Staff WriterIf you were looking for a calm, agreeable opening act at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, you came to the wrong desert. Emirates Golf Club served up gusts, grit and greens that wanted to be anywhere else, yet Francesco Molinari treated the whole thing like a friendly Wednesday roll-up—signing for a sparkling 65 to lead by two shots and, for one day at least, make 43 look like the new 33.
Asked to sum up his round, Molinari didn’t overcook it. “I mean, obviously good comes to mind. Not super unexpected but I wasn’t expecting a score like that. Last week I felt very rusty, so I was hoping it would be very good prep for this week. Yeah, putter was the biggest difference to be honest. Made some nice putts. Kept the round going in the middle where played a couple of iffy holes and made some good pars. Obviously very, very pleased with the start.”
The Italian—still best known for that ice-cold march to Claret Jug glory at Carnoustie in 2018—rode the breeze with eight birdies and only a single blemish. And it wasn’t exactly a day for relaxed strolls and polite applause. “It’s not easy. It’s very tricky. The wind obviously is up. It’s sort of switching between northwest and north. And the greens, I think are the biggest difficulty. They are fast and firm. They are getting to the point where your putter has leaves on it, always a sign of firm greens.”
Three late birdies, one early statement
For a while, it looked like Sweden’s Mikael Lindberg might be the man setting the early pace. “It was a great day. It was very good. We’re off to a very hot start and holed a few good putts there in the beginning and then kind of slowed down a little bit. But managed to birdie the last. That was good.”
Lindberg’s five-under clubhouse target had the look of something you’d happily keep on the mantlepiece—until Molinari did what seasoned winners do: quietly turn “pretty good” into “oh, that’s serious.” He briefly joined Lindberg at the summit, then finished with three consecutive birdies to carve open a two-shot advantage and take the overnight lead at the opening Rolex Series event of the 2026 Race to Dubai.
And if you’re wondering why the scoring had bite marks in it, Lindberg was happy to provide the weather report from inside the tumble dryer: “I felt like the wind was pretty strong already from the beginning. And it feels like it’s picking up even more now. But it was definitely tough out there. I don’t think they cut the greens today due to the high winds. But it’s firm; it’s quick; it’s tricky. Yeah, it’s tough.”
Molinari’s reset button: back with Denis Pugh
There’s also a story beneath Molinari’s scorecard—one about tinkering, patience and eventually finding the right voice again. “It’s been a long time. I’ve changed everything and then I’ve changed back. I’m back working with Denis Pugh. That’s been really nice. He doesn’t travel to tournaments anymore but I see him just a day a month at home, and he’s always been great and sort of simplifying stuff for me and clearing stuff out of my mind that doesn’t need to be there. And yeah, that’s been the biggest help.”
It shows. After an indifferent 2025 DP World Tour campaign, Molinari began nudging the needle back into the positive with a top-ten finish at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player in December, then opened the calendar year with back-to-back starts in Dubai—clearly deciding that if you’re going to rebuild rhythm, you might as well do it in the sunshine with a stiff breeze to keep you honest.
Ritchie surges, then stumbles; a packed chase pack forms
South African JC Ritchie came out swinging with an eagle at the tenth and birdies at the 13th and 18th, offsetting a bogey at the 15th. He then moved to within one of Molinari with a hat-trick of birdies from the second—before golf reminded him who’s really in charge: a double bogey at the sixth dropped him back to four under, where he was joined by Switzerland’s Joel Girrbach.
Behind them, the leaderboard has that familiar Dubai look: international, tightly bunched, and one hot putting stretch away from chaos. Japan’s Yuto Katsuragawa, China’s Wenyi Ding, Spaniard Manuel Elvira, Italy’s Andrea Pavan, Germany’s Nicolai Von Dellingshausen and American pair Patrick Reed and Johannes Veerman sit at three under in a share of fifth.
Defending champion Tyrrell Hatton opened with a two-under 70, and if it sounded like he was mildly surprised by it, that’s because he was. “Yeah, standing here right now, I’m very happy with that score. It was pretty tough this morning.
Feel like I hit some pretty scruffy golf shots, which in some ways is to be expected. Felt pretty rusty. But I was fortunate that I holed three shots from just off the green, and, yeah, I mean that one on the last there was a bonus. Yeah, as I said, happy with today’s round.”
Hatton also described the kind of wind that makes club selection feel like a game of darts on a moving bus. “I think it was quite breezy from the start. It was quite difficult to really get the wind direction, guess it right. It was kind of just moving fractionally in which it can kind of make – the wind speeds can make quite a difference with where the ball lands.”
And those greens? They didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat. “The greens were getting firm. They sort of mentioned that they hadn’t cut the greens, so I was expecting them to be pretty slow. As the round went on, I felt like they got pretty quick. I feel like the guys this afternoon, it will probably play a bit tougher for them. I was really surprised at how fast the greens were at the end.”
Hatton sits alongside Ryder Cup teammate Shane Lowry among a group of 12 players one shot further back—close enough to pounce, far enough to know tomorrow can be both friend and foe.
Darkness calls time, but the week is only getting started
Three groups will return to finish their first round on Friday morning after play was suspended due to darkness at 17:50—because even in Dubai, the sun eventually clocks off.
Ross Fisher’s 500th start: longevity with a side of grit
Away from the numbers, one milestone stood tall at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic: Ross Fisher made his 500th DP World Tour start, joining a select club defined by durability and a professional life lived out of a suitcase.
Fisher took it in with the kind of perspective you only get after a couple of decades of airport lounges and Wednesday pro-ams. “It’s pretty cool. It’s obviously a unique milestone to achieve.
I’d say when you first out on Tour, you never really have that goal in your mind. But throughout the years that I’ve been on Tour, I’ve seen some guys like Miguel and Howler and some other guys reach that milestone. To get that is pretty special, and to do it in such an iconic venue like here in Dubai, it’s pretty cool.”
His career resume backs up the moment: five DP World Tour titles, a place on Europe’s 2010 Ryder Cup team, and a course-record 61 at St Andrews. But Fisher was candid about the harder chapters, too—because longevity often includes a few sharp corners.
“I suppose consistency throughout my career. In the early days, I would say the last probably four or five years, it’s been a bit of a struggle. Keeping last card two years in a row and having to rely on career money for this season’s something that you never want to have to fall back on. You want to keep your playing rights but it’s nice to have such a healthy and good career that I can fall back on the Career Money List.”
What to watch next at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic
Molinari has the lead, but Dubai rarely hands out trophies on Thursday. The wind is up, the greens are firm, and the chasers are stacked with players who can go low in a blink. If the breeze keeps changing its mind, the week may come down to patience as much as putting—especially with the Rolex Series spotlight and early Race to Dubai points already humming in the background.
One thing’s certain: the Hero Dubai Desert Classic has opened with teeth, and Molinari has started the week looking like a man who still knows exactly where the fairway is—even when the wind is trying to move it.
