Day 3 — The Els Club: Zero Lost Balls and a Birdie From the Sand
The Els Club Dubai. Ernie Els Design · Troon Golf Managed · Par 72 · Silver Tees
Score: 94 (45-49) | Net: 81 | Stableford: 29 | Pro-Am Round 2
Playing with: Andy Carter (1 hcp)
Yesterday I wanted to quit golf.
Not really. but that’s what shooting 107 at Yas Links does to you. It whispers things. You don’t belong here. You’re not good enough for these courses. What are you even doing?
Last night in the hotel room, I sat with those feelings. I let them come. And then I made a choice.
”I don’t have it in me to quit. Things I’m passionate about, I pursue relentlessly.”
That wasn’t a pep talk. That was a fact. I thought about my kids. I can’t preach resilience and then fold after one bad round. I thought about the school friend I’d just learned passed away. Life is too short to let a scorecard define whether you show up.
So today, I showed up. With one swing thought.
The Reset
Avoid the left. That’s it.
No complicated swing mechanics. No laundry list of fixes. Just commit to the fade, take the hook out of play, and keep the swing under control. Don’t overswing. It’s something I’ve been working on with my game for a while. limiting how much I rotate, keeping the arms in front instead of getting trapped behind me. Today was about trusting that work.
The range plan was feel-based, not technical. Hit a hook on purpose. Hit a slice on purpose. Find the middle. Get power over the club face. I didn’t arrive too early. yesterday I prepared too long at the hotel and was mentally fried before the first tee. Today: show up, warm up, go.
And honestly? It took me a while to believe it was working. Every good drive, every clean iron strike, there was this voice in the back of my head saying this is about to fall apart. Like I was borrowing someone else’s game and they were going to come collect it any minute.
They never did.
The Numbers Tell the Story
94 gross. 81 net. 29 Stableford points.
Yesterday: 107 gross. 90 net. 18 Stableford.
That’s not an incremental improvement. that’s a completely different round. Plus eleven Stableford points in 24 hours. Zero lost balls. Drives almost perfectly straight all day. The swing was there.
Front nine: 45, 15 points. Pars on 1, 7, and 9. The back nine got messier. 49, 14 points. but not because the swing fell apart. The swing held. Something else didn’t.
The Villain: Sand
The Els Club is beautiful. Four-time Major winner Ernie Els designed it as a championship layout threaded through Dubai Sports City, managed by Troon Golf. Two distinct loops of nine, lush fairways framed by the Dubai skyline, desert vegetation, and gazelles. actual gazelles. wandering the fairways.
But the bunkers. My God, the bunkers.
They’re everywhere. Massive waste areas that swallow anything offline. Steep greenside bunkers that punish good shots that roll just a few feet too far. And today, I could not get out of them.
It wasn’t one hole. It was a pattern. I’d hit a great approach, watch it land on the green, and then watch it keep rolling. off the back, down the slope, into a trap. Then I’d hack at it. And hack again.
- Hole 8: Triple bogey. Bunker blowup.
- Hole 10: Double. Same story.
- Hole 13: Triple. Couldn’t escape.
- Hole 17: Another rough one from the sand.
Mid-round, Andy gave me a quick coaching moment. He saw what I was doing wrong immediately: I was taking the club way too far inside on bunker swings, and I had two conflicting ideas fighting each other. stance saying low shot but face wide open saying high shot. Mixed signals, mixed results.
The fix? Get a proper bunker lesson. It went straight on the list. That’s the value of playing with someone who’s coached thousands of students. he diagnosed the issue in seconds.
The Moment: Birdie on 12
But here’s the thing about golf. On the same day the bunkers were destroying me, I made birdie on 12. from a bunker.
Par 4. Striped the driver. Found a fairway bunker with my approach. And then somehow, from the sand. the same sand that was my nemesis all day. I stuck it close and drained the putt. Three shots. Birdie. Move on.
On a day when sand was my villain, the best hole of my round included a bunker shot. Golf doesn’t care about your narrative.
The Perspective Trap
After the round, I caught myself doing what golfers always do: focusing on what went wrong. If I’d just gotten out of the bunker on 8… If that approach on 13 hadn’t rolled off… I left so many shots out there.
