News
Abu Dhabi play will stop at once if the UAE sends an alert
Players at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship have been told that if the UAE sends a public emergency alert, a long air-horn blast will stop play and everyone will go to the clubhouse. Eleven of the 70 eligible players are not playing.
If the UAE authorities send a public emergency alert to mobile phones during the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship, play at Yas Links will be stopped immediately with a long blast on the air horns. Players and caddies will then follow the course’s evacuation routes to the clubhouse, where tour staff will brief them and further updates will be posted on the Player Portal. Anyone who gets an alert away from the course is to follow the UAE authorities’ guidance.
The instructions were posted at the venue and shared on X on Monday by Brendan Porath of The Fried Egg. The notice does not refer to any current threat. The DP World Tour has not commented on the notice itself, but a spokesperson told Front Office Sports: “We have plans in place for every aspect of every tournament on the DP World Tour.”
The event, the first of the tour’s two Play-Offs, starts on Thursday with a $9 million purse. Eleven of the 70 eligible players are not playing, one more than when the field was published last week: Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen has since withdrawn, and the other absentees include Ryan Fox, Matt Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry and Robert MacIntyre. Four eligible players stayed away last year and none was in the top ten, according to Golf Channel; this year Fox and Fitzpatrick, sixth and tenth on the Race to Dubai, are both missing.
Fox and Fitzpatrick have linked their decisions to the war involving Iran, the United States and Israel. “I feel like it’s been very vague the whole time,” Fitzpatrick said of the tour’s communication.
On Sunday Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said the country was “braced for the worst” until the conflict is resolved. The US State Department’s travel advisory for the UAE remains at Level 3, “Reconsider travel”.
The top 50 on the Race to Dubai after Sunday go on to the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai on 12–15 November.
Sources
- Golf Channel: DP World Tour’s fortnight in U.A.E. begins in Abu Dhabi; 11 of top 70 not playing
- Front Office Sports: DP World Tour, WWE press on in Middle East amid conflict
- GolfMagic: Evacuation warnings appear at Abu Dhabi Championship
- Gameday Times via Yahoo Sports: Evacuation warnings issued at Abu Dhabi Championship amid regional tensions
Spotted an error? Tell us and we will fix it. Our editorial standards.
