in Dubai."

Els, now 56, won 28 times on the DP World Tour, four of which were Major Championships.

As well as winning the US Open and The Open, twice each, he regards that course-record 61 as "one of the greatest days of my career".

Richard Sterne came close to matching his fellow countryman's score in 2013, but with a 62 he came up one shot short, as did Stephen Gallacher in the same year.