And that’s true. I did. But here’s the trap:
Yesterday, I would have killed for this round.
Yesterday’s 107 was so bad that today’s 94 would have felt like a miracle. But because today went well, my brain immediately moved the goalposts. You could have done better. That’s the perspective trap. and it’s more dangerous than any bunker on The Els Club.
Today was a win. Period. The ball-striking came back. The driver was reliable. The swing thought worked. The bunker play was a disaster, yes. but that’s a fixable problem with a lesson and practice. Confidence in your swing? That’s the hard thing to build. And right now, it’s there.
The Fighter Thing
Here’s what I know about myself: I’m not a quitter. I don’t have it in me. Golf, business, life. it doesn’t matter. When it gets ugly, I keep fighting. I don’t pack it in on the back nine. I don’t mail in the last few holes because the scorecard is already blown. That’s not who I am.
But there’s something that gnaws at me. The difference between how I play “when it counts” versus when it doesn’t is astounding. In a casual round at home, I can go low. I can play free and confident and make it look easy. Put me in a tournament, on a course that matters, in front of people. and something tightens up. The stakes change and so does the swing.
Do I have what it takes?
That question keeps me up at night. And honestly? I don’t have the answer yet. But that’s exactly what drives me. That uncertainty. that gap between who I am on the range and who I am under pressure. closing it is the whole point of the 5 by 50 challenge. That’s why I’m in the desert grinding through 8 courses in 6 days. Not to prove it to anyone else. To prove it to myself.
One more thing I realized today: playing it safe when you’re playing this bad isn’t a sound strategy. The instinct is to lay back, play conservative, avoid trouble. But if your short game is the weakness, conservative just means you’re hitting more wedges into the same bunkers from a different distance. Might as well attack the flag and give yourself birdie looks. That’s what got me the 3 on 12.
The Scorecard
| Front 9 | Back 9 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross | 45 | 49 | 94 |
| Stableford | 15 | 14 | 29 |
| Net | — | — | 81 |
Highlights: Birdie on 12 (from a bunker). Pars on 1, 7, 9, 16. Zero lost balls.
Lowlights: Bunker blowups on 8, 10, 13, 17.
Swing thought: Don’t overswing. Commit to the fade. Take the left out of play.
The Scoring Arc So Far
Day Course Gross Stableford Story
1 Arabian Ranches 94 . Jet lag, birdie on hardest hole
2 Yas Links 107 18 Rock bottom, two-way miss, mental test
3 Els Club 94 29 +11 points. The swing is back.
Looking Ahead
Tomorrow is Dubai Hills Golf Club. a European Golf Design layout and home to DP World Tour events. Walking where the pros walk.
But the real X-factor is this afternoon: I’m headed to an AimPoint Express green reading clinic with Mark Bentley, one of the UK’s most experienced AimPoint-certified putting coaches. It’s the system used by 60%+ of PGA Tour pros to read greens. and I’ve never tried it.
The swing is there. The confidence is building. I’ve got a specific bunker problem, and I know exactly what it is. I’d rather have a specific problem to fix than the vague “everything is broken” feeling from Day 2.
That’s progress. That’s the grind.
Course Notes: What to Know About The Els Club Dubai
Location: Dubai Sports City, Dubai, UAE
Designer: Ernie Els. four-time Major champion (2 x US Open, 2 x The Open)
Management: Troon Golf
Style: Championship desert layout with links influences. Two distinct loops of nine.
Par: 72 | Length: 7,538 yards (tips) | Four tee options per hole
Unique feature: Gazelles roam the fairways. Yes, really.
Bunkers: Steep, punishing, and everywhere. If your sand game isn’t sharp, budget extra strokes.
Best holes: 12 (risk-reward par 4), 18 (dramatic closer with skyline backdrop)
Tip for visitors: The greens are fast and the slopes are subtle. Approaches that look pin-high will often roll off the back. Club down and play for the front of the green.
Book a tee time: theelsclub.com
This is Day 3 of the Desert Grind: 8 in 6. eight courses across Dubai and Abu Dhabi at the 2026 Skillest Pro-Am. Follow the journey.
← Previous: Day 2. Yas Links: I Shot 107 and It Changed Everything