DID YOU KNOW - ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP
• The field for the 2015 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship boasts nine Major Champions, 82 European Tour winners, six European Tour Number Ones and three World Number Ones.
• Defending Pablo Larrazábal will attempt to become the second player, following Martin Kaymer (2010-11) to make a successful defence of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship title.
• Kaymer has 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 (Alstom Open de France), Sir Nick Faldo, (PGA Championship), Woods (US PGA Championship), Langer (German Masters), Mark McNulty (German Open) and Miguel Angel Jiménez (Hong Kong Open).
• Martin Kaymer has a wonderful record at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club. Apart from his three triumphs, he was runner-up in 2009 and tied sixth in 2013. He made his debut in 2007 and has played a total of 28 rounds, with a stroke average of 68.89. From those 28 rounds, he is a total of 87 under par with 23 of those rounds under par and 18 in the 60s.
• Another player who has an excellent record in this tournament is Rory McIlroy, who starts his 2015 European Tour campaign this week. Although the World Number One has yet to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, he has only finished lower than 11th once in seven appearances. The Northern Irishman was second in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
• Rickie Fowler is making his first European Tour appearance in the Middle East. The American will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Chris DiMarco in 2006 and become the second American winner of the event.
• The 2015 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, having first be played in 2006.
• In 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.
