This week marks the resumption of the European Tour after the December break, and we’ve taken a look at five things you need to know ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship Presented by EGA, the first Rolex Series event of the season.
Return of the Rolex Series
The Rolex Series, the eight premium events in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai, returns this week and for the first time this season. The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship Presented by EGA has been part of the European Tour’s International Schedule since 2006 but has now been upgraded to a Rolex Series event. After winning the BMW PGA Championship and The Open Championship in 2018, Italian Francesco Molinari is the reigning Race to Dubai champion, the first Italian to achieve the feat. With 7,000 Race to Dubai points on offer in Abu Dhabi, the event presents members with a fine opportunity to make an early march in the season-long Rankings.
Edge of history
He is a two-time Major Champion and former World Number One and now Martin Kaymer stands on the cusp of writing his name into the history books once more. The German has won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship Presented by EGA three times and if he triumphs this week, he will join an esteemed list of players to win the same official European Tour event four times. Those to win the same event four or more times are: Tiger Woods – eight wins in the WGC–Bridgestone Invitational and seven times at the WGC – Cadillac Championship. Five times – Tom Watson at The Open Championship and Bernhard Langer in the German Open. Four times – Seve Ballesteros (Open de France), Sir Nick Faldo, (PGA Championship), Woods (US PGA Championship and Masters Tournament), Bernhard Langer (German Masters), Mark McNulty (German Open), Miguel Ángel Jiménez (Hong Kong Open) and Charl Schwartzel (Alfred Dunhill Championship).
Top of the world
Four former World Number Ones will tee it up at Abu Dhabi Golf Club this week. Brooks Koepka, who had top spot snatched from him by Justin Rose last week, and fellow American Dustin Johnson will make the journey from the States to the United Arab Emirates for the first Rolex Series event of the year. Kaymer, who was ranked Number One in the world between February and April 2011, will make his 13th appearance at the event and Lee Westwood makes up the quartet of former World Number Ones. The Englishman spent a total of 22 weeks at the top between October 2010 and May 2011.
14th time lucky?
Henrik Stenson has played in each of the 13 editions of the event, coming twice on two occasions, but that is the closest he has come to lifting the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship trophy. The Swede set a course record in only his third round at Abu Dhabi Golf Club when he posted a ten under par 62 on his way to finishing second behind Chris DiMarco in 2006. Another runner-up finish occurred in 2008 when he finished four shots behind Martin Kaymer, a year after an eighth-place finish. The 2016 Open Champion finished third in Abu Dhabi in the same year, before finishing eighth in each of the last two editions. Having won three times in Dubai – twice at the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, and once at the Dubai Desert Classic – Stenson is no stranger to that winning feeling in the United Arab Emirates.
Desert Swing
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship Presented by EGA marks the beginning of the European Tour’s early-season Desert Swing. The Rolex Series event in Abu Dhabi will be followed by the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, where Li Haotong will attempt to defend his title which he won last year. The Saudi International will bring the stint in the desert to its conclusion as the European Tour visits the Kingdom for the first time in its history.
