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Cameron Smith storms past Rory McIlroy to win The Open
Published
2 years agoon
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abhishek![](https://headline.ae/wp-content/uploads/62d4c33d9cc8e.jpg)
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The 150th playing of The Open Championship called for a final round worthy of the annals of history. Cameron Smith rose to the occasion and wrote his own chapter at the Old Course.
Smith used a run of five consecutive birdies to card an 8-under-par 64, overtake Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and win The Open by one stroke for his first major title Sunday at St. Andrews in Scotland.
The Australian posted a four-round score of 20-under 268, tying the major championship record for lowest score relative to par. Cameron Young, his playing partner, eagled the 18th hole to place second with a 65, while McIlroy finished two shots back.
Smith, who began the day four shots off the pace, won The Players Championship in March and had a close call at the Masters, where he stumbled in the final round and tied for third.
“I want to thank the team, all the hard work we’ve done,” said Smith, 28, as he accepted the Claret Jug. “The last couple years have really started to pay off, and this one definitely makes it worth it.”
McIlroy’s bogey-free 70 was only enough for third place at 18 under. He notched top-10 finishes at all four majors this year, but couldn’t cure his major title drought that dates to 2014.
“At the end of the day, it’s not life or death,” McIlroy said. “I’ll have other chances to win the Open Championship and other chances to win majors. It’s one that I feel like I let slip away, but there will be other opportunities.”
Smith made two birdies on the front nine before rattling off five straight at Nos. 10-14 to pass McIlroy and touch 19 under. He rolled in putts of 16, 11 and 18 feet at the 11th through 13th holes to tie McIlroy, then got up and down for birdie at the par-5 14th to grab the solo lead.
“I really wanted to stay patient on that back nine,” Smith said. “I think I was maybe three back at the turn. I knew I just had to be patient. I felt good all day, and those putts just started going in on that back nine and just got a lot of momentum going.”
Smith’s strength became McIlroy’s weakness on Sunday. The crowd favorite hit every green in regulation but two-putted all 18 holes, leaving several birdie opportunities behind him.
“I felt like I didn’t do much wrong today, but I didn’t do much right either,” McIlroy said. “It’s just one of those days where I played a really controlled round of golf. I did what I felt like I needed to just apart from capitalizing on the easier holes … If I had made the birdies there from good positions, it probably would have been a different story.”
Smith preserved his one-stroke lead with a par save at the par-4 17th, the “Road Hole.” His second shot missed short, and he had to putt around a pot bunker up onto the green to set up a 10-foot par putt.
Young, the PGA Tour rookie making his Open debut, drove the 18th green and drained a 17-foot eagle putt to increase the pressure on Smith. The Australian got up and down for a short birdie, and McIlroy couldn’t pull out a must-have eagle at No. 18.
“I feel like I can breathe,” Smith said. “These last four or five holes aren’t easy around here, especially with the wind up off the left. … Yeah, just really proud of how I kind of knuckled down today and managed to get it done.”
Smith also fired a 64 Friday to take the 36-hole lead, but a 73 on Saturday sent him tumbling four shots behind McIlroy and Norway’s Viktor Hovland.
Hovland went toe to toe with McIlroy Saturday, when they both shot rounds of 66 and took a four-shot co-lead. But on Sunday, Hovland didn’t make a birdie until No. 12 and posted a 2-over 74. He tied for fourth at 14 under with England’s Tommy Fleetwood (67).
Neither McIlroy nor Hovland made any big putts on the front nine, converting just one birdie between them. Hovland hit a poor approach shot at No. 4 and three-putted for bogey, making McIlroy the solo leader.
McIlroy capitalized on the next hole, a par 5, by reaching the green in two and landing a birdie while Hovland parred. McIlroy drove the green at the par-4 10th and two-putted for his second birdie to get to 18 under before Smith’s charge began.
Young posted five birdies and two bogeys before his electric eagle at the last. The 25-year-old notched his second top-three major finish this year after finishing a stroke out of the playoff at the PGA Championship in May.
“I think I said at the PGA, one of these times I’ll shoot 5 under on the back and that will be enough,” Young said. “And today I did. And it wasn’t. So I guess one of these times I’ll shoot 6 (under) on the back on Sunday and that will be enough.”
Brian Harman (66) and Dustin Johnson (69) finished at 13 under, tied for sixth. Bryson DeChambeau (66), Jordan Spieth (68) and Patrick Cantlay (68) were T8 at 12 under.
Mexico’s Abraham Ancer and Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana fired 65s early in the day to reach 11 under; they finished in a tie for 11th with South Africa’s Dean Burmester (66) and England’s Tyrrell Hatton (68).
Announcements
UAE Passport Ranks Among World’s Top 10 for the First Time
Published
1 month agoon
July 27, 2024By
SudhashreeThe UAE passport has moved into the top 10 of the Henley Passport Index for the first time. The country is ranked ninth with visa-free access to 185 countries, marking an increase of 152 countries since the index began in 2006.
“[This] is the result of deliberate and concerted efforts by the Emirati government to position the UAE as a global hub for business, tourism, and investment,” says Juerg Steffen, chief executive of Henley & Partners, the London global citizenship and residence advisory firm, which compiles the index. “Our research has consistently shown a strong correlation between a country’s visa-free score and its economic prosperity. Nations with higher visa-free scores tend to enjoy greater GDP per capita, increased foreign direct investment and more robust international trade relationships.”
