European Tour Power Rankings: Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
By Matt Coles
Yorkshireman Matthew Fitzpatrick currently sits in his highest-ever position on the Official World Golf Rankings, breaking into the top 25 for the first time in his career.
He managed to make that move up the rankings due to a consistent 2019 season on the European Tour, which saw him finish in 5th place on the Race to Dubai leaderboard come to the end of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in November.
Fitzpatrick had nine top-ten finishes throughout the 2019 campaign, with four runners-up results to his name, but he was unable to get over the line to take a win in the season.
Three of those top ten finishes came in the final four weeks of the campaign, as he finished in 7th at the WGC-HSBC Champions, T10 at the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player and finishing the season with a 9th place finish at the DP.
The Englishman came runner-up at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard on the PGA TOUR, before returning to Europe to come home in 2nd at the BMW International Open (on a playoff), Scandinavian Invitation and the Italian Open.
The DP World Tour Championship was the Englishman’s most recent appearance, as he makes his 2020 debut in the Middle East, less than 80 miles north of the season-finale.
Fitzpatrick will be refreshed coming off the long break he has had over Christmas and the New Year, and he will be looking to start his 2020 campaign on the right foot.
The Englishman has finished inside the top three in Abu Dhabi before, but can he go one better than those four runners-up finishes this week?