On the DP World Tour, a handful of the best players in the world squared off at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, offering us our first glimpse at those who were making their 2025 debuts.
Tyrrell Hatton took home the hardware, a continuation of the stellar form he showed throughout the entirety of 2024. With a win in Dubai, the 33-year-old has pieced together an impressive résumé of victories, including wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a BMW PGA Championship, and three Alfred Dunhill Links Championships. Legit wins. Now it’s time for Hatton to factor late into a major championship, a significant blind spot in an otherwise strong career. He has just one top 10 in a major championship in the last five years.
By the way, to those who believe Team USA winning on home soil at Bethpage is a foregone conclusion, how are you feeling about that call? Hatton is playing like a top 10 player in the world, Ludvig Aberg is already one of the best players in the world and ascending, while both Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm have been top players throughout their entire careers. Oh, and Sepp Straka just cruised to a win on the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, Xander Schauffele is set to miss this week’s Farmers Insurance Open with injury, and Scottie Scheffler’s hand injury sustained over the holidays has prevented him from kicking off his 2025 season. I have to imagine Team Europe is feeling pretty good right now.
Also in Dubai, McIlroy finished T-4 in his 2025 debut, his worst finish in the event in his last five appearances. Yes, you read that correctly. Not bad!
On a less impressive note, Rahm missed the cut by two, a disappointing start to a crucial year in his career. Last year wasn’t a full-blown disaster for the 30-year-old, but the front half of the year didn’t come anywhere close to meeting Rahm’s standards. One poor showing is no cause for panic, but the Spaniard needs to right the ship soon.
Viktor Hovland also missed the cut in Dubai after an underwhelming season debut at The Sentry two weeks ago. It’s fair to say that Hovland is a little bit lost right now.
Elvis Smylie, the 22-year-old Aussie who quite a few people seem excited about, made the cut in Dubai following a red-hot close to his 2024 calendar year. Smylie has some work to do before he can be discussed on the same level as the top players in his age group, but he’s a name to keep an eye on.
And finally, the 22-year-old Tom McKibbin started his 2025 on the right foot, finishing four shots behind Hatton in a tie for sixth. Though not officially confirmed, McKibbin is heavily rumored to have signed with LIV Golf in advance of the 2025 LIV season.
The Hardest Course in the World
The PGA Tour made its regular trip to the hardest golf course in the world, or at least that’s how the Stadium Course at PGA West used to be regarded. The final round of the American Express played to a scoring average of 70.56, down almost 3.5 strokes from the 73.97 final-round scoring average at the infamous 1987 Bob Hope Classic. And yes, I’m aware that the conditions were much easier this year than back in 1987. However, I’ll also point out that the American Express is a Tier B event on the PGA Tour, missing many of the top players in the world. The scoring average would dip even further if you replaced Chez Reavie with Scottie Scheffler, with all due respect. In an alternate universe, the hardest golf course in the world being reduced to a simple wedgefest would send shockwaves throughout every level of the sport. Instead, it’s just another week on the PGA Tour, baby.
Before we move into critiques, a huge shoutout to the restoration effort completed by Tim Liddy over the last 12 months at the Stadium Course, which expanded greens back to original sizes, recaptured green contours and hole locations, resurfaced the greens, and refurbished the bunkers. In particular, the fresh, firm greens elevated the test this week. As the greens settle, future editions of the AmEx will be more scorable than this past week’s tournament. Good news for the fans who love birdies!
Onto the negative. I know that the Stadium Course is never again going to punch golfers in the face like it did back in 1987. The game has changed. Nonetheless, it continues to baffle me that the PGA Tour refuses to set up golf courses in a way that legitimately challenges players. The recently completed restoration of the Stadium Course included expanding the green on 17 and replacing the thick strip of fringe that saved errant shots from finding the water in the past. Instead of leaning into the challenge of the new 17th, the PGA Tour used forward tees on the 17th in every round of competition, never playing the hole longer than 158 yards. Why?!
Well, a PGA Tour representative joined the ESPN+ coverage to provide the rationale, arguing that with a back tee, players would all play into the center of the green and away from the back left pin, reducing excitement. The result? Six birdies, 58 pars, and seven bogeys or worse. Three shots incurred a penalty stroke all Sunday on the 17th. And instead of tournament leader Sepp Straka standing on the 17th tee facing an intimidating mid-iron into a green surrounded by water with the tournament on the line, he flipped a 144-yard short iron to 40 feet in the middle of the green. Thank you for the excitement, PGA Tour! And this wasn’t the only forward tee used throughout the tournament.

Despite the Tour’s best efforts to water down the product, the AmEx delivered a decent tournament. The green-side bunker on the 16th hole bucked its head, Justin Thomas got in the mix, and Straka played exceptional golf en route to the win. But between the soft setup, the abysmal pace of play, and the telecast not coming on until the leaders were on the eighth hole, Sunday was another unserious day on the PGA Tour. Putting on high-level, demanding championships doesn’t seem to be at the top of the Tour’s priority list right now. It also just might not be their forte.
This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.