A reinvigorated Paul Casey will hope to put his injury nightmare behind him when he defends his Abu Dhabi Golf Championship title this week, as he comes up against a world class field, headed by the man who seized on his enforced absence last season, Lee Westwood.
Casey’s one stroke victory at Abu Dhabi Golf Club’s National Course 12 months ago launched a marvellous start to 2009 for the Englishman, with second place at the WGC – Accenture Match Play and success in The European Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, in May, to follow.
Those performances –with a maiden US PGA Tour title sandwiched in between– helped him to a career high Number Three on the Official World Golf Ranking as he amassed a sizeable lead at the summit of the inaugural Race to Dubai.
However, a rib injury sustained at The Open Championship in July, kept the 32 year old out for the remainder of the season, aside from an aborted comeback in October, and forced him to miss the season-ending Dubai World Championship, meaning he had to settle for fifth place in The Race to Dubai.
In his absence compatriot Westwood took full advantage, defining the second half of the season as much as Casey did the first half, to go down in history as the first winner of The Race to Dubai.
With his injury problems now behind him, Casey is keen to begin the new campaign in as equally impressive fashion as he did the 2009 season, starting with the defence of his Abu Dhabi title this week.
“I feel hungry to play a lot of golf,” said Casey, who also won the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in 2007. “I’ve tried to come back and I haven’t been ready which has been frustrating – 2009 could have been such a great year and it was a great year, but it was just half a year.
“If I can just stay fit and healthy, there’s no reason why I can’t do better things this year as I did in the beginning of 2009. Hitting golf balls on the range is very different from composing a round under tournament conditions, and I’m excited to be back having to post a score every week. The time away has fuelled my desire and I can’t wait to get back to winning ways.”
Westwood is making his first appearance of the 2010 season having ended the previous campaign in style with a stunning six shot victory in the Dubai World Championship. The 36 year old’s second victory of the season, following his win in the Portugal Masters, sealed his second Harry Vardon Trophy, ahead of Rory McIlroy.
His position as reigning European Number One will be evident to all this week when, for the first time, he wears a specially designed Race to Dubai Champion logo on the right sleeve of his shirt.
“Winning the inaugural Race to Dubai was one of the finest moments of my career and to wear a logo representing my title as Europe’s Number One is very special.”
The two Englishmen will be against one of the strongest fields in the history of the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, including the two players who came closest to toppling Westwood in 2009, Northern Ireland’s McIlroy and Germany’s Martin Kaymer, who finished second and third in The Race to Dubai.
Kaymer will attempt to reclaim the Falcon Trophy he won in 2008 courtesy of a superb wire-to-wire victory over the National Course and, having also finished tied runner up last year, the 25 year old will fancy his chances of another piece of silverware.
“Coming back to Abu Dhabi is always a fantastic experience as it holds great memories for me,” said Kaymer, the 2007 Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year. “It will always be the place I clinched my first victory and every time I step out onto the National Course I’m reminded of that feeling.
“I think there is no better way to start the season than to come back to Abu Dhabi and put in a great result. Since winning in Abu Dhabi, I’ve been really pleased with how my game has come on and I’m always looking at ways to better myself.
“I’ve been doing a lot of work over the winter to get back up to my peak and I’m looking forward to getting back out onto the course and hopefully mounting a strong challenge.”
Sergio Garcia, recent US PGA Tour winner Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Karlsson, Anthony Kim – making his Abu Dhabi debut – and Henrik Stenson are all in the 126-man field contesting the €1.5million prize fund. Stenson, who lives in Dubai, is chasing a hat-trick of Middle East victories, having won the the Commercialbank Qatar Masters in 2006 and the Dubai Desert Classic the following year.
“It would be great to be the first golfer to complete the Middle East treble, although I am just focusing on getting out there and doing my best ,” Stenson said. “I am familiar with the National Course – it is a great place to play and I enjoy the wide fairways, which suit my game. I’ve put in some good Abu Dhabi performances over the years and aim to keep doing so.”
The National Course has been altered over the last 12 months to make it tougher for the world-class field. All areas of rough have been over-seeded with ryegrass to make it thicker and more difficult to escape. The greens have been firmed up to make them faster, and a number of design changes – including an extension to the back of the eighth green to allow for tougher pin positions – will pose further challenges.
