Relatively downbeat on Wednesday when previewing his title defence at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Tyrrell Hatton must have left Yas Links on Thursday sporting a rather sunnier disposition.
A bogey-free 6-under-par in the morning offered a welcome retort to the gloomy pre-event demeanour and suggested the Englishman won’t be relinquishing the Falcon Trophy without a fight.
OK, so his attempt to retain the crown takes place across the E11 from where he triumphed 12 months ago, at Abu Dhabi Golf Club – the principal reason Hatton downplayed his chances this week.
But his opening DP World Tour round of 2022 confirmed he had taken quickly to fresh surroundings. After 18 holes, he sits fourth, part of a six-player group three shots off leader Scott Jamieson. In between, Thomas Pieters lies on 7-under, with world No 6 Viktor Hovland one stroke better in second.
So, new course in the capital, similarly hot Hatton.
“I guess I am a little bit surprised,” he said. “Start of the new year, you don't really know where your game is at until you play in tournament golf. To be honest, I don't feel like I played that great. I just scored really well. Obviously, I'll take that, start of the year, 6-under, bogey-free, is great.”
It certainly made a mockery of that initial forecast. Although, in his own mind at least, Hatton did have a point.
“Everyone should really be coming into the new year with not high expectations purely because you don't know where your game is at because you haven't played tournament golf for a while,” said the world No 22, chasing a record fifth Rolex Series victory. “I don't think it's a bad thing. Sometimes it helps.
“Obviously in the middle of the season if you've got low expectations, that's probably not a good thing. But starting out, I don't see it as a negative.”
Surely, there can be positives gleaned from his different approach to pre-season. Hatton, who confessed on Wednesday he can lack motivation to practice, kept his clubs locked away for much of December following a tied-9th at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. Instead of working on his game, he honed his gaming.
“I've done a bit of work this year, but I definitely needed to,” Hatton said. “I didn't touch a club for three weeks after the Bahamas, which was lovely. Enjoyed playing Xbox and not doing much else. But started this year going out to Orlando and getting back into the swing of things.”
Clearly, if Round 1 is anything to go by, the lay-off worked.
“I wish it was longer,” Hatton said. “It's not enough time, to be honest. Because obviously we [play] all the time, it's nice to just have a break and not worry about going out and practising and everything like that. So it's nice to hit the refresh button and obviously go again in the new year.”
With conditions to blow heavy around Yas Links on Friday, Hatton quipped that he wouldn’t mind some more time away from the course.
“Hopefully it's so windy we get a day off,” he said. “That would be nice. Can only hope, anyway. But yeah, it's going to be a completely different beast tomorrow. It's going to be a grind. You just have to try get through it, and at the end of the day, par is going to be a good score. Just see how you get on.”
In contrast, Rory McIlroy will be hoping on Friday for an improvement on par. The four-time major champion, out with Hatton and Lee Westwood, typically excels in Abu Dhabi, even if he is yet to win despite eight top-three finishes in his last nine starts there.
However, the Northern Irishman struggled on Thursday morning, mixing four birdies with four bogeys – he dropped three shots in his final four holes – to finish level. Elsewhere, world No 2 Collin Morikawa is one shot worse off than McIlroy, while 17-year-old, Dubai-based amateur Josh Hill is 1-under.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Everything Now
Arcade Fire
(Columbia Records)
Mane points for safe home colouring
- Natural and grey hair takes colour differently than chemically treated hair
- Taking hair from a dark to a light colour should involve a slow transition through warmer stages of colour
- When choosing a colour (especially a lighter tone), allow for a natural lift of warmth
- Most modern hair colours are technique-based, in that they require a confident hand and taught skills
- If you decide to be brave and go for it, seek professional advice and use a semi-permanent colour
Fight Night
FIGHT NIGHT
Four title fights:
Amir Khan v Billy Dib - WBC International title
Hughie Fury v Samuel Peter - Heavyweight co-main event
Dave Penalosa v Lerato Dlamini - WBC Silver title
Prince Patel v Michell Banquiz - IBO World title
Six undercard bouts:
Michael Hennessy Jr v Abdul Julaidan Fatah
Amandeep Singh v Shakhobidin Zoirov
Zuhayr Al Qahtani v Farhad Hazratzada
Lolito Sonsona v Isack Junior
Rodrigo Caraballo v Sajid Abid
Ali Kiydin v Hemi Ahio
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GOODBYE%20JULIA
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
You Were Never Really Here
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Starring: Joaquim Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov
Four stars
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Retirement funds heavily invested in equities at a risky time
Pension funds in growing economies in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have a sharply higher percentage of assets parked in stocks, just at a time when trade tensions threaten to derail markets.
Retirement money managers in 14 geographies now allocate 40 per cent of their assets to equities, an 8 percentage-point climb over the past five years, according to a Mercer survey released last week that canvassed government, corporate and mandatory pension funds with almost $5 trillion in assets under management. That compares with about 25 per cent for pension funds in Europe.
The escalating trade spat between the US and China has heightened fears that stocks are ripe for a downturn. With tensions mounting and outcomes driven more by politics than economics, the S&P 500 Index will be on course for a “full-scale bear market” without Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, Citigroup’s global macro strategy team said earlier this week.
The increased allocation to equities by growth-market pension funds has come at the expense of fixed-income investments, which declined 11 percentage points over the five years, according to the survey.
Hong Kong funds have the highest exposure to equities at 66 per cent, although that’s been relatively stable over the period. Japan’s equity allocation jumped 13 percentage points while South Korea’s increased 8 percentage points.
The money managers are also directing a higher portion of their funds to assets outside of their home countries. On average, foreign stocks now account for 49 per cent of respondents’ equity investments, 4 percentage points higher than five years ago, while foreign fixed-income exposure climbed 7 percentage points to 23 per cent. Funds in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are among those seeking greater diversification in stocks and fixed income.
• Bloomberg
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The details
Colette
Director: Wash Westmoreland
Starring: Keira Knightley, Dominic West
Our take: 3/5
