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    Golfer gets all-time bounce off grandstand to grab the lead at DP World Tour event

    January 17, 2025

    Ewen Ferguson has the lead through two rounds at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and that shouldn't be much of a surprise to many. How the three-time DP World Tour winner grabbed that lead on Day 2, however, was quite a shock. Particularly to the announcers in the booth.

    Trailing by one shot on Friday as he played the par-5 finisher at Emirates GC, the 28-year-old Scot launched a fairway wood for his second shot. It was long, but it turned out to be just the right amount of long, banking off the large grandstand behind the green before rolling to about four feet from the hole.

    "What on Earth happened there?!" a voice remarked from the booth. Allow all of Golf Twitter to explain: GRANDSTANDING. Anyway, have a look at this all-time great bounce that set up Ferguson's closing eagle:

    Wow. Must be nice.

    "I thought, you know, what I'm just going to go to the back and even if I have to go in the drop zone, I'm just going to splash it out," Ferguson explained after. "If I had a 15-footer on the last, I would have been fine with that. Still would have made that for a good day, but a wee bit of luck goes a long way."

    Indeed. The eagle vaulted Ferguson to 12 under, one shot ahead of Daniel Hillier and four shots clear of a four-way tie for third that includes Tyrrell Hatton. However, some of the other big names in Dubai didn't fare as well.

    Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland both failed to make the cut. Rahm was particularly surprising because he followed an opening 69 with a second-round 77. And Rory McIlroy, a four-time winner of the event, is only T-33 through two days. Maybe all of them should have followed Ferguson's lead and tried more grandstanding.