Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship 2019: Power Rankings

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ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – JANUARY 21: Thomas Pieters of Belgium and caddie Adam Marrow walk on the second hole during the final round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship at Abu Dhabi Golf Club on January 21, 2018 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images) /

It’s been feast or famine for Thomas Pieters at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Young players are known for ups and downs, but a tournament resume of MC-T4-2-MC-T5 still breaks the mold.

“I’ve done well here in the past and it suits me,” Pieters said mid-tournament in 2018. “We hit driver wherever we can and the rest of it, you know, it’s good ball-striking and going at a couple flags with wedges when you have them that you need to do that.”

Pieters was 48th in driving accuracy at this event last year but it didn’t matter much, as he was fourth in distance and 11th in greens in regulation. That combination almost always equals success.

Last season on the European Tour, Pieters ranked ninth in birdies and was top 70 in strokes gained off the tee, strokes gained approach and strokes gained putting.

His short game has been his nemesis, but Abu Dhabi GC doesn’t exactly require Augusta-like precision to get up and down.

Pieters has been off since the DP World Tour Championship in mid-November where he finished T12. That was good for his third straight top-20 and fourth straight top-30.

He went winless in 2018 for the second straight year but showed some late form with three of his four top-tens coming after mid-July. The other was here in Abu Dhabi.

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