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Michael Dodge/Getty Images
Law celebrates his ISPS Handa Vic Open victory at 13th Beach Golf Club in Geelong, Australia. The Scotsman won on the MENA Tour in 2016.
By Kent Gray
The MENA Tour’s new social media hashtag – #HBFS – translates to Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster. After establishing a five-stroke lead with a round to play, Englishman Matthew Baldwin is certainly making it harder for everyone else in the regional developmental circuit’s season-opener in Jordan.
The ‘better’ part also rang true on Sunday when the MENA Tour announced it had secured Challenge Tour invites for the winners of its first five ‘spring swing’ events, another significant carrot for its members who already had European, Challenge and Asian Tour invites in their crosshairs.
Sunday was also a day of proud reflection for MENA Tour officials when a former winner on tour, David Law, secured his European Tour breakthrough at the Vic Open in Geelong near Melbourne.
The MENA Tour previously trumpeted a ‘Making it Possible’ hashtag and Law is proof that great things are indeed attainable from this Middle East launch pad, a 72nd hole eagle at the 13th Beach Golf Club on Sunday helping the Scot bank €156,250 for his one-stroke victory over Australians Brad Kennedy and Wade Ormsby.
Law, 27, captured the MENA Tour’s Sotogrande Masters in 2016, beating 10-time tour champion Zane Scotland by six strokes at La Reserva Golf Club in Spain. The tour basked in the reflected glory on Sunday with this social media message:
Heartiest congratulations to @DavidLawGolf, a champion on our Tour, on winning the @VicOpenGolf for his first @EuropeanTour victory. We are so proud of you David. #HBFS pic.twitter.com/MHduSY5NR9
— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) February 10, 2019
There was also a heartfelt message from Law’s Scottish pal Conor O’Neil who is in a four-way share of second place heading into Monday’s final round at the $100,000 Journey to Jordan-1 event:
BITE-SIZED INTERVIEW
(After 2nd round of Journey To Jordan-1)@conorogolf was delighted with his 69 that took him up to tied 2nd place at 8-under, but his joy doubled when he heard his good friend, and a former room partner on MENA Tour, David Law had just won the Vic Open. pic.twitter.com/xsmGjW9JH9— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) February 10, 2019
That tough time O’Neil mentioned was heartbreaking, as Golf Digest’s John Huggan reports in his review of the pioneering Vic Open.
Now the proud parents of a daughter, Penelope, Law and his fiancée, Natasha, endured the agony of a still-born child two years ago.
“When you go through something like that, you realise how fragile life is,” Law told Huggan.
“I’m just so grateful that we got the support we did. It was unbelievable. I went back to play two weeks after it happened and, honestly, it was probably six weeks too early. We were both still in a pretty bad way. But I had to play, and I knew that the longer I put it off, the harder going back would be. That first week, in particular, was horrendous.”
Law won the 2018 Scottish Challenge in his 100th start on the European Challenge Tour less, a victory that would propel him to a European Tour card.
“I think that it’s only natural you begin to have some doubts,” he says of his earlier struggles. “I knew I was good enough to play and be competitive at a higher level, but when you keep getting knocks you start to wonder if you’ll ever get the chance. It’s not something you really want to think about, but there comes a point when you can’t ignore it any longer.”
