All eyes on Spieth, Rory and Fowler

IT’S the dream threeball, one you’d pay a lot of money to follow. But only a few fortunate ones who’ll be in Abu Dhabi this week will get the chance to see superstars Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler walking the fairways alongside each other. For the rest, it’ll have to be the couch and the big-screen television.

It’s no surprise Spieth, McIlroy and Fowler have been drawn to play in the same threeball in the first two rounds of this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. They are, after all, the most exciting players in the game, the ones everyone want to watch. Sorry Tiger, you’ve had your day in the sun.

The trio will be off early this morning (SA time), 5.40am in fact, while tomorrow they’ll be teeing off at 10.05am.

But perhaps of more interest to South African golfing fans will be the threeball of SA Open champion Brandon Stone, Joburg Open winner Haydn Porteous and Australian PGA champion Nathan Holman. The European Tour has included all three men in their top 25 players to watch under the age of 25 this season. They’ll be off at 10.45am today and at 6.30am tomorrow.

Let’s hope for a good showing by South Africa’s latest winners on Tour and who knows, perhaps come Sunday Stone or Porteous will be walking down the 18th in the last group with someone like McIlroy or Spieth. Or, Branden Grace.

South Africa’s leading player in the world rankings (16th) is off at 10.05am today, alongside Lee Westwood and 2014 Nedbank Golf champion Danny Willett. First up of the local boys today is Justin Walters, at 5.40am, and he’s followed by former Masters champion Trevor Immelman, at 6.30am. Ernie Els is off at 9.45am and George Coetzee at 10.35. Other South Africans to keep an eye on are Trevor Fisher jr (10.05am) and Hennie Otto (11.15am).