The DP World Tour opens up its action for 2022 this week and in keeping with the name of the new tour the first event of the year comes from the UAE as the Abu Dhabi Championship gets the show back underway after the Christmas break.
Tyrrell Hatton started 2021 off in style by winning this tournament and he’ll be looking for a repeat of that this week. A pretty decent field has been assembled for what is a Rolex Series event once again this year.
Recent Winners
2021 – Tyrrell Hatton
2020 – Lee Westwood
2019 – Shane Lowry
2018 – Tommy Fleetwood
2017 – Tommy Fleetwood
2016 – Rickie Fowler
2015 – Gary Stal
2014 – Pablo Larrazabal
2013 – Jamie Donaldson
2012 – Robert Rock
The Course
Hatton will defend at a new track this week though as the tournament moves away from the Abu Dhabi Golf Club to Yas Links, a course which is described as the first ever links course in Abu Dhabi. The course is said to be a true links too with plenty of undulations around seashore greens. The course was designed by the same man who designed Kingsbarns, a course used in the Dunhill Links Championship. That is a relatively tame links so the scoring might be low here.
The course is a par 72 which measures 7,425 yards and while that sounds like a bit of a beast of a track, we have to remember that the air is humid in this part of the world so the ball will fly further. The only defence this course is likely to have is the wind and at the time of writing it appears Friday will be the worst day for that. Other than that we are looking for good iron players who putt well, although few in the field have had a competitive rep this season so that might not be a major factor.
The Field
With this being a Rolex Series event there is a decent field on show, one which is headlined by a few PGA Tour stars in the current European number one Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy and the winner of the Hero World Challenge in Viktor Hovland. The likes of Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson also tee it up this week. Tyrrell Hatton is also here looking to defend the title, albeit on the different track to the one he won it on last year.
Plenty of other players of note are in the field this week. They include the former winners Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood as well as Min Woo Lee, Bernd Wiesberger, Thomas Pieters and Robert MacIntyre. The likes of Erik van Rooyen, Ian Poulter, Haotong Li and Garrick Higgo tee it up after a recent spin in America with Victor Perez, Danny Willett and Dean Burmester among those who are looking to enhance good desert records.
Market Leaders
Collin Morikawa won the Race to Dubai last season and he is the 15/2 favourite to win here too. As the current champion of The Open we know that a breezy links course isn’t going to give him many problems but whether his putter is going to play ball on these large, undulating greens is another thing. He got better and better in each round of the Tournament of Champions and if he continues that progression it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him go very well here. The price is a little skinny for me though.
Rory McIlroy is only half a point bigger than Morikawa at 8/1. He won the CJ Cup towards the end of 2021 but I haven’t been able to get his meltdown at the DP World Tour Championship out of my head and the fact this is his first outing since then makes me wonder if it is out of his. He has been to Abu Dhabi a few times before, finishing third on his last two trips but this is a different track and I just wonder if he’ll need a spin of some kind. The price doesn’t interest me.
Viktor Hovland is a 10/1 third favourite to win the tournament this week. I’ve never been convinced that his game is one for links tracks but to be fair to him he has won in Mexico and the Bahamas in the last three months or so, so there is clearly no issue with him playing in breezy conditions. I sense he’ll need more from his short game than is there to win this tournament but we have the same grasses here as in Mexico and Bahamas so that might make him feel comfortable. He just looks a little on the skinny side to me.
The former champion Shane Lowry is the only other player in the field who is shorter than 25/1 to win the tournament. He will tee off as a 22/1 shot to win a tournament which should suit him nicely given his links prowess and comfort in these conditions. Lowry tends to begin seasons well and you get the feeling that having won a major and played in a Ryder Cup he will feel he should be contending in these Rolex Series events. He looks a dangerous runner. It is 25/1 bar.
Main Bets
Two links specialists who have good Abu Dhabi records form my main bets this week. I think the Abu Dhabi record is significant even though we are at a different course as it shows those players are up and at it from the start of the year so Shane Lowry is my first main bet. He has a good record all around the desert having won this in 2019 having been second in the DP World Championship in 2017 and he was ninth in that last year. He has a few other top 15s as well but this course should be right up his street, especially if that forecast wind arrives. He’s a brilliant wind player with an imagination for these greens. He is a strong driver of the ball and tends to begin seasons well. At 22/1 he looks a great bet this week.
Tommy Fleetwood is my second main bet. He won this tournament the two years before Lowry took the title off him and he was second again in 2020 so he definitely arrives in this part of the world ready to go. He also has a runner up at the DP World Tour Championship and a few other desert top 10s on his CV so we know he relishes this part of the world and this time of year. We also know he goes very well in windy conditions and is a natural in it. The one concern comes in the form of the putter but he tends to putt desert greens very well. Fleetwood had a year to forget by his standards in 2021 but that is only likely to have fuelled the fire for 2022 so I think he’s a big runner here.
Outsiders
Given that there aren’t many, if any, who have any sort of history with this course I’m going to take a couple of players who have won links like events on Kyle Phillips designed tracks in among my three outsiders. The first of those is Rafa Cabrera Bello who won the Scottish Open back in 2017 and who is another who has shown a liking for the desert over a fair period of time. He was a winner of the Open de Espana last year and started 2021 with a fourth placed finish here. As a good driver of the ball and a great iron and short game, he should be very happy with the layout this week and we know the wind isn’t going to hinder him. He could go extremely well here.
The one outsider who hasn’t won on a Phillips design so far is Alexander Bjork but I rode his cart towards the back end of last season and I’m not a disloyal person so I’ll stick with my man, even though he expressed his liking for the DP World Tour Championship track which he hasn’t done here. That is likely to be because he hasn’t played it though because in theory this should suit him well. He finished last season driving the ball very well, ranking eighth for driving accuracy and nine for GIR in the season finale. In two of his last five events in 2021 he led the field in strokes gained putting, picking up a ridiculous 12.204 shots on the field at Valderrama and 8.806 on it in Dubai. Bjork has a stash of top 20s in the desert and if he has carried his end of 2021 form into 2022 he’s a big runner here.
The last outright is Joakim Lagergren, the winner of the Rocco Forte Open in 2018 on a Phillips design and he also has that great record at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship where Kingsbarns is another Phillips design so there is something about his golf courses which bring out the best in the Swede. Given that nobody has a competitive advantage around here this week and that designers tend to keep the same traits to all their designs, I think it could be worth taking a chance on Lagergren who clearly loves what he gets from this designer. Lagergren has a top 10 on his record in the desert too and is another who finished 2021 in great form with the putter. His links record is decent enough so the wind won’t be an issue and he could be a big price come Sunday.
Tips
Back S.Lowry to win Abu Dhabi Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 23.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-8)
Back T.Fleetwood to win Abu Dhabi Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-8)
Back them here:
PLACED – Back R.Cabrera Bello to win Abu Dhabi Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-8)
Back A.Bjork to win Abu Dhabi Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-8)
Back them here:
Back J.Lagergren to win Abu Dhabi Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Sky Bet (1/5 1-7)
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