THREE former amateur rivals will share a spiritual bond this week in Dubai, where the Desert Classic starts on Thursday. Most significantly, it marks the long awaited come back of Jose Maria Olazabal after an absence of 18 months because of a career threatening illness.
Greg Norman, who was not expected to return to action until Doral on March 6th, is also among the entries. And it will be the first tournament of the season for Philip Walton, who has had an unusually long winter break in an attempt to restore confidence after a decidedly bleak 1996.
Walton, who has been out of serious competition since November, travelled to Dubai last Saturday to prepare for a return to action. His presence means the strongest Irish challenge of the season so far, including Raymond Burns, who produced a sparkling third round of 65 last year on the way to fifth place behind Colin Montgomerie.
The Irish line up is Ronan Rafferty, Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke, Walton, Eamonn Darcy. Des Smyth, Christy O'Connor Jnr, Burns and David Higgins. O'Connor has frilly recovered from a damaged left elbow which kept him out of competitive action since the qualifying stage of last year's British Open at Royal Lytham, where he failed to get through.
Dubai gave Montgomerie a winning start to last year's activities, but he has already played twice this season, reflecting an emphasis on the Ryder Cup. Other notable challengers in an impressive field are Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Lange and Ian Woosnam.
Meanwhile, the third of those former amateur rivals will be following proceedings with particular interest. He is Ulrich Schulte, who had some memorable tussles with Irish players, notably Arthur Pierse, when representing Germany at international level.
Schulte also played in the 1983 European Team Championship at Chantilly, where Walton was in the triumphant Irish team. And an abiding memory of the final was the way that Ramon Taya, the Spanish skipper, declined to pick Olazabal at number one for fear he would lose to Walton. So Spain's best player was at number five where he crushed Tom Cleary by 8 and 7 while Ireland won the title.
The German's link with this week's events is the fact that he could claim credit for setting Olazabal on the road to recovery. It happened last autumn when the Spaniard flew to Munich in response to an offer from Adidas, who promised to build him a special shoe for an extremely painful right foot. And the representative they sent to meet Olazabal's plane was Schulte.
They knew each other from their amateur days, of course, and on the way to the factory Schulte suggested that the player should see Dr Hans Wilhelm Muller Wohlfahrt. An appointment was duly made and the specialist's opening shot was to question the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis which had been made a year previously by three doctors two Spaniards and an American.
After putting Olazabal through a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, the specialist confirmed his original suspicion by discovering a hernia between the fifth lumbar and first sacral spinal bones. He then offered to treat the problem, and, having originally planned a two day visit, Olazabal and his manager, Sergio Gomez, stayed three weeks.
It is estimated that since his last competitive appearance in the Lancome Tournament in September 1995, the Spaniard has lost up to £3 million in potential earnings. But neither he nor Gomez had ever placed much emphasis on money. So it came as no surprise when the player insisted: "I just want to get on with my life."
Referring to this week's tournament, he went on: "I start now - but it is only a test. This is not Jose Maria Olazabal charging back it is me testing my feet in competition so that I can begin to know my situation for the future. I will not be happy until I know, maybe in six months, maybe more, that I can play two or three tournaments, week after week without real pain."
Walton has no such problems. His plan is to play the next five tournaments, which means he will go from Dubai to Morocco, then to the Portuguese Open, followed by the Canaries Open and the Madeira Island Open. I feel good and am keen to get back to work," he said.
Meanwhile, in the US the patient persistence of Jeff Sluman was eventually rewarded with a victory in the Tucson Classic at Tucson National. The slightly built (5 ft 7 in and 10 st) 39 year old wondered if he would ever win again after eight second place finishes since his lone tour win, in the 1988 USPGA Championship.
I finally got the monkey off my back," he said after a final round of 67 for a 13 under par aggregate of 275 had given him a one stroke margin over US Open champion Steve Jones and a cheque for $234,000. It wasn't the finish I wanted, but it feels great to be a winner again."
Sluman was referring to Tucson's notorious 18th which, at 465 yards and with water right and left off the tee, is the second toughest finishing hole on the US tour. As it happened, of the top four on the final leaderboard, Paul Stankowski, tied third with Brad Bryant, was the only one to close with a par.
The decisive move was made by Sluman on the 199 yard 17th where he hit a four iron to within two feet for a birdie and the outright lead. But he proceeded to open the door for his closest challenger, Jones, with a bogey at the last, where his two iron second shot of 215 yards ended in the front bunker.
Jones also bogeyed it, however, flying a 162 yard seven iron through the green. So, having captured the Phoenix Open by 11 strokes last month, the so called Grand Canyon Double eluded him.
. Prize money for this summer's British Open at Royal Troon has been increased by £200,000 to £1.6 million. The winner's share of the record purse was increased by £50,000 to £250,000 double the money John Daly took home after winning in 1995.
