Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship 2019: Power Rankings

The European Tour attracts a strong field for its first event of 2019, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship

The 2019 European Tour season is officially five events deep, but it really gets going with this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

Some appearance fees likely (definitely?) had to do with it, but a handful of Americans join their European counterparts in what amounts to a strong field that outdoes the PGA Tour’s Desert Classic.

This event debuted in 2006 and has annually been at Abu Dhabi GC. It’s a standard full-field, 72-hole stroke play event.

Abu Dhabi GC is a Peter Harradine design measuring 7,583 yards for a par 72. Unless the wind is up, this course is a very scorable and well-conditioned. Good ball strikers generally enjoy this event. Bermuda covers the fairways and greens. There is some rough off the tee, but it’s seemed to be less of a factor in recent years.

The early weather forecast calls for relatively cool temperatures in the 60s and 70s Fahrenheit but with winds gusting into the teens and 20s in miles per hour. Finding good wind players might be the ticket this week.

World No. 1 Justin Rose eschewed this event for the PGA Tour and Rory McIlroy, who generally plays well in the United Arab Emirates, are among the notable absences.

That said, there’s still top-ten talent here as well as Tommy Fleetwood vying for his third consecutive Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship title. Let’s see where he falls in the rankings: