Abu Dhabi Championship: Rory McIlroy can win at Yas Links

The European Tour closed down for the winter seven weeks ago, and it’s now emerging as the DP World Tour for the first event of 2022 – and it’s a big one in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. 

We’re starting with a bang as the first of five Rolex Series events means there’s big money on offer at Yas Links – the new home of the event this year after previously being held at Abu Dhabi Golf Club. 

Having $8million up for grabs means we’ll see plenty of big names as three of the world’s top 10 tee it up in the Arabian desert, including Rory McIlroy and current Open champion Collin Morikawa. 

Links golf in the gulf 

Situated on Yas Island close to the motor racing venue for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in Formula One, the Kyle Phillips design of Yas Links was hailed as the first proper links golf course to be open in the region. 

It was an almighty effort to shift a huge amount of land around to create the undulations and rolling fairways we expect to see on a links track, so it will offer a different test than usual in the Middle East swing. 

So a mixture of form in the region and a game suited for links golf will come in handy this week, as will being able to play in the wind as it’s an exposed piece of land. 

Rory McIlory is second favourite to win at Yas Links

McIlroy magic in the Middle East 

Rory McIlroy is 9.2 for this event, behind only 8.0 favourite Collin Morikawa in the betting, and he has the most fabulous form in the Middle East over his career. 

A former Open champion and coming from Northern Ireland, he can obviously play links golf and he’s played at Yas Links before in their invitational event. 

In his last 30 starts in the Middle East he’s won four times and missed just one cut. He’s got 22 top 10s, of which 16 were finishes of fifth or higher. He’s a must-play here. 

Of the rest, defending champion Tyrrell Hatton is a 25 shot with 2019 Abu Dhabi champion Shane Lowry going off at 22 – again the links link works well with these two. 

As it does with Tommy Fleetwood, who won back-to-back Abu Dhabi titles in 2017 and 2018 and as well as links form is brilliant in the wind. He’s a 28 chance to get his first win in over two years. 

And if we’re talking links, wind, and form in the desert, then Scottish left-hander Robert MacIntyre must get a mention as a 34 shot. He finished fourth in the DP World Tour Championship and also had a third in Dubai last year. 

He finished 16th here last year but the course change will help him, as he finished a superb eighth in the Open Championship and 18th in the Scottish Open in what was a big year for him last year. 

If you’re after a big-priced gamble you could do worse than Lee Westwood, who is 110 but was actually a bigger price when he won here only two years ago. The 2020 Abu Dhabi champion also has a course victory in their Pro-Am event just to add to his case. 

Recommended bets

Rory McIlroy at 9.2

Tommy Fleetwood at 28

Robert MacIntyre at 34

Lee Westwood at 110