The Norwegian was more than one shot better on each hole in the second round than in the first to break a DP World Tour course record.
More proof that golf is a ridiculous game: Espen Koftsad of Norway followed an opening 81 with a second-round, course-record 62 in the Hero Indian Open in New Delhi on the DP World Tour.
Kofstad made nine birdies and an eagle against one bogey in the second round. That’s versus one birdie, five bogeys, a double bogey on a par 5 and a triple bogey on another par 5 in the first round.
The 19-shot swing between the two rounds propelled him to a 1-under total and inside the projected cutline at DLF Golf and Country Club. Koftsad already had booked flights home after the opening 81, assuming there was no chance he would play the weekend on the Gary Player-designed course. His 62 broke Shubhankar Sharma’s record of 64 on the par-72 layout.
"I changed my flights last night to go home tomorrow, so I'm going to have to change them again!" @EspenKofstad shot 19 shots less on Friday than he did Thursday 😲#HIO24pic.twitter.com/Ans8LjjIoL
The 62 also was the lowest round by two shots on the DP World Tour for Kofstad, who turned pro in 2010 before a series of injuries derailed his career.
“Today was just unbelievable,” he told the DP World Tour after signing his card. “Everything came off and I’ve holed so many putts, I have no idea how many feet I’ve holed but it’s been quite the day. I’ve been working a lot on the range lately and I’m feeling like I’ve been coming back from injury and everything’s been feeling horrible for the longest time.
“The other day I felt like, ‘OK, I’m starting to move a little bit better,’ and then yesterday I just didn’t get used to what I was working on and everything went wrong. Then this morning on the range, I was just hitting balls and it felt really nice and then all of a sudden the birdies just started rolling in when I started playing.”
The second round of the Hero Indian Open was hit with storms and will be continued Saturday morning. Keita Nakajima of Japan held a one-shot lead at 14 under after completing consecutive 65s. Romain Langasque was in second place at 12 under after two rounds of 66, and Matteo Manassero of Italy was in third after completing rounds of 65-68 for an 11-under total.
The social media team for the DP World Tour has done it again.
From angry golfers to the worst pro-am partner ever, the content team for the European-based tour has delivered hilarious videos for years and another dropped on Sunday.
At the 2024 Porsche Singapore Classic at Laguna National Golf Resort Club in Singapore, seven players – Richard Mansell, Johannes Veerman, Shane Lowry, Guido Migliozzi, Dale Whitnell, Shubhankar Sharma, James Morrison – were asked to name other professional golfers just based on emojis.
Some of the answers were pretty easy to figure out, while others were rather difficult. How many did you get right?
“It is the best day of my life on the golf course.”
Just two days after shooting a career-best 61, Matteo Manassero celebrated what he tabbed “the best day of my life on the golf course.”
The 30-year-old Italian shot a final-round 66 at Glendower Golf Club on Sunday to win the Jonsson Workwear Open in Johannesburg, South Africa. His three-shot win over a trio of players marked Manassero’s first victory on the DP World Tour in 11 years.
“It has been a crazy journey, but in the last few years I knew I was getting back on track,” Manassero said. “Golf is such a difficult game. I am just so happy to be here now. I played well today, but the guys behind were playing some incredible golf and every time I looked at the leaderboard it was a new name with more birdies.”
Born near Verona, Manassero started playing golf at age three with a set of plastic clubs. At 16, he became the youngest winner of the British Amateur Championship in 2009 before taking the silver medal for low amateur in the 2009 British Open Championship. Manassero still holds the record as the youngest-ever winner on the DP World Tour at 17 years, 188 days in 2010 (Castello Masters Costa Azahar in Spain), but he had recorded only seven top-10 finishes since winning the 2013 BMW PGA Championship, the tour’s flagship event and his fourth career title.
Manassero climbed as high as 25th in the Official World Golf Ranking before chasing distance gains and losing control of his swing. As the frustration mounted, he even quit playing for a brief stretch five years ago, and entered the week ranked No. 381. Manassero won twice on the Challenge Tour last season to regain his DP Tour privileges for the first time in five years.
