European Tour Power Rankings: Oman Open at Al Mouj Golf
By Matt Coles
After the excitement of the final day at the WGC-Mexico Championship, the European Tour returns to the desert for the Oman Open, which begins on Thursday.
This is just the third time the event has been run on the European Tour, having been held as a Challenge Tour event in both 2013 and 2014. The tournament returned in 2018, with Dutchman Joost Luiten winning the inaugural title. American Kurt Kitayama is the reigning champion of the Oman Open. Only the former will feature this week.
The European Tour travels to Oman with nine events already in the books, including last week’s WGC-Mexico Championship, the first World Golf Championships event of the new season.
There have been nine different winners so far this season, with Australia being the only nation to have multiple victors, with Adam Scott, Lucas Herbert, and Min Woo Lee all securing a victory already in 2020.
The tournament is the fourth event to be held on the Arabian Peninsula this season, following the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA, Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers.
Al Mouj Golf plays host to the Oman Open, with a 7,365-yard par-72 facing the players for the week, one of the longer courses on the European Tour.
The Greg Norman-designed course is flanked by the Indian Ocean at times along a mile-long stretch of coastline, with several tough holes laid out along the coast.
There is an island green set-up to one of the par-3s, reminiscent of the famous 17th at TPC Sawgrass, and unlike most par-3s, this one gets more difficult the closer you get to it because the tee boxes are set up on an angle to the green.
This means that from the back tees, the green is much deeper than it is from the tees that are closest to the hole, where the green is shallower on the angle. There could be some high scores posted on one of the ‘easiest’ holes on the course.
The signature hole at Al Mouj is the 11th, another par-3, which could require a fairway wood for the pros, depending on how far back the organizers decide to put the tees. Both the tees and greens are elevated, so the wind could become a factor, especially coming off the Indian Ocean.
Following on from the high-altitude of Chapultepec last week, this event will provide a stern test for the field, with the event beginning on Thursday morning.
Who takes the top spot on our Power Rankings for the week though? Will it be the former champion? Will it be a golfer that has already won this season? Find out right here…