Amazing Grace comes crashing back to earth in the desert

BRANDEN GRACE came back to earth with a bump in the desert yesterday, finishing day one of the first big tournament of the season a distant eight shots behind joint leaders Robert Karlsson of Sweden and world No3 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland.

After winning twice on the European Tour on home soil in South Africa, the 23-year-old sensation could only manage a 75 in the first round of the Abu Dhabi champions.

With the big guns back in action, Grace was hoping to match the late, great Seve Ballesteros with a third successive victory in the capital of the United Arab Emirates when the fourth round draws to a conclusion on Sunday night.

Grace won the year’s second tournament – the Johannesburg Open – and last week held off his heroes Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in a play-off to win the Volvo Golf Champions at Fancourt Links near his home town, George. He became the first professional since Fred Couples to win immediately after his debut tour triumph.

Before teeing off against world No1 Luke Donald (71), reviving superstar Tiger Woods (70) and the irrepressible US Open champion McIlroy (67), Grace said: "I just hope my game stays the way it is and my energy levels stay up.

"I've just been running with emotion. I'll keep playing and keep playing until I'm exhausted and until I find it's time to take a break."

But the Buffelsbaai pro struggled on the lush green oasis of the Abu Dhabi golf club, and is unlikely to feature among the leaders on Sunday night.

A third successive win was achieved by German Martin Kaymer two years ago – but his victories were not in consecutive weeks. The last to win three times in successive weeks on the European Tour was super Spaniard Ballesteros in 1986 at the Irish, Monte Carlo and French Opens.

Just a month after coming through the Tour qualifying school in Spain, Pretoria-born Grace has those two victories under his belt and after climbing 166 positions in the world rankings, he said: “Getting into the top 50, I think that is every player's goal. That would put me in the US Masters and to get into a Major would be an unbelievable year.

“If I could achieve that to get into the Masters, it would just be a highlight, indescribable.”

“I know for a fact I'll definitely take it easy the next couple of days, go out and play the Pro-Am in Abu Dhabi and take it from there.”

Grace, after three events of the 2012 season, still leads the Race to Dubai moneylist with R5.8 million in earnings, a fairy-tale start to the season.

“I'm looking forward to the next two weeks. I've always looked forward to playing in big tournaments. So I'm going back and making new goals and taking it from there.”

That round of 75 left him in joint 102nd place in a field of 129. He double bogeyed the par four fifth and turned in 38 and came through the second nine just one over regulation. But the man now ranked 92 in the world was two shots clear of Kaymer, the world No4 who also suffered a horrific opening day in the desert.

And he was doing slightly better than the home favourites. Ahmed Al Musharrekh, the only Emirati in the field, carded a nine over par 81 while Stuart Fee, the top local professional qualifier, produced an awful 15-over 87. The pair fill the 128th and 129th positions on the leaderboard going in to the second round.

Keep track of Grace's progress in the desert... and all the rest of the sport with me in South Africa's new tabloid Scoop! on Sunday... available at all reputable street corners and outlets in Gauteng and KZN. See also www.scoopnews.co.za

Luke who's stalking Sun City: World No1 Donald heads to South Africa with his life in turmoil

Luke Donald will arrive in South Africa for the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City next week with his life in turmoil.
The world’s number one golfer saw his wife give birth to his second daughter this month – but he suffered the tragedy of losing his father Colin four days before.
On Twitter, Donald said following the birth of Sophia Ann Donald at 2.11am in Chicago on Friday morning, November 11 (11/11/11 for the world No1): "The No 1 has been gd 2 me, no more than 2day."
But after the death of his father, US-based Englishman Donald twittered: “With death there is pain and loss, but out of that comes light and appreciation. Appreciate what you have. I miss you dad x.”
The prolific tweeter was noticeably more cheerful this week, posting: “The best thing about being world No1 is not being No2!” and revealed his best-ever rounds: “61 at Conway Farms. 62 at Spyglass in competition.” Anything close to that will bring the house down at Sun City.
Donald also admitted to once breaking his club – at the tenth while competing in the Air Canada tournament in Vancouver in 2010 - before adding “Alright folks, I'm done. Back to daddy duties. Lost count of the nappies I’ve had to change. Catch u all later. Night tweeps!”
Donald, on the verge of becoming he first player in history to win the money title on both the American the PGA Tour and the European Tour in the same year, has had a week off while the President’s Cup battle rages in Australia.
With the old “Million Dollar Classic” next up, Donald is hoping for success before the final event of the European Tour season at the Dubai World Championship. He revealed he will end his year by competing in the Australia Masters, the final chapter in a prolific year for the boy who won the his local men’s championship at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, England, when he was just 15.
Both Donald and world No2 Lee Westwood, who won at Sun City last year when he was the world No1, will be competing for the $5m winner’s prize at Sun City from December 1-4 – but the two Brits will be up against FOUR major winners in the 12-man field.
World No4 Martin Kaymer of Germany, who won the 2010 US PGA, joins South Africa’s US Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and 2010 US Open winner Graeme McDowell as well as current Open champion Darren Clark of Northern Ireland.
Only one American - Jason Dufner – has secured an invitation as the Nedbank Classic compete with Tiger Woods' Chevron Challenge for big names in the first week of December.
There is a Sun City debut for South Korea's world No. 21 Kim Kyung-tae while top-class Scandinavians Anders Hansen, Thomas Bjorn and Robert Karlsson join England’s Simon Dyson to complete the dynamic dozen.
Kaymer, who won the last big tournament – the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai -
is now closing in on Donald, who was forced to bypass Shanghai because of his wife’s pregnancy.
Kaymer , who needs a victory at Sun City to maintain the pressure on the world No1 spot, said: “Obviously Luke is a very nice guy and he deserves to be No 1 in the world. It will be difficult to catch him, but that is what the sport is about, to challenge yourself, challenge the other players that you play with week in, week out, and of course I will try to give him a hard time.
“We’ll see. It’s not easy to get him away from the No 1 spot. It was an okay season, now it’s a good season. I played brilliant golf in Abu Dhabi (to win the HSBC Championship in January), and when I became the No 1 in the world in February after the World Golf Championships event in Arizona, my life has changed a little bit – not only mine, for the people I work with, my family.
“It has been a little awkward sometimes, because I was just not used to being in the spotlight. It took some time to get used to it, and hopefully it will happen again, because I know what’s going to happen, I know how to approach that.”