Dylan Frittelli arrives in the Kingdom of Bahrain in a very different place to 12 months ago as he plots the defence of his title at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship.
Last January, Frittelli arrived in Bahrain having missed the cut or withdrawn from 23 of 27 starts on the PGA TOUR in 2023 and with limited status on the DP World Tour, where he had been a two-time winner in 2017.
He even revealed he had considered giving up the game at times but his victory at Royal Golf Club changed all that and despite not recording another top ten in 2024, he made it to the DP World Play-Offs in Abu Dhabi.
Now, having made all his cuts on the 2025 Race to Dubai and with a Rolex Series top ten under his belt recently at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, he is back on a happy hunting ground and ready to challenge again.
"I’m feeling good – a whole lot better than I did coming into this event last year, so that’s a nice feeling,” he said. “But I know the conditions here can be tough, windy, firm conditions on the ground, so I’ll need to keep my wits about me, focus really hard even though I’m playing a lot better than last year.
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“It feels awesome. Second edition of the tournament, and the first defending champion, so it felt a little strange coming back and I didn’t know what to expect as a winner here. But I’m really excited to come here and play this week again.
“I started the year not knowing where I would play, how many tournaments I would get. I was just hoping to cement some kind of status on the DP World Tour, but thankfully I got the opportunity here and just knuckled down on the weekend and did whatever I had to do to get that win.
“It meant I could plan the whole year and I had enough status to project out and know which tournaments I could play. The relief afterwards was evident on my face I think.”
Frittelli's consistency has him inside the top 20 on the International Swing Rankings and he is planning on teeing it up next week in Qatar before we head to Kenya and then his home country of South Africa for two events to finish the Swing.
The player who tops the Swing will earn entry into every event on the Race to Dubai's Second Phase, the Back 9, and a US$200,000 bonus, with an exemption into the Genesis Scottish Open also up for grabs.
And Frittelli is enjoying the consistency of conditions in Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah and Bahrain as he looks to continue his recent form.
“I think the whole Middle East has been a nice consistent ramp through this Swing,” he said. “It’s easy to go week to week and have similar conditions: green speeds, rough, grasses, and this week is no different.
“The course is in amazing shape just now. It’s going to be tough. I hope they make the greens nice and firm and tough pins – that will definitely aid my defence.
“It’s nice to have that consistency week to week, although the wind might be the strongest in the Middle East here this week.
“There are some holes that have intricate green designs where you can hit shots off hills and it can roll back towards the hole. Some guys can hit what they think is a good shot that gets close to a pin and all of a sudden it rolls off down a hill. It might frustrate the golfers but as a viewer it could be really interesting.”
