DID YOU KNOW - ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP
• The field for the 2017 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship boasts seven Major Champions, 79 European Tour winners, four European Tour Number Ones and two World Number Ones.
• Three of the current four Major Champions are competing: Danny Willett (Masters Tournament), Dustin Johnson (U.S. Open Championship) and Henrik Stenson (The Open Championship).
• Defending champion, Rickie Fowler will attempt to become the second player, following Martin Kaymer (2010-11) to make a successful defence of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
• Rickie Fowler will aim to become the first American to win the same regular European Tour event in back-to-back years since Tiger Woods (2001-02 Deutsche Bank – SAP Open TPC of Europe).
• The 2015 winner, Gary Stal was eight shots behind at the start of the final round. This was the largest final round winning comeback of the 2015 season.
• Martin Kaymer has already won in Abu Dhabi in 2008, 2010 and 2011. Should he win for a fourth time, he would join an elite group of players to win the same official European Tour tournament four or more times. They are: Tiger Woods – eight wins in the WGC –Bridgestone Invitational and seven times at the WGC – Cadillac Championship. Five times – Tom Watson at The Open Championship and Bernhard Langer in the German Open. Four times – Seve Ballesteros (Open de France), Sir Nick Faldo, (PGA Championship), Woods (US PGA Championship), Langer (German Masters), Mark McNulty (German Open), Miguel Angel Jiménez (Hong Kong Open) and Charl Schwartzel (Alfred Dunhill Championship).
• Martin Kaymer has a wonderful record at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club. Apart from his three triumphs he was runner-up in 2009, third in 2015 and tied sixth in 2013. He made his debut in 2007 and has played a total of 36 rounds, with a stroke average of 68.88. From those 36 rounds he is a total of 112 under par with 30 of those rounds under par and 23 in the 60s.
• Dustin Johnson will be making his first appearance in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. This event will represent his first appearance in a European Tour event in the UAE. During his career this tournament will be his seventh different regular European Tour event he has competed in.
Scotland's Stephen Gallacher will be playing in his 500th official European Tour event in Abu Dhabi.
• In the 2012 event the par three 12th hole witnessed three-holes-one. They were by Sergio Garcia and José Manuel Lara (both round one) and Graeme McDowell (round four). This was only the third time in European Tour history that the same hole witnessed three or more holes-in-one in the same tournament. The first two were at the second hole (1991 Fujitsu Mediterranean Open), which had four aces and hole five at the 1990 PGA Championship, which saw three.
