Golf Events / Tareq Quiroz / 14 January 2009 /

Tareq Quiroz is happy with Henrik's position as favourite ahead of the first big tour event of the Desert Swing.

If last week signalled the start of the PGA Tour for 2009, then for me this is the week that the European Tour really gets under way in this calendar year. There is a cracking field assembled for the Abu Dhabi Championship for what promises to be a fantastic event. The Race to Dubai is well and truly on.

The Course
The Abu Dhabi Golf Club may only be in its fourth year as a European Tour course, but it is fast becoming a must place to play. Designed in 1998, it is a new course but one that you can be sure will be used for a long time. At 7,500 yards it is very long and can be quite a test if there should be any rain to soften the fairways. There is water in play on many of the holes so any players coming here a bit rusty may find themselves familiar with these during the week.

The Favourite
The race for market leader in this tournament promises to be as tight as the challenge for the title. Early thoughts were that Sergio Garcia was going to be a fairly comfortable favourite, but support in recent days has been heavy for Henrik Stenson. It looks to me like the Swede will now go off as the jolly and I think the market is just about right. Stenson was in great form towards the end of last season and always plays well in the desert stretch. A resident in Dubai he is always primed and ready for this part of the season so at current odds of [8.8] I would say he is just about the right price. As much as I rate Garcia my money would definitely rest with the Swede at this particular venue.

The Next Best Bets
In early January it is imperative that your picks aren't just born out of overall ability. It is not always as prevalent on the European Tour as the PGA Tour but you can be certain some players will come into this event too rusty to win. We haven't seen Harrington for far too long to give him any support. As a rule you can usually be pretty confident that most Australians will come here in pretty good nick. The big Aussie events are only played in late December so they are primed from playing proper intense tournaments. This was shown last week when Geoff Ogilvy won easily in Hawaii and I can see the trend continuing here in Abu Dhabi and the man to be on is Robert Allenby. He is hardly a prolific winner but does have his day from time to time and if you are looking for greens in regulation then this is your guy. If he can get his flat stick going this week he will be a huge contender and must carry support at odds of [30.0].

The Massive Outsider
It really is a top draw field this week and there are potential challengers everywhere you look. I wouldn't put anyone off a nibble at Michael Campbell at current odds of [95.0]. After a dreadful patch where I thought the likeable Kiwi was possibly close to packing it in he is now playing some decent stuff and I just get a feeling that 2009 will be a good year for him. The other player I like further down the field is Steve Webster. The Englishman also went through a difficult time but is starting to show decent form again. He has two tour wins to his name and I am sure he will add to that at some point this year. Given some confidence from a big win, Webster is the kind of player who may take his game to a new level. At odds of [160.0] he is certainly worth a small punt this week.

Interesting Info
To emphasise the quality of this field you may be amazed to know that between them this field has racked up 266 European Tour victories. The field contains two of last year's major winners and in five major winners in total. Last year Martin Kaymer was my selection for the week and he duly obliged at excellent odds...I guess more importantly to some he was also the youngest German ever to win on Tour.

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