The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 24 January 2012 /

The Punter previews this week's Race to Dubai action, where a stellar field will attempt to halt Martin Kaymer's Abu Dhabi dominance...

Tournament
Welcome to the Martin Kaymer show! To date, the popular German has won half of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championships ever staged. In five appearances he's won three times and he's also finished second once. And that was behind Paul Casey, who himself has two wins to his name. Casey won't be appearing this year though, he's recovering from a dislocated right shoulder, an injury he sustained snowboarding in Colorado at the beginning of the year. This will be just the seventh staging of the event.

Venue
Abu Dhabi Golf Club, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Course Details
Par 72, 7590 yards. Designed by Peter Harradine and opened in 1998, this long, flat, heavily bunkered and fairly exposed track always receives plenty of acclaim from the players. There have been one or two changes this year. There's a new back tee on 18, which lengthens the hole by ten yards. New fairway bunkers have been added on the 2nd and 18th holes and holes 4, 6, 8 and 15 have all had their greens enlarged with the aim of providing more challenging pin positions.

Useful Sites
www.abudhabigolfchampionship.com
www.adgolfclub.com

TV Coverage
Live on Sky Sports all four days - starting 6.00am Thursday and Friday, 9.00am Saturday and 8.00am on Sunday

First six year's winners
2011 - Martin Kaymer -24
2010 - Martin Kaymer -21
2009 - Paul Casey -21
2008 - Martin Kaymer -15
2007 - Paul Casey -17
2006 - Chris DiMarco -20

Typical Winner
I'm tempted to just say German and leave it at that! In all seriousness though, so far top-class players have come to the fore. He may not be much of a force nowadays but Chris DiMarco was at the top of his game when he won the inaugural event and he ran Tiger Woods close at a couple of majors back in the day. The most important stat to consider is Greens In Regulation but players need to bring their whole game if they want to win here. Inaccurate driving will be punished and you'll get lapped if you don't putt well enough to make a bunch of birdies.

Market Leaders
With such an impressive record here, one might assume that Kaymer would be the automatic favourite but Rory McIlroy has a great record too, with form figures that read 11-5-3-2, and he's challenging the German for favouritism at around [7.8]. Tiger Woods is the only other player trading in single figures and the world's one and two, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, are both twice the price of the front two at [14.5].

Selections
I can't get away from Kaymer. Having backed him last year at [11.0] and the year before at [18.0], I just can't leave him out. Yes, he's quite a bit shorter this time around but he should be. He absolutely loves it here and was simply unbeatable 12 months ago, cruising to victory by an incredible eight strokes.

He'll be very keen to get his hands on the new trophy, the organisers let him keep the old one last year, and as long as he turns up in decent nick, he'll take the world of beating. Someone put up a bit some [9.0] on Sunday night and that was gratefully received, and he's still a fair enough price at less than [8.0].

Desert specialist, Alvaro Quiros, has a surprisingly ordinary record here, with form figures of 50-17-26-11-23. Harradine also designed Doha Golf Club in Qatar, where Quiros is something of a standing dish so it's a bit strange that he's never got to grips with this gaff. It may be that he never really clicks here but I thought he was worth a small wager just in case.

Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship Selections
Martin Kaymer @ an average of [8.2]
Alvaro Quiros @ [36.0]

I'll be back later with a preview of the US Tour's event, the Farmers Insurance Open, and I'll kick off the In-Play Blog on either Thursday or Friday.

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