Laurie Canter relishing first defence of a DP World Tour title in Bahrain

Laurie Canter is aiming to draw upon the memories of his play-off triumph last year at Royal Golf Club as he makes his first defence of a DP World Tour title at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship.

The Englishman beat Spaniard Pablo Larrazábal and countryman Dan Brown over the first extra hole last year to enter the DP World Tour winner's circle for the second time after his long-awaited breakthrough success at the Porsche European Open in 2024.

However, with the European Open absent from the Race to Dubai schedule last year, Canter is in unchartered territory this week.

Victory in the Kingdom of Bahrain coincided with a period of sustained form, with a runner-up finish at the Investec South African Open Championship shortly after helping to propel him inside the world’s top 50 for the first time.

With that, he earned an exemption into THE PLAYERS Championship, the PGA TOUR’s flagship event, before also going on to make his debut at the Masters.

Such was his form during the early months of last year he also won the DP World Tour’s International Swing, and he is pleased to be back at a venue which has brought him success.

“It’s a big buzz to come back, I think you sort of get a natural lift,” said Canter, who finished a career-best seventh on the Race to Dubai last year.

“You obviously know the golf course and getting to grips with it, but you do really have your memories within what we did.

"It was the beginning of a really good run of golf. A couple of weeks later, I had a good result in South Africa, lost in a play-off there, so that got me into the Masters and THE PLAYERS Championship, and a few cool things at the beginning of the year.

"It’s cool to think it kickstarted that period of really good play for me. Hopefully I can get myself going again this year early in the season."

This week is the third edition of the tournament, with the DP World Tour having made a return to Bahrain in 2024 after a 13-year absence.

Having missed the inaugural staging, Canter won on his debut but is impressed with how the course – the only grass layout in the Kingdom – has again been presented.

“They’ve made a change to 17, slightly changed where the rough and the fairway line goes there, and I think the 11th hole is about 40 yards longer as well,” he said.

“Other than that, it’s the same but I would say it’s in fantastic condition. They’ve done a really good job here. I was out with the captain of the club this morning, and I was just saying to him that they’ve done a great job.

“Three years ago, they started doing some work on the bunkers – the bunkers are fantastic, which I think are the little things that the pros appreciate.

“A bunker looks like an easy thing to get right, but it’s a very hard thing to get right, it takes a lot of maintenance and it’s testament to the green staff here and the work they’re doing here to get the course into this kind of shape for us.”

This week marks the 15-year anniversary of the DP World Tour first staging an event in Bahrain, with last year's runner-up Larrazábal among a handful of players to have competed at the Volvo Golf Champions in 2011.

A tenth DP World Tour title of his career appeared on the cards 12 months ago until a final-hole bogey in regulation play saw him fall into the play-off.

With just one top ten since then to his name, the 42-year-old admits the pain of that near-miss took a while to overcome but he is using it as fuel to try and mount another challenge.

"Thinking about it, it was very tough. I saw my tenth win very, very close and walking on that fairway, I thought a little too much about it and it took me a lot of months to recover – I probably haven’t recovered since then," he reflected.

"That was the last week I played decent golf, so it’s been a tough year, but the positives are that I love this place, I love this golf course, I love the people around here.

"They have been treating me like a superstar for the last few years that we’ve been coming. Today I had the pleasure to play with his Highness (His Highness Sheikh Nasser Al Khalifa), and it was a beautiful experience, and hopefully I play the same way for 71 holes, and I manage to finish on top this time."