The tournament widely recognised as the European Tour’s curtain-raiser does not take place on that continent, just as the vagaries of a wraparound campaign mean the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship serves as event No5. Welcome to professional golf in 2017; perhaps this sport is not nearly as conventional as its detractors would have us believe.
It is the strength of the field that assures Abu Dhabi this status. Rory McIlroy’s Masters buildup began this week in South Africa but by the time he returns to the desert – where he spent much of his off-season – there will be Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson, and Danny Willett for competitive company.
Jordan Spieth has opted against a repeat trip to Abu Dhabi, where he became a high-profile victim of the European Tour’s guidelines on slow play 12 months ago. Not that that issue is wholly pertinent to the young Texan’s non-appearance: Spieth is opting for an alternative approach to the one that led him to cavort around the globe last winter to a level hardly necessary for a player with two decades of commercial pull in front of him. And make no mistake, commerce is key, hence Johnson is crossing the Atlantic for an appearance fee greater than the tournament winner will collect.
“I’ve just had more time off,” Spieth said. “I was able to take more time away from the game. I took more time to build my lower body up, get my legs back under me and feel like I’m starting this year out ready to play in a lot of events. 2016 was almost a rolling-into from ’15, just a couple-week break here, a couple-week break there. We went: Korea, back; China, back; Australia, back; and then Hawaii to Abu Dhabi, Singapore.
“This year, going back to the States with a couple weeks off coming up is going to be really nice and I feel like it’s really, really going to help me come the middle of the summer.”
Perhaps the Abu Dhabi lesson is to read little into the outcome. When Fowler secured a victory there in 2016, it was assumed the Californian would then batter down the major championship door that he had been loitering outside for so long. Fowler was spoken about as a key part of the leading quintet, as supposedly detached from all others. The reality? Fowler’s best finish in a major last year was a share of 33rd. He did not win again in 2016 while, poetically, the man he beat by a stroke in Abu Dhabi was to conclude the season of his young life so far with a starring role in the Ryder Cup. That player, Thomas Pieters of Belgium, is worthy of respect in the coming days.
So, too, is the European who probably did not get the credit he deserved in 2016. Alex Noren won four times between July and November. The Swede started this year deservedly inside the world’s top 10 and Noren’s goal now is to impose himself on major championships and earn a place in the 2018 Ryder Cup team.
Fowler’s case is not an isolated one. Gary Stal prevailed in Abu Dhabi in 2015 but the Frenchman won more than €70,000 in a single tournament only twice for the remainder of that year. Pablo Larrazábal, the 2014 champion, has at least won since but the Spaniard has not progressed to the level expected when he brilliantly held off McIlroy and Phil Mickelson.
Johnson’s Abu Dhabi debut carries extra weight because of his US Open triumph last June. Not that the man himself, until then the most gifted player of his American generation without a major to his name, will do much reflection. “I’m pretty good at not really thinking about what I did in the past because it doesn’t really matter,” Johnson said.
“It’s all about what I’m doing right now and what’s coming up because it doesn’t matter how good a year I had last year. That doesn’t matter any more; it’s this year. It’s a completely new year, so we’ve all got new goals and new things that we want to do.”
Johnson says reaching world No1 is high among those targets. “Of course, I want to be the best,” the 32-year-old said.
Wider challenges for the European Tour are highlighted by a glance at its schedule. Some tournament dates remain blank, with several of those confirmed lacking the prize fund to attract global stars. That said, the Tour’s chief executive, Keith Pelley, is due credit for pulling in fresh sponsorship from China for the French Open, just as the arrival of Tiger Woods in Dubai for the Desert Classic at the end of this month will add gloss to the early swing.
