All eyes on Tiger as oil-rich sheiks lure in the stars
The quality of the field for an event offering $2.7m (€2.07m) in prize money, a modest fund by modern standards, is so strong one assumes the oil-rich sheiks of Abu Dhabi are dipping deep into their pockets to bankroll the incentives capable of enticing the game’s finest to the Gulf.
Opinions vary as to Woods’s appearance fee outside of America with estimations putting his charge at $3m (€2.3m). Whether he remains the iconic attraction before his private life was rocked by scandal remains to be seen. Chances are his on and off course persona won’t be enhanced by the contents of a book by former coach Hank Haney set to be published on the eve of the Masters in April.
Abu Dhabi offers an early opportunity to assess whether he is on the road to recapturing the form which made him the most feared golfer on the planet. Apart from victory in his Chevron World Challenge in California in December and a couple of wins in 2009, he has achieved precious little since.
Golf’s current top four, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy and Martin Kaymer also get their 2012 campaigns underway in Abu Dhabi and are joined by numerous other luminaries like Charl Schwartzel, Darren Clarke, Sergio Garcia, K J Choi and Jason Day.
South African Branden Grace chases a hat-trick of tournament wins after two marvellous victories in his home country. In addition to McIlroy and Clarke, the Irish interest is represented by Pádraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Michael Hoey, Shane Lowry, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane and Gareth Maybin.
Harrington’s share of 10th in the Volvo Champions was a decent effort especially after taking successive 7s at the reachable par 5 18th in the first two rounds. However, he has improved only one place to 88th in the world rankings and remains a long way off qualifying for the two hugely important World Championship events next month.
American mind guru Dr Bob Rotella has been by Harrington’s side for much of the past decade but it looks as if he may be replaced by Dave Alred, who originally made his name as a kicking adviser to the English team that won the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He parted ways with the English Rugby Union at the end of the Rugby World Cup after which a member of the squad, under the cloak of anonymity, claimed Alred “was swanning around in a polo shirt about to play another round of golf.”
By then, however, Alred had struck up a working relationship with Luke Donald and given credit for helping him to become the number one golfer in the world. Harrington got to hear of this and was sufficiently interested to consider taking him on in an advisory capacity. They are due to meet in Abu Dhabi this week. It will be recalled how Harrington was disqualified in the event 12 months ago.
