The 2022 season of the DP World Tour really begins this week in the Emirates with eight residents of the world’s top 50, including the American Collin Morikawa (photo), and nine Frenchmen at the start. Presentation.
Par Lionel VELLA
Kicking off with fanfare this week in the United Arab Emirates of the 2022 season of the DP World Tour, after a launch official completely missed in South Africa at the end of November.
First stage of the 2021-22 exercise supposed to restore tone to a European circuit strongly shaken by the pandemic but invigorated by an alliance with the all-powerful PGA Tour, the Joburg Open indeed exploded in midair, undermined by the Omicron variant forcing the organizers to eventually reduce the tournament to two rounds (November 25-26, 2021).
The tee-times of the first two rounds
A new blow which also made the cancellation inevitable in the wake of the two other dates planned in the country during the first half of December. Almost two months without any competition before this resumption this Thursday in Abu Dhabi, now an essential place where the best European golfers very often compete. But not only.
Winner of the 2021 Race, the American Collin Morikawa thus demonstrates its new status. The current world No. 2, winner of The Open in July at Royal St George’s, can also target this week first place in the world. For that, he must win and hope that the Spaniard Jon Rahm, the No. 1, does not do better than a 7th place at the same time on the PGA Tour at the American Express.
Time for @ADGolfChamps week ????#ADGolfChamps | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/pjXB2MitQ3
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) January 17, 2022
Premier Rolex Series of the season (five in number), l’Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, with an endowment of 8 million dollars (7 020 880 euros), displays a five-star field with, in addition to Morikawa, the presence of eight of the twelve European players engaged during the Ryder Cup contested at Whistling Straits (Wisconsin) last September.
Among them, the defending champion, the Englishman Tyrrell Hatton, 22nd player in the world. But also his compatriot Lee Westwood, winner of the 2020 edition. Or the Irishman Shane Lowry, victorious in 2019, and the Englishman – another one! – Tommy Fleetwood, author of an impressive double in 2018 and 2017.
Ten of the best at the @ADGolfChamps ????#ADGolfChamps | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/JwxaA8H85X
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) January 17, 2022
Always placed (four times second, four times third, once fifth in eleven appearances since 2008), Rory McIlroy (world number 8) will seek for its part to finally unlock its counter. Also beware of the Norwegian Viktor Hovland, who has not played on the European Tour since finishing 49th in the BMW PGA Championship in September at Wentworth (England).
Let us also mention the Australians Min Woo Lee (world no. 44) and Adam Scott, English Ian Poulter, the Scottish Robert MacIntyre, the Austrian Bernd Wiesberger or Japanese Takumi Kanaya (world no. 53).
It’s @ADGolfChamps week ????
???? @YasLinksGC #ADGolfChamps | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/cjxyB8CiNv
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) January 17, 2022
All this pretty world will not evolve on theAbu Dhabi Golf Club, course where each edition has been played since the creation of the tournament in 2006. Yas Links, a par 72 of 6,790 meters and inaugurated in 2010, was chosen to mark this new era stamped DP World Tour.
A plot (adjoining the Formula 1 circuit and the Ferrari museum) that all players, or almost, will discover this week. Alexander Levy, one of the nine French present between Thursday and Sunday, nevertheless has a little lead over his opponents. The five-time Tour winner has indeed won a pro-am on this seaside course. It bears its name well, he reported on the official website of the French Golf Federation (FFG). The wind will be a key element. »
In the footsteps of Gary Stal…
With the Varois, are at the start Victor Perez, Antoine Rozner, Matthew Pavon, Julian Warrior, Romain Langasque, Victor Dubuisson, Julian Brown and Frederic Lacroix. These last two, respectively 4th and 5th in the Road to Mallorca 2021 (Challenge Tour), only entered the field at the very end of last week, benefiting from several packages.
Besides Gary Stal, the only tricolor who emerged victorious here in Abu Dhabi (in 2015 ahead of Rory McIlroy and Martin Kaymer please), the best results obtained in recent years by the French are the work of Victor Perez, tied for second in 2020 (with the English Fitzpatrick et Fleetwood), and Victor Dubuisson, joint fourth in 2015 (with the Belgian Thomas Pieters).
Photo : DAVID CANNON / Getty Images via AFP
