DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – JANUARY 26: Matthew Southgate of England celebrates a hole in one on the 7th hole during round two of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club on January 26, 2018 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

By Kent Gray
Whatever Tiger Woods can nearly do at Torrey Pines, Matthew Southgate can really do at Emirates Golf Club.

The 29-year-old Englishman aced the water-fronted par-3 7th on the Majlis Friday morning with a nine iron – roughly 12 hours after Woods nearly holed out on the 16th hole of the South Course at Torrey in an eventual even par start to his PGA Tour comeback at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Here’a Tiger’s near miss in case you missed it.

Southgate’s perfect shot helped him forget a bogey start to his second round at the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic, the start of which had been delayed by nearly three hours due to a blanket of heavy fog hovering over the European Tour venue.

It saw him move to -6 through 27 holes after his opening 68 and earned the world No.142 a Seamaster Aqua Terra 150m Master Chronomter timepiece from headline sponsors OMEGA. The fun didn’t stop there either; he went on to eagle the par 5 -15 hole to get to -3 for his second round and -7 for the championship with five holes to play.

Southgate was due a bit of luck after cruelly incurring a fateful four stroke penalty at the DAP Championship during last September’s Web.com finals.

Putting on the 15th at Canterbury Golf Club in Ohio, his ball was struck by a leaf that blew across the green, nudging the ball off line ever so slightly.

Southgate finished the hole, but he made a huge error in the process as he should have placed his ball back to its original location and replayed the shot without penalty. Instead, by continuing the hole, he was handed a four-stroke penalty – two for playing from the wrong spot and two more for signing an incorrect card.

Here’s the incident:

The unlucky break ultimately cost Southgate a PGA Tour card for 2018 but rather than cursing to the heavens and golf’s sometimes silly rules, it left him “embarrassed”.

“It was poor from me to not know the rules of a game I’ve played since I was two,” Southgate later told The Telegraph.

“I take full responsibility. ¬People say it’s bad luck but it’s not bad luck because I should have replayed the shot and could have made four. But I didn’t and it became nine, and that ¬became me missing my card. I’ve only got myself to blame. I’m not annoyed with anyone else.”

Overnight leader Jamie Donaldson, meanwhile, had stretched out to -12 through eight holes of his second round after his sizzling 62 on Thursday. He led by one from fast charging Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez who had birdied five times in an outward nine of 32.

The leaderboard will be complicated by days end due to the fog however with the marquee groups of Sergio Garcia-Henrik Stenson-Rory McIlroy and Pat Perez-Tommy Fleetwood and Thomas Pieters not scheduled to start their second rounds until 3.10pm and 3.20pm respectively.

That will see the cut-deciding second round spill over into Saturday and will force a big catch-up on moving day.