European Tour: Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship power rankings

Kuch is seeing the world lately. In the last few months, Matt Kuchar has teed it in up in Japan, China, the Bahamas, the US and now the UAE.

This marks the first start in Abu Dhabi for the 39-year-old American, but I’m of the belief he can roll out of bed anywhere in the world and at least finish in the top 25.

He’ll come in with plenty of time to acclimatize as he comes in with over a month of rest since his last start, a T9 at the Hero World Challenge in early December.

While he didn’t win in 2017, Kuchar played spectacularly in defeat at the Open Championship as a runner up. He lived up to the hype of being Mr. Consistent as his world ranking never dipped below 21st or above 13th all year as he piled up 11 top-10s in 28 starts (with only two missed cuts).

Kuchar will pepper fairways (31st on the PGA Tour in 2016-17 in driving accuracy) and greens (62nd in greens in regulation) as he is wont to do. His short game (11th in strokes gained around-the-green) can always keep him in the mix and his putter (53rd in strokes gained putting) getting hot is often the difference of where near the top of the leaderboard he’ll finish.

His time off and lack of course familiarity can be a deterrent for bettors or fantasy players, but he finished T9 at the Waste Management Open in his first start back after the 2016 Hero World Challenge and is one of those players who you know what you’re getting from him.