Manassero shot 26-under par to edge Shaun Norris (68), Thriston Lawrence (63) and Jordan Smith (68), who shared second.
After a long and winding road, the can’t-miss kid who missed has found his way back to the winner’s circle.
“Delight in the wildlife. That’s my idea of heaven.”
Tony Johnstone waited 20 years to get his first photograph of a gorgeous bushshrike, a bird that is easily heard, but it takes something of a miracle to be seen.
Johnstone’s favorite bird is the lilac-breasted roller, which is unofficially considered the national bird of Kenya.
“It’s the most stunning bird you’ve ever seen in your life,” said Johnstone, who hails from Zimbabwe but now lives in Sunningdale, England. “I can’t drive past one without stopping to take it.”
When the DP World Tour heads to South Africa this week for the Jonsson Workwear Open, Johnstone will be there, colorfully calling the action at Glendower Golf Club from the booth.
Lilac-breasted roller (Tony Johnstone photo)
A six-time winner on the DP World Tour, the 67-year-old Johnstone is one of golf’s great characters. Combine his passion for the game with his passion for the wildlife in Kruger National and the result is a television series called “Bush Hacking,” where Johnstone offers insight on birds and animals as he plays a round of golf through the African bush. The series lasted three seasons, and snippets are still shown when the tour plays events in the area.
Johnstone describes himself as fanatical about his photography, and he loves to share his discoveries on social media. His fascination with birds began about 25 years ago and now extends to creatures of all sizes. He’s fond of going out in Kruger National Park around 4:30 a.m. with his wife and staying out until 6 p.m.
“We just drive the whole day, and just delight in the wildlife,” he said. “That’s my idea of heaven.”
The talented Johnstone shared a number of his favorite wildlife photographs from over the years with Golfweek. Scroll on to get lost in another world.
The former Duke player is now busy crisscrossing the globe making history in the commentary box.
Alison Whitaker was having lunch on her birthday in China at a Ladies European Tour event when someone from the television crew asked if she’d be interested in filling in during the coverage later that day.
The affable Aussie said sure, she’d love to. The crew member went on to explain that ideally, they’d like to have a European voice. Whitaker said no worries, she’d be around for another 40 minutes in player dining if they couldn’t find a better option. Either way, no hard feelings.
“Lucky for me, they didn’t find anyone,” Whitaker said with a laugh. By the end of the day, she’d been offered a contract for the following season.
That was a decade ago, and now Whitaker, the former Duke player with the razor-sharp mind and infectious personality, is busy crisscrossing the globe making history in the commentary box.
LPGA Hall of Fame player and television trailblazer Judy Rankin calls Whitaker the most versatile person in broadcasting. She can walk the fairways as an on-course reporter and serve as both an analyst and lead host – sometimes in the same week.
Whitaker, 38, will be in the booth at this week’s Blue Bay LPGA event in China but does most of her work in the men’s game on the DP World Tour and is mostly off-camera, making her a sneaky low-profile TV personality.
“She’s tremendous,” said Rankin, adding that “here, she’s definitely under the radar except for the true golf junkies who watch a lot of the European Tour and so on.”
Whitaker made it to Durham, North Carolina, via a 2005 American summer tour that culminated in a semifinal appearance at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, where she beat future LPGA players Ryann O’Toole, Maria Uribe and Amanda Blumenherst before falling to finalist Maru Martinez.
Alison Whitaker played for Duke from 2006 to 2010. (courtesy Duke athletics)
When Whitaker arrived at Duke, the mood of the team lightened, recalled Blumenherst. She’d be the one printing out the lyrics to the “Little Mermaid” to bring in the team van. When Blumenherst played her last competitive round at the Evian Championship 11 years ago, Whitaker was there on the last hole to give her a hug.
