By Kent Gray
Like his playing partner for the opening 36 holes and fellow major champion Martin Kaymer, Danny Willett expects, ahem, Fire-works at Jumeirah Golf Estates this week. What the 33-year-old Englishman is less certain of is whether his name will be one of those in deep red come the conclusion of the new Golf in Dubai Championship on Saturday.

The 33-year-old took a bob each-way approach to his chances on eve of the $1.2 million event on JGE’s Fire layout.

On the one hand, he has proven desert pedigree with wins at the 2016 OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic and the 2018 DP World Tour Championship, on Fire’s sister course Earth. But as comfortable as Willett feels in Dubai, there is no hiding from a tough year on the PGA and European Tours, last month’s share of 25th at the rescheduled Masters the beacon. A relaxation of the qualifying criteria for next week’s DP World Tour Championship on Earth, where the field has been opened up from the top 50 to top-60 players plus anyone in the world’s top 75 who hadn’t otherwise qualified, is an unexpected end of season bonus for Willett.

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He’s happy with the work he’s done with coach Sean Foley but the acknowledges the travel and scheduling complications caused by COVID-19 probably impacted him more than anticipated.

“The work I’ve put in hasn’t really been reflected in the results we’ve had, which is a real shame,” Willett said ahead of his noon Wednesday tee-time with Kaymer and Belgian Thomas Pieters.

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“I don’t feel like I’ve got into a good solid rhythm of everything this year, just in terms of trying to clump certain sections of the schedule together when travelling to America. You don’t want to keep coming in and out of bubbles and travelling too much during COVID, so I’ve tried to clump events together and that doesn’t ordinarily work for me.

“We’ve been given the opportunity to play while the rest of the world is seemingly on hold so I’ve felt like I’ve had to get out there and play but I just haven’t played all that great.”

About now, Willett’s ying and yang theory went into overdrive.

“The practice is good but I just haven’t had anything too sparkling so far, but if I was to pop up in the next couple of weeks it wouldn’t be a massive surprise to myself because of the stuff I’ve been doing.

“But you could have two poor finishes and then you’ve got about four weeks off to regroup and come back in 2021.”

Next year will “definitely start in Abu Dhabi and Dubai” and then Willett will play his schedule largely by ear as the pandemic plays out. For now though, the focus is on Fire, a course he’s only previously partly experienced while driver testing on the 6th and 7th holes ahead of a previous DPWTC.

Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Willett in action during practice for the Golf in Dubai Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates on Tuesday.

“It’s pretty nicely there in front of you,” Willett said after a practice circuit of Fire.

“The greens are in good nick. It’s going to be a pretty low scoring week if the weather is nice. Nowhere near as firm as you often see the Earth Course get. I think it’s going to be a pretty gung-ho week, 18, 20 under-par winning, I would have thought. Depends on tee box and pin positions.”

This has been a year of pivoting for everyone, including the world’s best who have had to adapt to new courses hastily squeezed into schedules that look nothing like they did at the start of 2020.

“I’ve been on tour now for 10, 11 years, it’s very rare that you play a new golf course. This year I’ve probably played six or seven new golf courses around the world, both on the European Tour and PGA Tour. That has been tricky-ish to adapt to in that week to week usually you pitch up and you know the place, you know where you are going.

“Usually you go to events and you roughly know, alright this week is six to eight under par or this week is 15-16 under par, and that might help with your game plan, where you know not to be too stupid in certain areas. Whereas this week I think you’ll see a lot of guys be aggressive because you expect the scoring to be pretty good.”