Hero Dubai Desert Classic: Richie Ramsay 'proud' to see name on leaderboard

Two-time winner Stephen Gallacher also heading into weekend in Rolex Series event with spring in his step after bogey-free 66

Richie Ramsay lines up a putt on the tenth green during round two of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club. Picture: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images.

Richie Ramsay wondered if he’d “still have it” starting out on his 16th consecutive campaign on the DP World Tour at the age of 40. Judging by a prominent position at the halfway stage in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, he’s not had to wait long for his answer. Two-time winner Stephen Gallacher is also heading into the weekend in the opening Rolex Series event of the 2024 season with a spring in his step.

After opening with a bogey-free three-under-par 69 on the Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club, Ramsay was equally pleased with his second-round 68, which contained five birdies. On seven-under-par, the Edinburgh-based Aberdonian is handily-placed in joint-fourth, even though American Cameron Young holds a three-shot lead following a sparkling 64 on day two on his debut in the $9 million event.

“Yeah, I played really nice,” said Ramsay of his morning’s work. “You can’t kind of fake it round there and I played steady. I was very good at staying in my path. I was playing with Marco [Penge], who is obviously super talented and hits a country mile off the tee. You’ve got to kind of ignore that to an extent and play your own game and I was really good at that.” Staying chilled, something he’s become much better at over the years, has helped, too. “I was quite relaxed out there,” added the four-time tour winner. “I think you realise after being out here for a while that you just need to try to enjoy it. At times, you do think about retirement and realise that you have to make the most of it while you can as you don’t know what’s around the corner.”

Two-time winner Stephen Gallacher shot a bogey-free six-under-par 66 in the second round of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Picture: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images.

Ian Rae, Ramsay’s long-time coach, joined him in the UAE ahead of his 2024 campaign starting in last week’s Dubai Invitational at Dubai Creek, where he never really fired on all cylinders. “I felt really good at Nedbank (his final event of the 2023 season in November), so I felt it was a continuation of that when I came out here to get ready for the new season,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about having that KISS mentality - keep it simple, stupid. If I focus on the process of forgetting about the result and do what I can do, I can execute the shots really well. It’s a combination of Ian being here, a couple of equipment changes and me applying a good attitude and I’d argue that my attitude was quite poor at the Creek last week as I was struggling a little bit with my wrist.

"Then realising that this is a cool event. My uncle used to bring me back programmes from this tournament in the 1990s when it started and now I get to play in it and it’s a Rolex Series event. I think all those things might only be one per cent, but they all add up to five or six per cent and that’s important.” As for his position on the leaderboard, he admitted: ”Yeah, it is cool. I said to someone when I was practising last week that when you come out at the start of the year, ‘have I got it?, is it going to be there when I start playing?’ And it’s cool to have it. Just intrinsically, you say, ‘I’ve still got it, I can still play’. And when you look at the leaderboard and see my name, I felt quite proud today.”

As did Gallacher and rightly so, too. He’d been going along nicely on the opening day before a triple-bogey 7 at the fifth – his 14th – left him having to settle for a 73. It was mission accomplished, though, in terms of making the cut in his first outing of the new calendar campaign as he added a bogey-free 66 to jump into the top 15 on five under. “Bogey-free here is always nice and especially now as I’d say it is six shots harder than when I won it,” admitted Gallacher, the event’s only back-to-back champion in 2013 and 2014. “Six shots easy,” he added, emphasising his point. “Just where the tees are now and the rough is so thick as well. The ball is going quite far, as we saw yesterday from Rory [McIlroy] hitting some 360-yard drives. You can understand why they want to bring the ball back when you play courses and think what they used to be like and see what they are like now. It was good to get that under my belt today and get off to a good start at the beginning of the year.”

Gallacher’s effort was matched by Mike Lorenzo-Vera, one of his playing partners. “Oh, it was cool,” said the Frenchman of the two long-time friends clearly enjoying a day in each other’s company. “Strangely, yes,” he added in reply to being asked if it had been a chilled game of golf. “I don’t why I was relaxed because I think I hit five fairways and caught the last four (smiling). We had fun. We’ve known each other for a long time. We’ve had a few drinks together over the years. I still have one memorable one from the Emirates 380 bar (laughing). We like each other and we like each other’s games. We managed to turn the day in a good way, especially for me, as it could have gone in a bad direction.”

As world No 25 Young opened up a handy cushion over Pole Adrian Meronk and Englishman Andy Sullivan, Grant Forrest and Scott Jamieson progressed on three under alongside defending champion McIlroy while Connor Syme, who’d been five over after nine holes on Thursday, made it through on one under along with Calum Hill.