Blumenherst was actually working for the Golf Channel on set when she first heard Whitaker’s voice on a broadcast. She watched as someone hit a thin shot out of a bunker that caught the top edge, prompting Whitaker to say, “Oh, those lips don’t lie.”
Right from the start, Blumenherst said, it seemed Whitaker belonged on television.
At one point this season, it looked like Whitaker might be on the road working events for 17 straight weeks. She deleted a few in the middle so she’d remember where to put the coffee mugs at her home in Melbourne. She’ll typically work five to seven weeks in a row and then have a couple off.
Saying yes to television was made rather easy given that she’d been battling glandular fever and vertigo as a touring pro. Plus, she absolutely loved it, noting that her work ethic exploded.
For many former players in the commentary world, television feels like the next stage. But for Whitaker, professional golf felt more like the lead-up to what she was meant to be doing.
When Whitaker first got recruited to work on the LET, she was in her late 20s, which was young for the time. After working the LPGA’s Asian swing and some of the men’s and women’s events in Australia, Whitaker started covering the DP World Tour for European Tour Productions, which provides the world feed for Golf Channel and Sky Sports, among others.
“She’s the most conscientious, diligent person I’ve ever come across,” said booth mate Tony Johnstone. “I think she’s surrounded by more laptops than when they put Apollo on the moon.”
Covering the men’s game meant that Whitaker had a lot to learn in a short amount of time, given that playing professional golf on a women’s tour leaves little time to watch the men.
Sitting next to men in the commentary box who had witnessed something firsthand that Whitaker had only read about drove her to work the range and talk to as many people as possible.
Even so, it was deeply intimidating.
“You kind of just have to make sure you fill your shoes with a little bit of self-belief,” said Whitaker, “which is so much harder than people would think when you’re sitting down the row from Nick Faldo and Trevor Immelmann, and I’m just trying to convince myself to talk.”
That’s where Whitaker’s strong sense of humor comes into play. She has learned to laugh about mistakes and give herself a bit of grace. When it comes to the naysayers online, her family provides some levity, particularly when bad grammar and typos are involved.
“Like many women in men’s realms, especially in sport, I’ve got a healthy dose of imposter syndrome,” said Whitaker, “which I’m trying to get in check, but at the same time it fuels me.”
Alison Whitaker and Iona Stephen pose for a picture at the TV compound. (courtesy photo)
Iona Stephen’s first memory of meeting Whitaker was at the 2019 BMW PGA Championship while working for Golfing World. Whitaker warmly introduced herself, and they sat down for a drink. Right from the start, Stephen felt this was a woman she could trust.
Fast forward to the global pandemic, when Stephen was early into her work as an on-course reporter covering the DP World Tour and tasked with interviewing some of the biggest names in golf – live. It was a tough time learning a new business during the isolated era of Covid, but as luck would have it, Stephen was in a shared accommodation space with Whitaker that week. Stephen grabbed a decorative shell and used it as a pretend microphone as she conducted mock interviews with Whitaker until midnight.
“I’ll never forget that,” said a grateful Stephen.
Whitaker started working the lead of men’s broadcasts toward the end of 2020. With little advice to go on, she dove in, unaware of all the ways she’d soon be making history.
In addition to working as the lead host covering on the DP World Tour on a consistent basis, Whitaker became the first female lead at the Open Championship three years ago at Royal St. George’s for the world feed, as well as at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. Last year, she was the first female lead on a men’s major for Sky Sports at the PGA Championship.
David Mould, director of live television at the European Tour Group, said Whitaker is also the first person on the world feed to work as both a lead host and analyst, which she does for the DP World Tour’s high-profile Rolex Series events.
“I don’t think Alison realizes how good she is,” said Mould, “and maybe that’s a good thing because it drives her forward to try and be better.”
Whitaker is humble about the history and mostly wants to help other women join her on course and in the booth. She’s open to sharing all of her tricks and tips. And when the pressure gets to be too much, as it invariably does in a profession in which mistakes are amplified, she’s the first to offer those in her small girl gang a hug.
