Five things to know about the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
First Rolex Series event of 2022
The DP World Tour season resumes this week with the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, one of five premium Rolex Series events that underpin the 2022 season.
The tournament has the distinction of being the first Rolex Series event for a fourth consecutive season, after being elevated to Rolex Series status in 2019. It will be held over Yas Links for the first time in its history, and will be followed by the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic.
The Genesis Scottish Open then returns to the Renaissance Club for a third consecutive year in June, ahead of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in September.
The Tour will return to Dubai in November for the final Rolex event of the year – the season ending DP World Tour Championship - where a new DP World Tour Number One will be crowned.
New venue
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship is set to welcome players to its new home at Yas Links this week, a change of venue for the first time since the tournament made its debut on the schedule at Abu Dhabi Golf Club in 2006.
Designed by Kyle Phillips and opened in 2010, Yas Links has been described by its creator as the first true Links Golf Course in the Middle East.
The par 72, which took three years to construct, is playing 7,425 yards this week and can extend to 7,450 yards. It lies across the highway from the Yas marina car racing circuit, with eight of the holes – including three of the four shortest holes on the card (8, 13 & 17) - running along the coastline.
Hatton defends
Tyrrell Hatton returns to defend the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship this week after earning his sixth DP World Tour title at last year's tournament.
The Englishman produced a brilliant closing round of 66 on his way to adding his name to an impressive list of former champions, finishing five shots ahead of four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy and four clear of Australia’s Jason Scrivener.
With his win, Hatton joined Jon Rahm as the only other player to win four Rolex Series titles, adding the Abu Dhabi crown to his victories at the 2020 BMW PGA Championship, 2019 Turkish Airlines Open and 2017 Italian Open.
This week, he has a chance to become the third player to successfully win the Abu Dhabi title in back to back seasons, following Martin Kaymer (2010, 2011) and Tommy Fleetwood (2017, 2018).
A star-studded field
The first event of the new year is headlined by a star-studded field, which includes both defending champion Tyrrell Hatton and reigning European Number One Collin Morikawa, who made history as the first American to win the season-long race with victory at the DP World Tour Championship in November.
In the past the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship has been dominated by European winners, and seven other former champions feature alongside Hatton in the field this week: Lee Westwood, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Gary Stal, Pablo Larrazábal, Jamie Donaldson and Robert Rock - who famously beat Tiger Woods to the title in 2012.
Joining them is four-time Major champion Rory McIlroy, who is a four-time runner-up in this tournament, and fellow Ryder Cup teammates Viktor Hovland, Ian Poulter and Bernd Wiesberger.
A new test awaits
A new set of challenges await players at Yas Links.
Two-time champion Tommy Fleetwood says the change of event location adds new elements of wind and run offs to create a different test, but still believes there are still learnings he can take from previous editions of this tournament to Yas Links.
“The wind obviously plays a massive part,” said Fleetwood.
“So that’s going to play very much like a links. Ball flight control, I think there are run-offs. I think you can putt from around the green, so I guess that’s very links-style. So yeah, there’s plenty of elements that are – that are very linksy.
“It’s a completely different – I’d say it's a completely different test; it's a different test to what we've always had at the other golf course but at the same time, I think still, driving and ball-striking were always paramount at Abu Dhabi Golf Club and they are here as well. As different as the course might look and feel, there's still a lot of things that you have to do right on a weekly basis.”
