DID YOU KNOW - ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP
• The field for the 2016 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship boasts eight Major Champions, 88 European Tour winners, six European Tour Number Ones and five World Number Ones.
• Defending champion, Gary Stal will attempt to become the second player, following Martin Kaymer (2010-11) to make a successful defence of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
• Gary Stal was eight shots behind at the start of the final round in 2015. 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 (Alstom 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 32 rounds, with a stroke average of 68.75. From those 32 rounds he is a total of 104 under par with 26 of those rounds under par and 21 in the 60s.
• Another player who has an excellent record in this tournament is Rory McIlroy, who starts his 2016 European Tour campaign this week. Although the former World Number One has yet to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, he has only finished lower than 11th once in eighth appearances. The Northern Irishman was second in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015.
• Jordan Spieth will be making his first appearance in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. This event will represent his first appearance in a regular European Tour event.
• 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.