“The environment when I got into it was very competitive because there wasn’t enough room for more women,” said Whitaker. “It felt like there was one woman on each crew and everyone was quite defensive of their patch.”
She describes Thomas Bjorn as her security bear. He’s quick to make sure everyone is taken care of, she said, and will march into any room to make things happen. He’s even fought a few battles for Whitaker, just so she doesn’t have to.
“When you hang out with him, you can see why so many guys respect him and look to him as a leader,” she said. “I got to know that more after his Ryder Cup captaincy when I started to work with him more. He just gets things so right, and he takes care of you.”
Whitaker often works broadcasts without ever being seen on camera. (courtesy photo)
The team environment means much to Whitaker, a noted foodie and wine expert who can direct pals to brilliant food haunts around the world.
Whitaker notes that Scotland’s Ken Brown has a contagious laugh that can heard buildings over. He presented her a watercolor for Christmas – someone pulling a sleigh down a snowy street – and it became an instant treasure.
Richard Kaufman and Kate Burton were early mentors as she started covering the LET. Her goal every day was to find something that Kaufman didn’t know.
At the 2015 Solheim Cup, Whitaker sat in a box with Burton, who was working lead for the first time. At the end of the first day, Burton asked Whitaker to give her one thing she liked, and one thing she could work on for the next day. Learning how to take feedback is very hard to do, Burton explained, but it’s the only way to get better.
“What a massive lesson to learn,” said Whitaker. “Between the two of them, I got work ethic, and the secrets on how to try and improve.”
Of course, Whitaker’s favorite stories to tell are the ones when things didn’t go as planned. Like the time the air-conditioner died during the Joburg Open in South Africa and they had to put their phones in the fridge before finishing up a Sky Sports interview. Not to mention the black mamba curled up under the portable toilet.
“I hope to have a career of that,” said Whitaker. “I don’t want it to be too polished.”
“There’s no question: if you cut me in half, it bleeds Ryder Cup, right?”
Don’t expect Ian Poulter to be a part of any future Ryder Cups.
A stalwart on the European Team that has won the biennial match five times, Poulter has a record of 15-8-2, including an undefeated mark in Sunday Singles.
He’s one of the most fiery competitors in the history of the event, and he was a shoo-in to be a future European captain. That was, until he left to join LIV Golf in 2022.
Now, it seems as if he won’t be involved in the Ryder Cup whatsoever moving forward.
“Too much happened last time,” Poulter told Gulf News. “Too much was said, and that’s extremely disappointing from my perspective with the way certain people were treated and spoken about with reference to the Ryder Cup, especially when certain people have committed a lot of their life to work extremely hard for that product.
“So, the way it stands right now, with the current people that run that level of the organization, things would have to change for me to be involved. That’s from an everything perspective, I’m not needed, they didn’t need me last time.”
Ultimately, longtime members of the European team like Poulter, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Graeme McDowell weren’t needed last year, as the Europeans beat the Americans at Marco Simone in Rome. Luke Donald, who replaced Henrik Stenson as captain when the latter also went to LIV Golf, did such a good job, he has been tabbed as captain for 2025 at Bethpage Black.
Many players who left LIV Golf resigned their membership on the DP World Tour, a requirement to be on the European Ryder Cup team. While players like Garcia said they’d be interested in rejoining the DP World Tour to try to get back into the Ryder Cup fold in the future, others like Poulter are waving goodbye.
Poulter understands his playing days at the Ryder Cup are done, but he could still have a role as captain or vice captain.
However, it seems that won’t happen, considering the landscape of professional golf and the things that would have to happen to mend relationships that have been severed.
“When you’ve given and committed so much of your career to want to be with a certain group of individuals, no matter what is said, good or bad, they will always be your teammates,” Poulter said. “I might not agree with some of the stuff they’ve said, and that would need to be aired and bridges rebuilt. But again, they didn’t miss us, they told us we weren’t missed and that’s OK.
