Some of the best golfers in the world will make the trip to the United Arab Emirates and the Abu Dhabi Golf Club for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship this week. Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson will headline an absolutely loaded field for this week’s European Tour event with the winner set to take home over 400,000 euros. The best from the European Tour will be present as well with Alexander Noren, Bernd Wiesberger, Rafael Cabrera Bello and Tyrell Hatton making the trip.
Event
Event Details: Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
Category: European
Date: January 19-22
Location: Abu Dhabi Golf Club, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
One golfer that we won’t see this week is Rory McIlroy, who was forced to withdraw from the event after dealing with a cracked rib. McIlroy’s absence should be a welcome change for D.J. and Stenson as they battle it out for some big prize money this week in one of the few occasions where it actually might make more sense to play overseas then back in the United States where the CareerBuilder Challenge takes place this week.
Past Five Winners
2016: Rickie Fowler -16
2015: Gary Stal -19
2014: Pablo Larrazabal -14
2013: Jamie Donaldson -14
2012: Robert Rock -13
What To Know About The Course
This is considered another event where Driving Distance and Driving Accuracy aren’t nearly as important as Putting statistics. The driving statistics have proved to be inconsequential at this course over the years while the winners have produced strong numbers when it comes to Greens In Regulation and Putting numbers. Seven of the last 10 winners have placed in the top-10 for GIR so make sure you keep that in mind this week.
The Field
D.J. headlines this week’s field as the sports betting favorite to win outright at +600 odds with Stenson right behind him at +700 to win. Meanwhile, Rickie Fowler is the defending champion at this tournament and he is expected to be in the mix again this year at +1200 odds. Noren, Pieters and Cabrera Bello are all among the betting favorites while Danny Willett and Thorbjorn Oleson represent decent sports betting value picks at +4000 and +6000 odds respectively.
A Good Matchup To Bet: Dustin Johnson over Rickie Fowler
For as impressive as Fowler’s win here a year ago was we have not seen the level of consistency needed to trust Fowler to consistently deliver on the biggest stage. The better bet is to fade Fowler against the sports betting favorite to win the event in Johnson, who has played at an elite level over the last 14 months. D.J. has all of the tools to absolutely dominate this week and there is still some decent value betting on him to beat Fowler in the head-to-head sports betting matchup.
Top-Five Pick: Thorbjorn Oleson
Oleson isn’t a lock to finish in the top-five the way that D.J. appears to be on paper but he has all of the tools to contend for the win this week and he is available at outstanding odds. Olseon is listed at +6000 to win this event outright and while we don’t expect him to take home first place we do expect he should be able to hang around and place in the top-five as an outstanding value pick for this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
| Time | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 |
| 7:20 | Matthieu PAVON | Richard BLAND | Eduardo DE LA RIVA |
| 7:30 | Darren FICHARDT | Jaco VAN ZYL | Mikko ILONEN |
| 7:40 | Paul DUNNE | Raphaël JACQUELIN | Pelle EDBERG |
| 7:50 | Anthony WALL | Rikard KARLBERG | Richie RAMSAY |
| 8:00 | Grégory HAVRET | Romain LANGASQUE | Felipe AGUILAR |
| 8:10 | Oliver FISHER | Marcel SIEM | Paul LAWRIE |
| 8:20 | Dylan FRITTELLI | Ryan FOX | Callum SHINKWIN |
| 8:30 | George COETZEE | Grégory BOURDY | David HORSEY |
| 8:40 | David DRYSDALE | Sam WALKER | Rayhan THOMAS (AM) |
| 8:50 | Niclas FASTH | Chris PAISLEY | Alexander BJÖRK |
| 11:35 | Alexander KNAPPE | Brett RUMFORD | Renato PARATORE |
| 11:45 | Graeme STORM | Darren CLARKE | Jamie DONALDSON |
| 11:55 | Ian POULTER | Andy SULLIVAN | Chris WOOD |
| 12:05 | Rafa CABRERA BELLO | Lee WESTWOOD | Thomas PIETERS |
| 12:15 | Thongchai JAIDEE | Ross FISHER | Bernd WIESBERGER |
| 12:25 | Robert ROCK | Pablo LARRAZÁBAL | Gary STAL |
| 12:35 | Scott HEND | Alexander LEVY | Jeunghun WANG |
| 12:45 | Bernd RITTHAMMER | Mikko KORHONEN | Curtis LUCK (AM) |
| 12:55 | Paul PETERSON | Eddie PEPPERELL | Robert KARLSSON |
| 13:05 | Tom LEWIS | Duncan STEWART | Lee SLATTERY |
| 13:15 | Adrian OTAEGUI | Daniel BROOKS | Mike LORENZO-VERA |
| 7:20 | Trevor FISHER JNR | Nicolas COLSAERTS | Alejandro CAÑIZARES |
| 7:30 | Martin KAYMER | Alex NOREN | Rickie FOWLER |
| 7:40 | Danny WILLETT | Dustin JOHNSON | Henrik STENSON |
| 7:50 | Branden GRACE | Matthew FITZPATRICK | Tyrrell HATTON |
| 8:00 | Thorbjørn OLESEN | Byeong Hun AN | Joost LUITEN |
| 8:10 | Stephen GALLACHER | Jordan L SMITH | Thomas BJØRN |
| 8:20 | Sam BRAZEL | Kiradech APHIBARNRAT | Bradley DREDGE |
| 8:30 | Sébastien GROS | Thomas AIKEN | Romain WATTEL |
| 8:40 | Jason SCRIVENER | Scott JAMIESON | Johan CARLSSON |
| 8:50 | Lucas BJERREGAARD | Marc WARREN | Matthew SOUTHGATE |
| 11:35 | Soomin LEE | Andrew DODT | Matteo MANASSERO |
| 11:45 | S.S.P CHAWRASIA | Julien QUESNE | Haydn PORTEOUS |
| 11:55 | Nacho ELVIRA | James MORRISON | Nathan HOLMAN |
| 12:05 | Chris HANSON | Magnus A CARLSSON | Joakim LAGERGREN |
| 12:15 | David HOWELL | Paul WARING | Maximilian KIEFFER |
| 12:25 | Simon DYSON | Fabrizio ZANOTTI | Lasse JENSEN |
| 12:35 | Jorge CAMPILLO | Ricardo GOUVEIA | Trevor IMMELMAN |
| 12:45 | Daniel IM | Wade ORMSBY | Dean BURMESTER |
| 12:55 | David LIPSKY | Tommy FLEETWOOD | Kristoffer BROBERG |
| 13:05 | Peter UIHLEIN | Alvaro QUIROS | Peter HANSON |
| 13:15 | Nino BERTASIO | Justin WALTERS | Benjamin HEBERT |
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