Dylan Frittelli was one of the comeback king’s last year. The South African took home his first DP World Tour win in six years at the 2024 Bahrain Championship, thanks to a clinical back nine on Sunday at Royal Golf Club.

Frittelli hit the ground running with wins in Austria and Mauritius in 2017 on the then European Tour. Paving the way for his move to the PGA Tour, where he captured his first win at the John Deere Classic in 2019.

However, 2023 was rough for Frittelli, as he struggled to find form he returned to the DP World Tour, and found his way back to the winners circle in Bahrain.

Now he returns to the Kingdom of Bahrain for the fourth stop of the DP World Tour’s Middle East Swing with multiple memorable memories.

Here’s the prize money breakdown for each golfer at the 2025 Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship

Dylan, how excited are you to come back to the Kingdom of Bahrain and defend this special title?

I’m really excited to get back to the Kingdom of Bahrain. I obviously have fond memories of the week, not only for winning, but also experiencing a new culture and a new place.

It was a really cool place to go where the King still reins and people have so much respect for their royal family and leaders.

It’ll be nice to see familiar faces again and people I’ve built relationships with there, including the interesting expats I met.

Then obviously, I can’t wait to test myself again on the challenge that is Royal Golf Club!

The scoring wasn’t as deep as we usually see, does that reflect how tough a test it was?

I think the golf course surprised a lot of people. People probably didn’t think it was going to play that tough. Credit to the DP World Tour to playing it to its full length and not giving us easy pins.

I think that’s the type of golf I excel in when the conditions are tough and you’ve got to control your golf ball in the wind.

Hopefully this year we get the wind again and play it how Middle East golf courses should be played. It deserves to be a respectable Championship and have a score that shows that.

The course underwent a lot of changes prior to the Championship last year. What holes did you feel you had to capitalise on for your victory?

I personally think the par 5’s are the tough ones to look out for at Royal Golf Club. You have got two really difficult ones on the front nine with the third and the ninth. If you don’t hit the fairway with your drive you are really struggling to make par, if you do and you hit your second shot onto the green then you’ve got a chance at a safe, easy, birdie.

Then on the back nine, you’ve got the back-to-back par fives on 13 and 14 which is a really cool feature that not a lot of courses replicate.

You have the same story there, I can hit a long ball off the tee on 13 and then again on 14 which is straight downwind with the prevailing wind conditions. You can hit something close to a 400-yard drive and leave yourself with just a seven iron into the green. If you don’t get it over the hill on the left, then you’ve left yourself with a blind layup from a sandy lie.

Those are two really well-designed par fives on the back nine and the two on the front nine are as equally really well-designed. I think if you can play those par fives well throughout the week then you’ll definitely be in contention.

You said the victory showed your mental toughness, do people on the outside not give you guys enough credit as to how tough it is to win?

I don’t think anyone outside of the golf circle realises the pressure you go through. In a way, it’s the same pressure any amateur sees in their Saturday competition, but we obviously have our livelihoods on the line. We might be stressing about money or travel and how to fund your next season if you don’t go out and play well in the preceding year.

Thankfully, I’m on the backend of a 14-year career so I have some money saved up, but there is still some pressure and some angst of that weird feeling of “ah, if I don’t make this putt then I’m two shots behind.”

Those little thoughts do add up over a long career and a long Sunday which is a tricky scenario but one I have come to terms with in the past year. The year leading up to the win in Bahrain was a really scary time with those thoughts popping up in my head every shot or every hole.

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