The Adrian Meronk Diary: Tied 10th at the finish of the Dubai Invitational – I will take that

'I take away some positives from this week… I put it down to brushing off the cobwebs from my winter break' said the Pole

Published: Sun 14 Jan 2024, 11:20 PM

By
Adrian Meronk

Adrian Meronk of Poland plays his second shot on the 1st hole during the Dubai Invitational golf tournament in Dubai. - AP

Well, that was a good week for the start of my 2024 year.

I shot a final round of 68, three under par to finish on 11 under par and in 10th place in the $2.5 million Dubai Invitational at Dubai Creek Resort.

I have been in 10th place since Friday night. It feels like I have been there even longer. I did not make any moves at all up the leaderboard over the weekend – but equally, I did not move down. In this quality field, I will take confidence from this statistic.

It is still very early in a very long season.

To be honest I played quite well all week. My game is, in my opinion, on track – I just could not seem to get the ball close enough to the hole with my approach play.

I did not just get any momentum going and I did not make enough birdies all week – pure and simple. The putting felt good but I just did not make enough putts from 20 feet plus – the statistics show that you do not hold many of those in a round.

I take away some positives from this week… I put it down to brushing off the cobwebs from my winter break.

If you had told me on Wednesday that I would shoot 70, 67, 68 and 68 - I would have taken it and not gone out to play.

I was not hitting it that well early in the week.

So that is my first week of the year ticked off. A 30-minute drive to Emirates Golf Club is a bonus to my next tournament. No flights to different time zones, which is the norm.

I ended up signing autographs for a few Polish guys from the gallery just outside the scoring area. Golf is certainly growing amongst the Poles, which I am very proud of. That would not have happened just a few years ago.

A day off with no balls hit tomorrow. I do though have a few media and sponsor responsibilities at Emirates Golf Club which is all part of the job.

I will play nine holes on Tuesday and then it is the Pro-Am on Wednesday. That is my preparation for a Thursday first round this coming week.

The HERO Dubai Desert Classic on the Majlis is a ROLEX Series event boasting a prize fund of $9 million, a large number of Race to Dubai and OWGR points. I am targeting the bigger events this year, and the ROLEX Series events are just that.

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