Tommy Fleetwood is keeping an open mind about the new flagstick rule. Getty Images
Tommy Fleetwood is keeping an open mind about the new flagstick rule. Getty Images
Tommy Fleetwood is keeping an open mind about the new flagstick rule. Getty Images
Tommy Fleetwood is keeping an open mind about the new flagstick rule. Getty Images

Flagstick rule receives mixed reaction from players at Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA


Paul Radley
  • English
  • Arabic

Bryson DeChambeau likes to invoke the coefficient of restitution. Brooks Koepka thinks it’s weird. Dustin Johnson reckons he can’t do it. Tommy Fleetwood says to wait and see. And Lee Westwood thinks it will spoil the view.

All sports provoke controversy, scepticism, and often even ire when they attempt to modernise. Take football and its technological revolution. It is unlikely, for instance, that there is going to be a clear consensus in that sport on Video Assistant Referee anytime soon.

In golf, most of the current whys and wherefores surround not some hi-tech, microchipped, video surveillance system that requires a panel of officials sitting in judgement in a far-off edit suite. Rather, it relates to whether players choose to pick the flag out of the hole when they putt or not.

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Read more:

Brooks Koepka 'still the same me' since last time in Abu Dhabi despite rise to superstardom

Henrik Stenson hopes to finally clinch elusive Abu Dhabi Golf Championship crown

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Until the start of this year, golfers faced a two-shot penalty for hitting the flagstick when putting on the green. In the latest update to the Rules of Golf, that punishment has been removed.

Some have embraced the change. DeChambeau, the world No 5 from the United States, has found favour leaving the pin in the hole on the PGA Tour so far. He will only opt against doing so, he has said, when the flag is metal rather than fibreglass.

Unsurprisingly, the great and good who have assembled in the capital for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA have paid a little less thought to it than golf’s mad scientist.

Bryson DeChambeau lines up a putt at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Reuters
Bryson DeChambeau lines up a putt at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Reuters

Koepka, the world No 2, has played one tournament, the Sentry Tournament of Champions, under the new rules. He remains ambivalent on the issue of the flagstick alteration, but thinks it is unlikely he will change the formula that has served him so well to date, when he is on the green at the National Course this week.

“It just feels weird when it’s in,” Koepka said. “In Hawaii, the first few rounds it was out, and the last round I putted a lot with it in, just to test it out.

“I don’t like it. I’ve gone my whole career with pulling the flag out, why are we going to switch now? I seem to have done alright with it out.

“Maybe there’s one or two putts where I’ll leave it in, maybe downhill sliders. You look at a place like Augusta where you’ve got a real tricky putt, where if you miss you are probably going to run it three or four feet by. You can still be aggressive with the flag in.”

Johnson also played the Tournament of Champions. “I tried to hit a couple putts with the flag in in Hawaii and I couldn't do it,” Johnson, the world No 3, said.

“The only time there will be a situation where I'll leave the flag in is a long putt where normally I'll have my caddie tend the flag.”

Dustin Johnson has tried putting with the flagstick in but "couldn't do it". Getty Images
Dustin Johnson has tried putting with the flagstick in but "couldn't do it". Getty Images

Westwood says he is unlikely to change the method that has lasted him to this point, either. While DeChambeau has referenced COR - or the ratio of the final to initial relative velocity between two objects after they collide - Westwood thinks the target area is smaller with the flag in.

"I'd probably find it a bit off-putting, to be honest," Westwood said. "I like the cleanness of nothing there.
"To me, it makes the hole smaller. There's a chance of it hitting the flag if it's going a bit fast. I suppose there's a chance of it hitting the flag and going in and slowing it down, but there's a chance of it hitting the flag and bouncing out."

For defending Abu Dhabi champion Fleetwood, adapting to the new rules – which also include make drops from knee height rather than shoulder, and being able to tend to spike marks before putting - will be a case of trial and error.

“I don’t really have any science to it,” Fleetwood said of the flagstick change. “I know that there’s lip outs that you can have that can catch friction of the pin that go in when they may have a chance of missing.

“But you can also hit the pin dead-centre and it can jar out. I don’t really know if there’s a formula for it. Until we’ve tried it, we won’t know.”

WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?

1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull

2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight

3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge

4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own

5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed

Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

How to apply for a drone permit
  • Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
  • Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
  • Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
  • Submit their request
What are the regulations?
  • Fly it within visual line of sight
  • Never over populated areas
  • Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
  • Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
  • Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
  • Should have a live feed of the drone flight
  • Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
What is an FTO Designation?

FTO designations impose immigration restrictions on members of the organisation simply by virtue of their membership and triggers a criminal prohibition on knowingly providing material support or resources to the designated organisation as well as asset freezes. 

It is a crime for a person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to or receive military-type training from or on behalf of a designated FTO.

Representatives and members of a designated FTO, if they are aliens, are inadmissible to and, in certain circumstances removable from, the United States.

Except as authorised by the Secretary of the Treasury, any US financial institution that becomes aware that it has possession of or control over funds in which an FTO or its agent has an interest must retain possession of or control over the funds and report the funds to the Treasury Department.

Source: US Department of State

GROUPS

Group Gustavo Kuerten
Novak Djokovic (x1)
Alexander Zverev (x3)
Marin Cilic (x5)
John Isner (x8)

Group Lleyton Hewitt
Roger Federer (x2)
Kevin Anderson (x4)
Dominic Thiem (x6)
Kei Nishikori (x7)

Top 10 most polluted cities
  1. Bhiwadi, India
  2. Ghaziabad, India
  3. Hotan, China
  4. Delhi, India
  5. Jaunpur, India
  6. Faisalabad, Pakistan
  7. Noida, India
  8. Bahawalpur, Pakistan
  9. Peshawar, Pakistan
  10. Bagpat, India

 

 

SPECS
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

MATCH INFO

Burnley 1 (Brady 89')

Manchester City 4 (Jesus 24', 50', Rodri 68', Mahrez 87')

Jigra
Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Rated: 3.5/5
HIV on the rise in the region

A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.

New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.

Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.

Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.  

Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.

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