Meanwhile, Singapore reclaimed the top spot with access to 195 destinations, the only country to do so. It is followed by France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain, which all tie for second with 192 countries. Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, South Korea and Sweden are in third with 191 destinations.
The UK hangs onto fourth place, along with Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland with access to 190 countries. Australia and Portugal round out the fifth spot with 189 destinations.
Meanwhile, the US continues its descent, dropping to eighth with 186 destinations. The UK and US jointly held the top spot on the index a decade ago in 2014. Afghanistan remains at the bottom with access to only 26 countries – the lowest score recorded in the history of the Index.
“The general trend over the past two decades has been towards greater travel freedom, with the global average number of destinations travellers are able to access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024,” says Christian H Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners. “However, the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now wider than it has ever been, with top-ranked Singapore able to access a record-breaking 169 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan.”
The Most Powerful Passports For 2024
1-Singapore (195 destinations)
2-France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain (192)
3-Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden (191)
4-Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom (190)
5-Australia, Portugal (189)
6-Greece, Poland (188)
7-Canada, Czechia, Hungary, Malta (187)
8-United States (186)
9-Estonia, Lithuania, United Arab Emirates (185)
10-Iceland, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia (184)
For the past 19 years, the Henley Passport Index has been tracking global freedoms in 227 countries and territories around the world, using data from the International Air Transport Association (known as Iata).
Alongside the passport data, the company released the results of several other studies, such as the world’s ‘most open’ countries and rise of global millionaires.
The World’s ‘Most Open’ Countries
Additionally, the Henley Openness Index ranks 199 countries according to the number of nationalities they allow entry to without a prior visa. The top 20 “most open” countries are all small island nations or African states, except for Cambodia. There are 13 completely open countries in the world that offer visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to all 198 passports in the world (not counting their own): Burundi, Cape Verde Islands, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Maldives, Micronesia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Samoa, Timor-Leste and Tuvalu.
At the bottom of the index, three countries score zero, permitting no visa-free access for any passport: Afghanistan, North Korea and Turkmenistan.
Sharjah and Dubai’s Rise of The Millionaire
The company also released several other studies, including the 20 fastest-growing cities in the world for millionaires. Sharjah recorded a growth rate of 95 per cent, coming ninth on the list, while Dubai is 18th. They are the only cities in the Middle East to make it. The study says Sharjah has 4,100 millionaires and 11 people with a net worth of more than $100 million. While Dubai has 72,500 millionaires, 212 people with more than $100 million and 15 billionaires.
The research by global data intelligence firm New World Wealth ranks Shenzhen and Hangzhou in China first and second, with growth rates of 140 per cent and 125 per cent, respectively.
Bengaluru, which recorded a 110 per cent growth in millionaires between 2013 and 2023, is third; Austin and Guangzhou are joint fourth with a 110 per cent increase.
According to the data, the region with the most billionaires is, unsurprisingly, the Bay Area with 68, which is home to the US’s tech epicentre Silicon Valley.
Announcements
Dubai set to have world’s largest airport with 400 gates and 5 parallel runways
Published
4 months agoon
April 28, 2024Dubai announced on Sunday that work had begun on a new terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport, which Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai said will become “the world’s largest” at a cost of almost $35 billion.
“We approved the designs for the new passenger terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport, and (are) commencing construction of the building at a cost of AED 128 billion ($34.85 billion),” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, said on X.
Today, we approved the designs for the new passenger terminals at Al Maktoum International Airport, and commencing construction of the building at a cost of AED 128 billion as part of Dubai Aviation Corporation's strategy.
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) April 28, 2024
Al Maktoum International Airport will enjoy the… pic.twitter.com/oG973DGRYX
Once fully operational, the airport will “handle a passenger capacity of 260 million annually”, the government said in a statement.
Sheikh Mohammed said it will have “the world’s largest capacity” and be “five times the size of the current Dubai International Airport”, which is one of the world’s busiest air hubs.
According to Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and CEO of flag carrier Emirates, “the first phase of the project will be ready within a period of 10 years, with a capacity to accommodate 150 million passengers annually.”
Built on the city’s outskirts, Al Maktoum airport has received a relatively small share of the Gulf financial hub’s air traffic since 2010.
Authorities want it to replace Dubai International Airport, which has a capacity of up to 120 million passengers annually and whose city-centre location prevents expansion.
Announcements
King Charles to deliver opening address at COP28 in Dubai
Published
10 months agoon
November 2, 2023King Charles III is to make an opening speech at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Buckingham Palace announced on Wednesday. The monarch will address world leaders at the opening ceremony on December 1. After his speech, he will “take the opportunity to have meetings with regional leaders”, a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said. The king, who is widely known for his environmental activism, was invited to Cop28 by President Sheikh Mohamed.
King Charles III is famous for his love of the environment, and he has been an advocate for organic farming and preventing climate change. He will attend the COP28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum, which runs alongside the event. He will also speak at COP28 on 1 December and is expected to share his vision for the future. He is no stranger to sharing these views with world leaders, as he previously spoke at Glasgow’s COP26 in 2021 and COP21 in Paris in 2025.
In 1989, the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana undertook their first trip to the UAE. The nine-day tour included visits to Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The pair met Sheikh Zayed, the Founding Father of the UAE, at his majlis in Al Ain.