Abu Dhabi Championships 2019 Preview – 16th January, 2019
The European PGA starts the new season of action and there is a world class event going down. It is the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. This is a pretty new event in terms of golf spectacles really because the inaugural edition was only back in 2006.
Last year it was Tommy Fleetwood who came out swinging by getting his hands on the title. He is back as a strong contender twelve months on, but it is Justin Johnson who will tee up as the 11/2 outright favourite* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th at 3:42 pm)
Abu Dhabi Championship Odds*
Dustin Johnson 11/2
Tommy Fleetwood 10/1
Brooks Koepka 10/1
Henrik Stenson 16/1
Louis Oosthuizen 18/1
Thomas Pieters 20/1
Tyrrell Hatton 22/1
Rafael Cabrera Bello 25/1
Haotong Li 28/1
Thorbjørn Olesen 30/1
Matt Wallace 30/1
Brendan Grace 33/1
Lee Westwood 35/1
Byeong Hun An 40/1
Martin Kaymer 40/1
Tom Lewis 45/1
Lucas Bjerregaard 45/1
50/1 bar
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th, 2019 at 3:46 pm)
Early start
Make a note that this one starts on Wednesday, January 16th instead of the usual Thursday start that tournaments get. That is because of the 2019 Asian Cup and working around that.
Can Fleetwood get three-peat?
Englishman Tommy Fleetwood came up with back to back titles at the Abu Dhabi Championship twelve months ago. It wasn’t necessarily the greatest show of distance driving from him but that’s a not major factor at this tournament. So in eyeing up a player this year’s field, you may want to look for accuracy over distance. Greens In Regulation looks to be the forward for your Abu Dhabi Championship betting this week.
Repeat Winners
Something else that the tournament has churned up recently is repeat winners. Paul Casey won it twice in three years. Martin Kaymer won it three times and now you have Tommy Fleetwood who has won it back to back. So there is something behind the old course form factor going into this one really.
The Main Contenders
Dustin Johnson is back for another crack at the European event and he turned up a couple of years ago and actually played his way into contention. Given his status in the World over the last couple of years, it is no great surprise that really he is going off as the 11/2 favourite, but is that a price that will particularly appeal for punters in this first event of the lucrative Rolex series* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th, 2019 at 3:46 pm)?
Fellow American Brooks Koepka is right up there at the head of the market and this will be his second attempt at the tournament. His first was back in 2014 when he pretty much had a tournament to forget and didn’t get to the weekend. He is a tremendous player, of course, a three-time major champion, but is a bit of an unknown quantity in this. He at least has had some action this year with an appearance at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
There is, of course, Tommy Fleetwood who has clear course form. The one negative against him perhaps is that this will be his first appearance for 2019. So he hasn’t had a competitive warm up to get his teeth into head of the title defence. But then again he knows what he is doing at this event and will have done everything else possible to prepare.
This is a great field for a great tournament and Henrik Stenson continues his run of appearing in every edition so far. He hasn’t managed to stick the win on the board yet though and it would be a surprise to see him win it this go around. He is still working his way back to full fitness after the problem with his elbow last year.
Predictions
It is a tough tournament to call because there really doesn’t look to be a great deal of value on the front-runners. Considering that this is still the early season then it is probably worth skipping the outrights until we see new year form and so instead we are sticking with the top ten finish market.
There some options become a little clearer with Fleetwood for example at even money to at least get in the top ten* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th, 2019 at 3:46 pm).
Digging a little deeper down the field Thorbjorn Olesen and Branden Grace both look decent enough options at 5/2 and 7/2 respectively* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th, 2019 at 3:46 pm).
