By Mathieu Wood
Preparing a golf course for a tournament is a big undertaking, requiring collaboration and adaptiveness to meet new challenges.
This week sees the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship take a new position on the DP World Tour schedule, moving from its long-standing January slot to early November for the start of the brand-new DP World Tour Play-Offs.
Opened in 2010, the Kyle Phillips-designed Yas Links is staging the Rolex Series event for a third consecutive year but, after a near 22-month wait since the last edition, hurdles around presentation have been cleared ahead of the 2024 Race to Dubai.
With that in mind, we spoke to Corey Finn, director of agronomy at Yas Links, about the work he and his dedicated team have undergone to maintain the course ahead of some of the world’s best teeing it up.
While operational discussions kicked off not long after the climax of Victor Perez’s maiden Rolex Series victory last January, it was only earlier this year that preparations ramped up after a site visit from DP World Tour Tournament Director Miguel Vidaor.
“It's been weird because we have had an 18-month gap,” Finn told the DP World Tour. “We have missed it, it’s good to have everyone back.
“I have a really good relationship with DP World Tour agronomist [Eugene Hennessy], we pretty much touch base every week. We keep him involved with all our weekly work. He was out here a month ago for a quick site visit and it was good to get his eyes over it to point us in the right direction.
“We know what we’re doing, but it is really good to get those different eyes to elevate the course condition and get things done right.”
Finn has worked at Yas Links for four-and-a-half years and since then the layout’s reputation has been bolstered, partly due to the exposure that the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship has provided.
A team of around 45 people work across the 100-hectare property to improve the course condition, with some of those solely focused on looking after the 3,500 sprinklers.
Finn added: “We do bring in some greenkeepers from the other clubs in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
"This year we have 21 international volunteers which was more than I could have ever imagined, from all over the world and all walks of life which is really cool for my team who are from India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Africa.
"To get to work with guys who are working in Scotland, Poland, Australia and New Zealand… there are guys from all over which is really cool.”
So, what have been the biggest challenges factoring in the schedule change?
“Our preparation really started in August for this event," he reflected. "It is still 50 degrees Celsius, 80% humidity.
“Forget about the agronomy factor, it is looking after the staff that is first and foremost. To get it to like this takes a lot of hard work in the incredible temperatures.
“In terms of agronomic challenges and pressures, it is the excessive growth we get at this time of year.”
The grass at Yas Links is platinum paspalum, with the Finn’s team taking advantage of its suitability to Abu Dhabi temperatures to cut it short without affecting the growth and the quality of turf.
“We can [thereby] produce a similar Scottish links-style golf course where we have the running shots, people can putt from 20 feet off the greens and there are a variety of shots required.
"It is not brown or burnt off as what I see when I see the Scottish course but it will definitely play Scottish-like. It will be bouncy, runny and fast on the fairways and green surrounds and it will create which is what I like to see.”
DP World Tour professional Richard Mansell has already described the course condition at Yas Links as the best he has ever seen, so how is Finn expecting some of the world’s best to fare this week, with longer rough something cited by Vidaor as he assessed the challenge of the layout?
“Hopefully the players [continue to] compliment us and appreciate what the greenkeepers have done here this week, but I suppose it all changes on Thursday morning when they get a scorecard in their hand and we will see how they go," he said.
"But hopefully they say some incredible things in the media and hopefully we can promote Yas Links and Abu Dhabi golf in general.
"It is a special place to play golf and Yas Links is a really special property.”