“There’s no question: if you cut me in half, it bleeds Ryder Cup, right? But I also have my own self dignity and respect in there to not allow people to say certain stuff and disrespect you.”
Adrian Meronk was in shock when he wasn’t one of the six captain’s picks to join Luke Donald’s squad at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy.
“I was expecting I have a pretty decent chance to be on the team, but it was a quite shocking call,” he said at the time. “I heard from (Donald) that it was tough for him, as well. To be honest when I — when he said I’m not going, I kind of stopped listening,” he said of the call. “He was saying that someone had to stay home. It was close obviously and stuff like that.
“Obviously I wouldn’t want to be in his position. I knew it was tough for him. But yeah, as I said, it was a big shock, and I didn’t really focus after that.”
However, once he started to focus again, he had a new one: LIV Golf.
Meronk confirmed with The Telegraph that his snub from the Ryder Cup team was a major reason he decided to join LIV Golf.
“I don’t know, but I would probably not have come to LIV if I had played in the Ryder Cup,” Meronk said. “What happened definitely made my choice easier. You know, what I went through just made it easier to care more about myself and not care what other people think of me, or what other people want me to do.
“What happened with the Ryder Cup just opened my eyes as to how everything works. Yeah, and that in life, especially when you are a professional athlete, it is not your whole life. You just have to make sure that your family is good and that you are good and feeling good.”
Meronk, 30, had a strong case to be selected. He had won the Australian Open the previous December and also the Italian Open earlier that summer, played at no other than Marco Simone, site of the Ryder Cup.
The Europeans didn’t have an issue taking down the Americans, winning 16½-11½. However, the decision kept Meronk wondering.
”The last two years I had really great years, but to be honest, I wasn’t enjoying it as much,” Meronk said. “I was just constantly on the road. We didn’t have a proper home, just packing from hotel to hotel, airport to airport. I was sitting with my parents and my girlfriend during Christmas, and I was just saying, ‘Yeah, I had a great year, but I didn’t really enjoy it.’ I remember when I won in Italy last May, waking up on the Monday, and saying, ‘OK, great, I won the tournament. But now I have to start all over again, go to a new course, get my routine going again. Where is the joy?’ So one of the best things is having more time to enjoy life with my family and friends.”
Now, Meronk is a member of Martin Kaymer’s Cleeks. He finished 47th of 54 golfers in his debut at LIV Golf Mayakoba but sat inside the top 20 heading into the final round at LIV Golf Las Vegas on Saturday.
He told The Telegraph he still hopes to play on a Ryder Cup team one day.
“Obviously, I didn’t like how I was treated last time, but if it’s possible to play in the Ryder Cup and if I’m good enough, I would love to be on the team,” he said. “I will just work hard on my game, perform at my best and see what can happen.”
McIlroy is the tour’s first four-time winner of the event, having done so in 2009, 2015, 2023 and 2024.
Rory McIlroy defended his title at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and made a little history, too.
The 34-year-old Northern Irishman won the event for a fourth time on Sunday at Emirates Golf Club in the UAE, the first to do so in DP World Tour history.
McIlroy was 10 shots back entering Saturday’s third round before a 9-under 63 vaulted him into the final group Sunday. Two shots back to start the final round, the 17-time DP World Tour winner made three birdies on his front nine and held on to win by one shot at 14 under despite just one bogey on the round at the par-5 13th, his lone bogey of the weekend and first since the 11th hole on Friday.
“It’s a great start to the season,” said McIlroy who finished runner-up at last week’s Dubai Invitational. “I started well last year with the win here. A couple of little things still to work on but these weeks are great. You learn a ton from them and obviously great to get the competition and come out on top as well.”
“I thought on Friday night, I thought ten under for the weekend, I would have a really good chance to win,” he continued. “I shot (11 under) and ended up winning by one.”
If you’re keeping track at home, that’s now six wins in Dubai for McIlroy, where he’s adored by the fans.
“I’ve played the game long enough to sort of know how these things are going to go. Thankfully I played the golf I needed to and it’s just incredible to get my fourth win here at the Emirates.”
Adrian Meronk (71) finished runner-up at 13 under, while Cameron Young (74) came in third at 12 under. Pablo Larrazabal shot the low round of the day, a 6-under 66, to finish T-4 at 10 under alongside Aaron Cockerill (68) and Joaquin Niemann (70).
Rory McIlroy’s round was the best of the day… by four shots.
Rory McIlroy started the day 10 shots behind leader Cameron Young.
With 18 holes left at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club, McIlroy trails by only two. He shot 9-under 63 in the third round Saturday, moving into a tie for second at 12-under alongside Adrian Meronk.
McIlroy’s round was the best of the day… by four shots. His best shot was his last, an eagle putt from the fringe on the par-5 18th.
“I was walking up with the putter in my hand, and as I got closer to the ball, I saw that there was a lot of fringe to go through,” McIlroy said. “And I said to Harry, like I sort of want to chip it but the lie wasn’t great. I could just see the club bouncing. I was like, I’ll just sort of, I guess, ride my luck with the putter, and it came out perfectly. And as soon as it got on the green, it actually wasn’t as fast as I thought it was going to be once it got on the green. And it was tracking perfectly. Obviously a huge bonus for something like that to go in.
“But you know, for the rest of the day, I played some very, very good golf. Definitely better than I played the last couple of days and nice to get myself right back in the tournament.”
McIlroy went out in 5-under 30 before adding two more birdies and the eagle on the back nine.
McIlroy won the Dubai Desert Classic last year and has had plenty of success playing all over the world thanks to his incredible consistency. What is he most proud of during that time?
“I think the fact that I turn up every day still trying to get better,” McIlroy said. “I think the consistency that I’ve shown throughout my career, I’ve never lost the hunger to go out and play better. But I’ve also never lost the joy of the game, which I think is really, really important. It’s never felt like a job to me, and the day it does feel like a job is the day I need to give up.”
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland celebrates after an eagle putt on the 18th green during Round Three of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club on January 20, 2024 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Young, who held a three-shot lead heading into the day, had his most up-and-down day of the tournament yet. After an 8-under round on Friday, he shot 1 under on Saturday in a round that includes four birdies, a bogey and a double.
“The front nine, especially, is kind of one of those days when a few things don’t quite go your way,” Young said. “I didn’t putt quite as well as I have the last few days, and with a little bit more wind, it wasn’t that easy. I think all in all, it was a good battle. And not obviously trying to be winning by ten after today, but two is better than none.”
Cameron Young is hitting bombs and dropping putts.
After two rounds at Emirates Golf Club, it doesn’t look like it’s Cameron Young’s first time at the course.
The American fired the round of the tournament Friday in Dubai, shooting 8-under 64 to take a three-shot lead heading into the weekend. Young had nine birdies and one bogey on his card and sits at 13 under in his Rolex Series event debut.
“I putted fantastic,” Young said. “I made a couple long ones yesterday and then made a few more today that those had no right going in I feel like. I hit a bunch of good putts but just one of those days where you kind of have a couple 30-footers and you look up and they are going right in the middle, which doesn’t happen all that often to have a bunch of them in one round. But really nicely and putted great.”
Young leads by three over Adrian Meronk, who Wednesday won the Seve Ballesteros Award as the DP World Tour’s Player of the Year for 2023, and Andy Sullivan.
Young had four straight birdies on Nos. 16-18 and No. 1 (he started on No. 10) and also added a pair of circles as Nos. 3-4 for six in seven holes. He bogeyed his closing hole, the par-4 ninth, his second 5 on the hole in as many days.
Tommy Fleetwood, who won last week, is T-15 at 5 under. Rory McIlroy sits T-25 at 3 under.
It was also a special round for European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald, as he aced the par-3 fourth hole on Friday.
