Preview

2023 Abu Dhabi Championship Tips

Event Info

Starts: 19th January 2023
Course: Yas Links, Abu Dhabi
Par: 72 (36-36)
Length: 7,425 yards
2022 Champion: Thomas Pieters

Course Info

Course Designer: Kyle Phillips
Fairways: Narrow, Flat, Bunkers in key landing spots
Rough: Thick if wayward
Greens: Bermuda. 
Water Hazards: Featured throughout
Par 5's:  2nd, 7th, 11th, 18th
Hosted Since: 2022
Premium on: Accuracy

Weather

Thursday
Sunny intervals wind max 13mph.

Friday
Sunny wind max 9mph.

Saturday
Sunny wind max 10mph.

Sunday
Sunny wind max 10mph.

Significant Info To Be Aware Of
- This is the first full field event of the 2023 European Tour season. Those players who didn't play in the Hero Cup may be rusty.

- This is the second time Yas Links has hosted this event.

- The wind on Friday at last year's event was exceptionally strong.  Many players struggled and you may want to consider players who played well in round one but not round two.

Trends

Winning score
Thomas Pieters won with a score of -10 last year.

Correlating Courses
Kyle Philips also designed Bernardus Golf (Dutch Open 2021) and Kingsbarns (one of the courses used for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship).  He was also responsible for designing The Grove, home of the 2016 British Masters.  We also have three Sicilian Open's played at Verdura Golf & Spa Resort to consider as Verdura is a Kyle Phillips design.  Verdura was used in 2012, 2017 and 2018.

Recent form
The last ten winners of the Abu Dhabi Championship had a top 10 in their previous four starts. It is important to have some sort of momentum from the end of last season.

Nationality
The winner of this event has been from UK or Ireland seven of the last eleven years.  Again, take this with a pinch of salt as ten of those results came at Abu Dhabi GC.

Stats Analysis

Yas Links has only hosted once so we only consider stats from last year's event.

SG: Off The Tee
Thomas Pieters was 4th in this category but Viktor Hovland was the only other player inside the top five to finish inside the top 40 in this category.

SG: Approach
None of the top five in 2022 ranked inside the top 10 for SG: Approach.  Shubhankar Sharma and Victor Dubuisson ranked 11th and 12th in this category but winner. Thomas Pieters was 28th.

SG: Around The Green
Rafa Cabrera Bello was the only player to rank inside the top 25 of this category out of the players who finished in the top five.

SG: Tee to Green
Thomas Pieters ranked first Tee to Green with Viktor Hovland 4th.

SG: Putting
Two of last year's top five had a strong week on the greens.  Shubhankar Sharma and Rafa Cabrera Bello ranked 1st and 5th in this category.  

In Play Golf Betting Advice

Tough Holes
The 3rd and the 6th played as the hardest holes in 2022.  It was also notable that the par 5 18th hole was the 5th hardest hole.

Birdie Holes
The only four holes to average under par throughout the week were the 2nd, 7th, 10th and 11th.

Fast or Slow Start
Thomas Pieters was 3rd after the opening round in 2022.  Of the eight players who shot 66 or better in round one in 2022, six of those would go on to finish in the top 10.

Closing stretch
Holes 15, 17 and 18 played as three of the five hardest holes in 2022.

2022 Abu Dhabi Championship Player Quotes

 "I think the golf course is unbelievable shape. It's in great condition. The fairways are immaculate. The greens are perfect. Yeah, I mean, to start the year here in these condition is really, really nice. Honestly I didn't remember it that well from -- I only played it once or twice before. I think -- I think that a lot of the rough on the surround has grown in a little more. Visually there's some holes that they are a little intimidating off the tee, just because you see there's a little bit of trouble here and there. But once you get up there, there's plenty of room to hit it. And obviously it's a Kyle Phillips, so he designed Kingsbarns, like big, big, undulating greens. I didn't remember how big and how severe some of the greens were here. So especially when you're playing a tournament and having to try to find, okay, where are they going to putt four hole locations, there's plenty of options for them out there to do that." Rory McIlroy

"The wind obviously plays a massive part. So that's going to play very much like a links. Ball flight control, I think there are run-offs. I think you can putt from around the green, so I guess that's very links-style. So yeah, there's plenty of elements that are -- that are very linksy. It's a completely different -- I say it's a completely different test; it's a different test to what we've always had at the other golf course but at the same time, I think still, driving and ball-striking were always paramount at Abu Dhabi Golf Club and they are here, as well. As different as the course might look and feel, there's still a lot of things that you have to do right on a weekly basis." Tommy Fleetwood

"When you have greens like this and you have a lot of new slopes and you have to learn a golf course, I'm going to have to do my homework. Like I'm going to have to spend a little more time out there preparing and learning what to do because if I don't know where a slope is and I somehow hit it there and I'm a little surprised, that's going to be a problem for the entire week." Collin Morikawa

"Like it's obviously along the coast here, and it's going to be quite windy, links-style, but it's fairly, I don't know if you've been out on the course but it's fairly, you know, tricky around the greens, and so it's going to require a lot of good iron play. And decent with the short game if you miss the greens. It's a course that, you know, fully confident, I'm playing confident with my game and going into it I'd be really, really bullish about this week. But I've had two months without tournament, and I'm always a bit anxious on a week like this about how I'm going to be playing going into it.

The course here is in incredible condition. Probably one of the best-condition golf courses you'll see fairways and greens and around the greens. Obviously it's scruffy off the fairway because that's the style of golf it is. It's sand and long rough. Yeah, two completely different golf courses and two completely different tests. When you come to a new golf course, you don't know what the winning score is going to be so you actually don't even know what a about score is out there. It's a strange one. You feel like, is 5-under a good score or is 8-under a good score or are you happy to break par? You don't really know. Judging by the forecast, Friday here is going to be really, really windy. So obviously that's going be the day to baton down the hatches and try and shoot the best score you can and you have to kind of make it up on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday." Shane Lowry

"I mean, typically I've got a good -- or generally, had a good links record and stuff but if I'm honest, I kind of struggle when we come to different places where they are not generally designed on having or not meant to have links courses, so they never seem to, in my opinion, I don't think they look right. So you know, you can't enjoy every golf course you play. But that being said, you still have to go out there and hit the shots." Tyrrell Hatton

Previous Abu Dhabi Championship tips

You can access our historical Abu Dhabi Championship tips using the links below:

2022

2021

2023 Abu Dhabi Championship Tips