By Kent Gray
There are blasts from the past on this Omega Dubai Desert Classic leaderboard – think 2010 champion Miguel Ángel Jiménez – and then there are blasts from the past.

Trevor Immelman famously mauled Tiger Woods by three strokes at the 2008 U.S. Masters but has been more prominent talking a good game than playing one since claiming the coveted green jacket.

It’s made a thoroughly refreshing change then to swap out his TV analyst’s microphone for his sticks and have them behave in Dubai where rounds of 69-66 take him into the weekend right in the mix at -9.

The operative word there, with all due respect to the likeable South African, is ‘weekend’.  Counting the BMW SA Open and last week in Abu Dhabi, Immelman had made just one cut in his previous 17 European and PGA Tour starts spanning back to Abu Dhabi last year.

“Yeah, it’s nice it play well for a change. It’s been a little while,” said Immelman whose last payday – all € 9847 of it – came at the Tshwane Open in March 2017 courtesy of a T-29 finish.

“Last two weeks, I’ve had one good round, one bad round, missed the cut. After a solid round yesterday, I was hoping that I could find a way to keep it going, and pretty solid on the front nine and then made a few birdies to finish, which is real nice, satisfying feeling, I must say.”

Immelman, who was captain of the International team featuring Dubai teen Rayhan Thomas at last year’s Junior Presidents Cup, agreed the opening 69 had given him momentum.

“It’s funny, obviously I’ve had no results but my game has started to feel a little bit better in the last month or two. I was just trying to find a way to bring it to the golf course consistently and bring it to the tournament.”

So what have you found that’s made the difference? “It’s way too complicated for me to explain to you, but you know, if I can keep it for two more days, maybe I’ll tell you (laughing). Just really thrilled to go out there and hit solid shots today.”

Immelman had five birdies during an inward nine of 32 strokes including a memorable birdie-birdie finish.

“Yeah, it was a real nice way to finish. Decided to lay up on 17 with an iron off the tee and hit a beautiful wedge to a few feet there and made the birdie. I was trying to go for a big drive on 18 and just pulled it. Kind of scuttled it down the fairway, and once again, from about 120 yards, hit a nice shot in to about eight feet and made it.

“It’s nice to see some putts go in. I think that’s kind of what held me back last week. So, yeah, hopefully I can keep it going. Be nice.”

For the record, Jiménez (who coincidently finished T-8 at Augusta National the year Immelman triumphed) is a shot ahead of the South African after rounds of 66-68.