Abu Dhabi Championship:
The inaugural DP World Tour Playoffs begin this week with the Abu Dhabi Championship. Typically held during the early season Middle East swing, the tournament moves to the penultimate event of the season before next week’s finale in Dubai.
With a $9 million prize fund and 9,000 Race to Dubai points up for grabs, nine of the world’s top 50 players are heading to Abu Dhabi for this week’s Rolex Series event. The top 50 in the rankings then move on to Dubai.
Rory McIlroy (5-1) has around a 1,500-point lead and will likely win the Race to Dubai title in two weeks.
Dunhill Links winner Tyrrell Hatton (+650) and Tommy Fleetwood (9-1) are the other single-digit prices this week.
Joaquin Niemann (12-1) and Shane Lowry (16-1) lead a supporting cast in this week’s field.
The Field
The top 50 after this week’s event in Abu Dhabi will play the season finale next week in Dubai.
The leading 10 players (not otherwise exempt) in the season ending’s DP World Tour Race to Dubai Rankings will also earn PGA Tour cards for the following season.
The standings below display the current chase for those 10 PGA Tour cards.
The Course
After 16 years at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, this year’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship moved to a new venue in 2022 at Yas Links. The new track is geographically not far from the Abu Dhabi GC, but it is a links-style setup, which will present a different test for the players.
Listed as a 7,425-yard par-72, the course is a typical 36 front nine/36 back nine setup with four par-5s and four par-3s. Sub 400-yard par-4s followed by mid-length par-5s open both sets of nine and should allow players the opportunity to get off to a positive start before the course bites back with tougher holes.
Designed by Kyle Phillips (think Kingsbarns) and opened in 2010, this course will undoubtedly fall into the links-style category; however, with its exposed fairways, fescue and pot bunkers, it will certainly do a fair impression of a links, especially if the wind blows. Paspalum grass has been used from tee to green.
Yas Links is managed by Troon International and ranked 44th on Golf Digest World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses outside the United States in 2018.
The DP World Tour provides a video flyover of Yas Links.
Recent History
2023: Victor Perez (-18/270); 55-1
2022: Thomas Pieters (-10/278); 40-1
2021: Tyrrell Hatton (-18/270); 12-1
2020: Lee Westwood (-19/269); 90-1
2019: Shane Lowry (-18/270); 60-1
2018: Tommy Fleetwood (-22/266); 20-1
2017: Tommy Fleetwood (-17/271); 60-1
2016: Rickie Fowler (-16/272); 16-1
2015: Gary Stal (-19/269); 150-1
2014: Pablo Larrazabal (-14/274); 125-1
2013: Jamie Donaldson (-14/274); 66-1
2012: Robert Rock (-13/275); 150-1
2011: Martin Kaymer (-24/264); 8-1
2010: Martin Kaymer (-21/267); 14-1
NOTE: Except for 2022 and 2023, all of the above events were played at Abu Dhabi Golf Club and there has never been a playoff in the history of this event.
Selections
Rasmus Højgaard (22-1, DraftKings)
Rasmus posted two top-11 finishes, then a runner-up at Ras al Khaimah to start the Middle East swing earlier this season.
He has missed just one cut in his last 12 starts, which have featured four top-5 finishes, including his fifth DPWT victory as he chased down Rory McIlroy at the Irish Open.
His PGA Tour card is locked up for next season, so he can focus on playing good golf as his approach game has been tops on the DPWT over the last six months.
Rasmus also has a third at Bernardus (KLM Open — Netherlands), another Kyle Phillips design, and should fit this course nicely.
Thorbjørn Olesen (28-1, FanDuel)
Olesen was the man who held off the aforementioned Højgaard at Ras al Khaimah earlier this year for his eighth career DPWT victory.
The Dane followed it with a disappointing PGA Tour season.
Since returning to Europe, he’s started to peak with a runner-up at the Open de France and a T-7 at the Andalucia Masters.
He is currently 66 points and two spots out of the running to earn another PGA Tour card.
Nicolai Højgaard (45-1, FanDuel)
Nicolai ended last year winning the DPWT Championship in Dubai (next week’s event) and started 2024 with a T-7 in the Dubai Desert Classic and finished runner-up at the Farmers Insurance Open, which essentially kept his card for 2025.
Then, save for a top-7 at the Olympics, he fell off, primarily playing on the PGA Tour.
He is currently 67th in the Race to Dubai standings, so he needs a big week to defend his title next week. Nicolai is also 55th in the OWGR and getting into the top 50 at the end of this year would earn a return trip to the Masters.
While he finished 10th here at Yas Links last year, Nicolai led the field for Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green and was second for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee.
Adrian Meronk (55-1, FanDuel)
Meronk was 25-1 in Dubai earlier this year, falling just short of taking down McIlroy at a place where Rory has now won four times.
Meronk was just outside the top 40 in the OWGR before joining LIV Golf earlier this year and now he has fallen to 100 in the OWGR and has been a bit out of sight, out of mind.
The man from Poland is based in Dubai and has always played well in the Middle East with nine top-10 finishes in 15 starts held in the UAE.
