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2023 opens with match-play team event in Abu Dhabi
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Course specialist Fleetwood captains Britain & Ireland
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GB&I appear to hold narrow advantage 'on paper'
This week's Hero Cup in Abu Dhabi represents the latest version of a team contest between Great Britain & Ireland, and their professional counterparts from the Continent of Europe.
A match between these two teams is nothing new. In fact, this week's gathering is yet another reincarnation of a fixture that first took place during the mid-1950s.
Named the Joy Cup, and featuring 10 players per team, the match was staged four times between 1954 and 1958.
More than 15 years later, the fixture was re-ignited and became known as the Hennessy Cognac Cup.
This particular version was held five times between 1974 and 1982, before lying dormant until early in the new millennium.
Then along came the Seve Trophy which was staged on eight occasions between 2000 and 2013.
In all, the two teams have faced each other 17 times during the past seven decades, and never once has any meeting ended in a tie.
So far, Great Britain & Ireland enjoy a massive 15-2 advantage, although the Continent of Europe did win the most recent match-play fixture at Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, Paris, in October 2013.
The aim of this week's Hero Cup is to give players a taste of competitive match-play golf, should they be selected to appear in the Ryder Cup.
However, the intensity of a typical Ryder Cup match is unlikely to be replicated at Abu Dhabi Golf Club this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Italy's Francesco Molinari is the Continent of Europe's playing-captain, while his close friend Tommy Fleetwood will skipper the 10-player Great Britain & Ireland team.
There will be two sessions of five foursomes, one session of five fourballs, along with 10 singles on the final day. All 20 players will compete in each session.
Course Characteristics
Abu Dhabi Golf Club is well known to players from both teams, having staged 16 DP World Tour events since 2006.
With an average winning score of exactly 270 - that's 18-under-par - Abu Dhabi has earned a reputation for being a birdie-fest.
This long, flat desert layout has reasonably wide fairways and large greens, while water comes into play on 11 holes.
The course was toughened-up ahead of the 2012 Abu Dhabi Championship but, despite a brief halt to seriously low scoring, tournament winning 72-hole totals soon returned to levels witnessed during the event's early years.
Opened in 1998, Abu Dhabi has plenty of sand, both in the form of official bunkers, as well as surrounding scrubland. There are four sharp dog-leg holes to contend with during the round.
Latest betting for this week's Hero Cup team match
Stroke Averages
Abu Dhabi Championship (2016-21)
Average .... (Rounds)
Continent Of Europe
71.07: Thomas Detry (14)
72.00: Rasmus Hojgaard (6)
73.50: Adrian Meronk (2)
72.00: Guido Migliozzi (4)
70.13: Alex Noren (8)
70.17: Victor Perez (12)
69.64: Thomas Pieters (22)
70.50: Antoine Rozner (4)
Great Britain & Ireland
68.77: Tommy Fleetwood (22)
69.44: Tyrrell Hatton (18)
69.88: Shane Lowry (8)
71.00: Robert MacIntyre (8)
71.56: Callum Shinkwin (16)
70.60: Jordan Smith (20)
70.25: Matt Wallace (16)
Note: Ewen Ferguson, Richard Mansell, Francesco Molinari, Seamus Power and Sepp Straka did not play at Abu Dhabi Golf Club between 2016 & 2021
Key Facts
• No member of the Continent of Europe (CE) team has ever won at Abu Dhabi;
• Fleetwood (twice), Hatton and Lowry have each tasted victory at the course;
• The average end-of-year World Ranking for the Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) team was 84.7, compared to 87.3 for their opponents;
• Four members of GB&I are ranked inside the world's top 30, but just one for CE;
• Three members of GB&I are ranked outside the top 100, compared to four for CE;
• However, the two worst ranked pros both belong to GB&I - Wallace and Mansell;
• Straka is the only member of the CE team who has never previously played at the course, while GB&I's Ferguson, Mansell and Power will all be making their competitive debuts;
• Fleetwood's most recent 22 rounds at the venue (since 2016) average 68.77, while Pieters leads the way for CE with 69.64 from 22;
• Only Straka (CE) and Power (GB&I) played last week in Hawaii on the PGA Tour;
• The most out-of-form golfer is Wallace who has missed his last three cuts and hasn't posted a top-10 since August.
Latest betting for this year's Masters Tournament
MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut