Golf in Dubai: Remote teaching in golf has a viable future, says Peter Cowen

Dubai - My projection for the winning score, with the Dubai weather not letting us down, has been revised and will be nearer -30 than -20

The penultimate round of a tournament is always referred to as ‘Moving Day.’

Today’s third round is even more important as this week can get you in or out of next week’s European Tour’s season ending $8 million DP World Tour Championship on the neighbouring Earth course here at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

Arguably even more important is the accumulation of OWGR points over these two weeks that can get you in or out of the OWGR top 50 where all those inside will receive invites to Majors, WGC events and other perks on the line.

I am pleased that all four of my guys have made the cut; Danny Willett on 10 under with two 67’s, Thomas Pieters a shot back, Jazz Janewattananond a further shot back and Romain Wattel another shot back.

Ten, nine, eight and seven under Par is not a bad opening 36 holes for my four guys.

On completion of their rounds there has been nothing major any of the players have been worried about.

Jazz has this afternoon worked on his chipping and Pieters is still not comfortable with his new driver. He will persevere with it again tomorrow. Time will tell if it is a long-term perseverance and love affair with driving being one of Pieter’s strengths in his game.

It is one of the lowest cuts of the year at -3 with 72 players on the mark or better, and my projection for the winning score, with the Dubai weather not letting us down, has been revised and will be nearer -30 than -20.

I knew I would put my foot into it sometime this week in this column!

On congratulating the Agronomy Team at JGE I omitted to thank and congratulate Josh McCallum, Second Assistant Agronomy at JGE. Josh and Marinus work in tandem under the watchful eye of Dubai Golf Director of Agronomy Matt Perry who is responsible for agronomy at five golf courses in Dubai, including those at Emirates Golf Club and Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club. Marinus focuses more on machinery, maintenance and engineering whilst Josh concentrates on the agronomy aspect of the work.

My longstanding friends in the city of Dubai are to blame Josh! Sorry again and keep up the great work! The Fire course is holding up well, especially the greens, as the players get used to their speed of an impressive and consistent 12ft 5 inches on the Stimpmetre.

Having spoken about long term video lessons yesterday, I am Brooks Koepka’s coach and he is playing this week in the Mexico on the PGA Tour in the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

Last night he connected with me at midnight UAE time whilst I was lying in bed.

He sent videos and within 15 minutes I had responded with my thoughts!

Good luck to Brooks.

Remote teaching in golf has a definite and viable future. It will be interesting to see the balance of face to face and remote teaching moving forward post Covid-19!

Finally, I am out of the ‘Tournament Bubble’ today at lunchtime to see some of my friends at Emirates Golf Club and return to the Bubble on Sunday for next week’s tournament in Dubai, again staying at Atlantis, The Palm.

Peter Cowen is one of the world’s leading golf coaches with Peter Cowen Academies in Dubai and Rotherham (UK).