After being elevated to the Rolex Series in 2019, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship has continued to produce impressive champions.
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship has the distinction of being the first Rolex Series event of the season for a third consecutive year in 2021, after being elevated to Rolex Series status in 2019.
The tournament, which was first included on the European Tour International Schedule in 2006 and has become a staple in the Middle East Swing, is making its return to Abu Dhabi Golf Club for the 15th edition of the event.
It wasn’t part of the original line-up of Rolex Series set out in 2017, but with a long-standing reputation of strong fields and a winners roll of honour that included Tommy Fleetwood, Rickie Fowler, Paul Casey and Martin Kaymer, the decision to add the event to the Rolex Series two years ago was a welcome one. This year, it will feature as one of the European Tour’s four premium events spread across key points in the global golfing calendar.
The two previous editions saw impressive champions prevail in Shane Lowry - during the same year he won the Open Championship - and also in Lee Westwood last year, before he went on to win the Race to Dubai.
Here, we reflect on the first two editions of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship as a Rolex Series event.
2019
In the first year that the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship joined the Rolex Series, Shane Lowry produced an enthralling wire-to-wire victory after coming out on top of a thrilling final-round battle with Richard Sterne.
The Irishman started the week by becoming the first man to match Henrik Stenson's 13 year old course record of 62 (a career low) after firing ten birdies and no bogeys, which helped him to gain an early three-shot lead.
After a battling 70 on Friday, Lowry re-established a three-shot leading heading in to the final round, but he far from had his own way on Sunday.
Lowry soon found himself four strokes behind Sterne and with a lot of work to do after carding four bogeys and two birdies in his first 11 holes, but he soon rallied on the back nine. He posted back-to-back birdies at the 12th and 13th and after Sterne dropped a couple of shots coming down the stretch, Lowry made another gain at the 18th to get to 18 under par and clinch his first trophy since the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
At the time, an emotional Lowry described his thrill at managing to battle back and earn his first Rolex Series victory.
"It was an emotional roller coaster today,” he said. “I obviously went out with the lead by a few and before I knew it I was four behind.
"I was brave out there today. I ground it out well and I'm over the moon.
"It's nice to have a star beside my name and to win a Rolex Series event. We are very lucky to be able to play Rolex events on The European Tour. They have done a great job putting these events together and I'm just over the moon to have one of them."
Later that year, Lowry went on to taste his first Major success during the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
2020
During the most recent edition of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, it was Lee Westwood who prevailed to win his second Rolex Series title.
After opening with rounds of 69 and 67 to sit two shots behind leader Matthew Fitzpatrick, Westwood took advantage of a low scoring Saturday in the desert to card a 65 and take a one shot lead into the final round.
With a second Rolex series victory in sight, the former World Number One made every ounce of his experience count on Sunday as he produced a marvellous display of front running to see off a star studded chasing pack.
The Englishman was briefly caught but never passed, carding a 67 to get to 19 under par and win by two shots and join Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Justin Rose,Danny Willett, Alex Noren, Bernd Wiesbergerand Jon Rahm.as a winner of multiple Rolex Series events.
The victory also saw him take his tally of European Tour victories to 25. and he became just the third player in history to win a European Tour title in four different decades.
"I can't believe I'm that old," he said at the time. "It's getting harder.
"It's just nice to come out and keep proving that you've still got it.
Later that year he would make history again as the oldest winner of the Race to Dubai, narrowly clinching the Harry Vardon Trophy for a third time - 20 years after he did it for the first time in 2000.
