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Pieters and his caddy line up a shot from the 7th tee at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Thursday.

By Kent Gray
Midway through his topsy-turvy opening round, there was a scary reminder that the Majlis layout doesn’t really suit Thomas Pieters’ big power fade game. By round’s end, complete disaster miraculously averted, the Belgian had the lead in the 31st OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic and maybe, just maybe, the belief he might actually be able to win on this thus far unhappy hunting ground.

Giddily cruising along at five-under at the turn, the 18th after he had started the $3.25 million European Tour event at the 10th, Pieters was making a mockery of the gusty conditions.

But like so many found to their frustration on Thursday, the Majlis had mayhem up her sleeve. A double-bogey at the 1st and another dropped shot at the 2nd threw the 27-year-old back into the pack and it seemed David Lipsky might hold onto his -4 clubhouse lead all the way into Friday.

On cue, the topsy version of Thomas re-emerged, three successive birdies from the 5th and a gritty par-par finish capping a 67 to leave Lipsky a shot adrift. Swept along with eight birdies in total on a day when there was far more blue numbers on the leaderboard than red, Pieters agreed it had been terrific scoring.

“Yeah, it was,” said Pieters who arrived in Dubai fresh from a T-30 finish in Abu Dhabi last week. “My drives and 3-woods weren’t very good today but somehow I found the greens and if I did hit a fairway, I took advantage of it. Played the par 3s very well. So that means I’m hitting my irons pretty good as I did last week and I just rolled in a few putts, which was nice.”

Pieters’ putter certainly came to the party, especially after he threatened to self-combust after those three dropped shots in two holes. The key putt came on the 5th, a tricky gain binned via six feet of break, before birdie putts from eight and nine feet disappeared on the 6th and 7th.

If it looked easy, it wasn’t.

“Well, there’s nothing easy about today, but I found 14 greens, which is always nice in these kind of conditions. I thought putting was quite tough because the greens are rock hard. I gave myself plenty of chances and luckily made a few.

“I’ve been working on my putting real hard, and I just hope to see some progress. I saw that today. Hopefully we can keep it up. I know I’m hitting the ball quite nice, and you know, I’m just looking forward to the next three days.”

A share of 23rd in 2017 is the world No. 84’s best return in five Desert Classics. There’s a long way to go before he can consider a fifth European Tour win, not to mention a course that still doesn’t really suit his eye to continue to grapple with.

“There’s some really tough holes. For myself, if I fade the ball, it’s never nice to have 90-degree doglegs to the left, and the rough has been really juicy, I don’t know why. Maybe they don’t want to see the 24-, 25-under winning the golf tournament.”

On the evidence of the first day, and particularly Pieters’ play, he mightn’t need to go that low to become firm friends with the Majlis after all.