Tournament: Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
Venue: Yas Links Golf Club, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Prize Fund: US$9,000,000
Race to Dubai: Tournament 41 of 42
Rolex Series: Tournament 4 of 5
DP World Tour Play-Offs: Tournament 1 of 2
Access full ASAP tournament transcripts here…
Tournament preview
Rory McIlroy is aiming to land a long-awaited Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship title and take a huge step towards winning the Race to Dubai for a seventh time, as the DP World Tour Play-Offs get under way.
The Northern Irishman has an incredible record at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, with four second and five third-place finishes in 13 appearances, but he has yet to add the Falcon Trophy to his seven wins in the UAE in neighbouring Dubai.
A win at Yas Links would see McIlroy tie the record for most Rolex Series wins with five, as he aims to cap off a superb year that has seen him wrap up the Career Grand Slam with victory at Augusta National, record an emotional Amgen Irish Open win and help Team Europe to a famous away win in New York.
Two of McIlroy’s Ryder Cup team mates – and former winners in Abu Dhabi – Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton both come into the week in impressive form.
Fleetwood is in the middle of an enviable purple patch, having claimed the FedExCup on the PGA TOUR, and the inaugural DP World India Championship title either side of Ryder Cup glory.
The Dubai resident, who claimed the first of two Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship titles on the way to being named European Number One in 2017, would love to taste further success at an event he says will always hold a special place in his career.
Hatton, currently ranked third in the Race to Dubai Rankings, followed up the Ryder Cup with a runner-up finish at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on his most recent DP World Tour appearance, and a win this week would bring his season full circle after starting with a victory in the UAE at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
The Race to Dubai is certain to go down to next week’s DP World Tour Championship, even with a McIlroy victory this week at Yas Links, with nearest challenger Marco Penge less than 500 points behind. With 3500 points available for victories over the next two weeks, theoretically, any of the top 70 players could still top the season-long Rankings.
Player quotes
Rory McIlroy: I love getting to this part of the world, starting in the UAE and finishing. With everything that’s happened with the Masters and The PLAYERS and Irish Open, Ryder Cup, everything, yeah, it would be a lovely way to finish the year.
I’m excited to have another opportunity to win The Race to Dubai. I don’t think it’s going to be quite as comfortable as it has been the last couple years but I’m excited for that challenge. Yeah, I’m looking forward to the next couple weeks.
I’d love to get my hands on that Falcon Trophy. Been close. I played well last year. Paul Waring was just a little bit better than all of us that week.I like that I’m having to lock in for these two events. And with how many points that are available here, yes, it’s Marco that’s right behind me, but there’s a few others that have a chance, as well.
I know I’m going to have to play well these next couple of weeks but I’ve got good records here and next week at the Earth Course as well. I know if I play the way that I know that I can, hopefully everything will work out the right way.
Marco has done amazingly well, even coming back in April after not playing for a few months and winning in Hainan and continuing and playing well throughout the summer. I think he finished tied second with me at The Scottish Open, and obviously Denmark and Spain. He’s played great. He’s sort of that modern golfer, hits it long, and seems to not really have a ton of weaknesses.
Looking forward to seeing his game over the next couple days, and you know, with how this course sets up and how firm the fairways are, I think you’re going to see a few long drives out there.
Tommy Fleetwood: It’s been a great few months. Really nice to, I guess be rewarded for all the hard work in terms of getting some wins on the board. I feel like I’ve built a lot of momentum. So that’s been great. I feel like I’ve played great. I think this is a great opportunity for me again. It’s going to be my last two events of 2025, and would I love to finish strong.
I think I know the courses well, and I’ve played these events a lot. Since I got my card, I think I’ve played every Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Played these events a lot. Looking forward to it. It would be great to finish strong.
This event, I feel like, yes, they changed courses a few years ago but I look back to 2017 and where my game was halfway through 2016, there’s definitely an epic personal story there where I felt like I had to find my way back. I was in a very dark place game-wise in 2016 and could have gone either way.
When I won this event, which was the first of the year in 2017, I always see it as a big milestone in my career. I felt like I got my game back to where it was and it was a massive step for me. I won it again the year after. But yeah, I always look at this event as a real big moment in my career.
Tyrrell Hatton: It’s nice to be back here. I’ve played well in this tournament in the past. So it would be nice to finish the season strong, and I think my best finish on The Race to Dubai is fourth in the ten, 12 seasons I’ve played. So it would be nice to improve on that.
It’s always a special event. I think it’s one of those events on tour that is one of the iconic events, and it’s special for me that I’ve been able to win it in the past. Although as you say, it was on a different golf course. It still brings good feelings.
The condition has always been amazing every year that we’ve come here and played. It does get pretty windy, so you have to control your ball pretty well. The greens do have some pretty severe slopes on them, too. It can be easy to miss it in the wrong spots, and then it’s hard to save par. But generally, the scoring, off the top of my head, it’s still been pretty good around here.
