The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Opener now a desert stormer
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship is always a great event to start the year, but there is even more interest and intrigue ahead of this year’s tournament getting under way today.
The event has been added to the Rolex Series, which means those teeing up this week are playing for a much bigger prize fund and Race to Dubai points.
The purse has more than doubled from £2.3 million to £5.4 million so it is a brilliant opportunity to get the year off to a flier – and no surprise to see a strong field.
The transition from being a regular European Tour event to the Rolex Series has been an easy one because it already was a high-class tournament.
With Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen and Henrik Stenson in the field, whoever comes out on top on Saturday night will have to play well.
It is great to see Brooks back playing a European Tour event, having made his name on this tour after progressing from the Challenge Tour.
He has the chance to go back to world number one with a good week but Tommy Fleetwood will start as the man to beat as he is heading for three in a row at the Abu Dhabi Championship.
Martin Kaymer is also in the field and he will be looking for his fourth Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, having won the event in 2008, 2010 and 2011.
With Matt Wallace and a lot of the Ryder Cup players here, there are plenty of potential winners and it has the makings of an excellent event.
It is going to be a great week but we have strong fields for the next three weeks so this would be a great part of the season to find form as it would set you up nicely for the rest of the year.
I came over a week early and have been practising hard but you never really know how you are going to perform under tournament conditions.
It is brilliant that we have eight Scots in the field, including the four players who graduated from the Challenge Tour.
“Brilliant to have eight Scots in the field, including the Challenge Tour graduates”
Only Grant Forrest was in the field initially but thankfully a few players have dropped out, allowing in Liam Johnston, Robert MacIntyre and David Law.
It shows you the importance of getting a card through the Challenge Tour rather than Q-School because all of the top 15 from the Challenge Tour are in the field this week, whereas Alejandro Canizares, who finished top of the leaderboard at Q-School is the first reserve.
It is a big event for the Challenge Tour graduates and I’m sure they will learn a lot from this week.