Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship Preview

A star studded field will grace Abu Dhabi Golf Club this week. Who is going to come out on top?

It's the first of seven Rolex Series events on the European Tour for the 2020 season, where one of the strongest fields of the year will battle it out in Abu Dhabi.

In attendance will be the current Open Champion, a two time past winner, last week's champion in South Africa, and the man currently on top of the official golf world rankings.

The man to beat, for many, will be world number one Brooks Koepka, who is returning from a knee injury that has kept him out of action since his withdrawal from the CJ Cup in October. Not that many would have expected him to, but Koepka hasn't spent much time pining over his injury woes.

"Everybody's dinged up a little bit," Koepka said, moments after detailing that his knee cap had been moving into the fat pad of his leg, and that it had required stem cell treatment. "Nobody wants to hear an excuse. I'm not going to come out here and tell you I've got the sniffles or tell you my knee hurts."

Despite being on the mend, and once more ready to compete, just like you shouldn't expect Brooks to tell you when he needs an aspirin, don't expect him to lift the trophy this week either.

It has become popular to spurt out, without any real insight, that Koepka only tries at major championships. This is obviously not the case, but with his recent return from injury, don't expect a fully fit, or fully committed Koepka. This tournament is more than likely going to be a litmus test for the fitness of the four time major champion.

Patrick Cantlay comes into the event hot favourite for many, but he's still somewhat of an unknown on the European Tour. This will not only be his first Rolex Series event, but outside of the co-sanctioned majors, his first event on this tour.

His quality is undeniable. Anyone that tuned into the Sentry Tournament of Champions a couple of weeks ago undoubtedly heard the commentary team tip him to become a future world number one. This is not a far-fetched statement, at all.

It would take a bold man to predict Cantlay not being something of a feature come Sunday. In his 12 measured rounds on the PGA Tour in the 2020 season, Cantlay has gained strokes on the field in all of the four major categories (Putting, Around the Green, Approach, Off the Tee).

He is also ninth on the PGA Tour in the vital category of Strokes Gained Approach. Both of the last two winners (the amount of time the European Tour has used the Strokes Gained metric) have been Top-10 for the week in this category. It might be a wise move to trust the short odds this week.

Viktor Hovland will make his first start of 2020 in search of his first professional win. Any event where Hovland's odds rest above the 20/1 mark seem tempting, as his first win is a matter of 'when,' not, 'if.'

His record so far on the European Tour is solid, picking up a T-11 spot at the tours flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, adding to what has been a stellar start to the former Oklahoma State star's professional career. After a considerable break away from tournament golf, it may still be a little bit too soon for Hovland. Unlike a twitter account however, a win is imminent for the Norwegian.

Back to back winner in Dubai in 2017 and 2018 Tommy Fleetwood is in the field, but despite this success, Fleetwood really hasn't had the best of times at this event. He missed the cut in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016, and was T-42 last year in his attempt at a hat-trick. 2019 certainly wasn't the best year for Fleetwood, and he'll be determined to prove the nay sayers wrong - just don't get your expectations too high for that to happen this week.

Don't expect a 'dark horse' to win here. This championship, and Rolex Series events in general seem to throw out winners from highest peaks of the golfing spectrum. Three players that I am picking to put up a fight for the title are as follows:

Thomas Pieters

Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

Pieters has the quality that has proven essential to past winners of this championship. Outstanding iron play. He was second on tour in 2019 in the category of Strokes Gained: Approach, and has continued in a similar vein into the 2020 season. In the very same category, he sits second after four measured rounds, gaining nearly two and a half shots a round. That is damn good ball striking, and perhaps enough to give Pieters a real shot at success.

Louis Oosthuizen

Photo by Golf Channel

With a swing like his, why wouldn't you tuck a golf shirt into your jeans?

Oosthuizen leads the European Tour on scoring average, was excellent on his way to two and a half points at the Presidents Cup, and despite a cold Sunday, looked GOOD in South Africa last week. The South African will not be far from the last group come Sunday.

Patrick Cantlay

"It's a good way to start the year," Cantlay said in a pre-tournament press conference. "Playing some desert golf, which is more target golf. It just fit in a good part of the schedule."

Cantlay viewing this course as 'target golf' might be the all the indication we need to jump on the PC train. This set-up is going to be well suited to the American, and he might just enjoy living the life of the "pampered fucks," for a week.