11 Big Names Playing In The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship

After 11 months, the DP World Tour season has just two events remaining in the DP World Tour Play-Offs, which conclude the Race to Dubai.

All season, players have been battling for points in the contest, with the goal of finishing high enough in the rankings to make it to the first of the Play-Offs, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

The qualifiers were finalized after the Genesis Championship, with the top 70 available players in the Race to Dubai rankings, as well as two European Ryder Cup stars who weren’t otherwise exempt, lining up at Yas Links.

They are all hoping to be in the top 50 of the rankings at the end of the tournament to make it to the last of the Play-Offs, the DP World Tour Championship.

Players who were eligible for the field but will not be competing include Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Justin Rose and Sepp Straka, the latter of whom withdrew from the DP World Tour Play-Offs to care for his baby son.

However, there are still some high-profile players competing in the first Play-Offs event. Here are some of the big names to look out for.

Rory McIlroy

After winning the PGA Tour’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship, before following that up with completing his career Grand Slam at The Masters, Rory McIlroy has since won the DP World Tour’s Amgen Irish Open and helped Team Europe win the Ryder Cup in the US for the first time since 2012.

Given that spectacular run, it’s reasonable to ask: could McIlroy’s year realistically go any better? As a matter of fact, it could!

The 36-year-old is also closing in on his seventh Race to Dubai title, and he is top of the rankings heading into the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

With his closest rival over 400 points behind, he’ll be confident of consolidating that position at Yas Links as he looks to make a stellar year even more memorable.

Tommy Fleetwood

It’s hard to deny that McIlroy has had the best year of the players teeing it up at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, but Fleetwood isn’t far behind.

For so long on the PGA Tour, it looked like he would endure another year as the nearly man, with several close calls before the Tour Championship.

However, Fleetwood demonstrated his remarkable ability to bounce back from disappointment at the East Lake tournament, where he finally claimed his maiden PGA Tour win and with it the FedEx Cup title.

He wasn’t done there. A month later, Fleetwood accumulated more points than anyone at the Ryder Cup as he helped Europe to victory before claiming his ninth DP World Tour win at the DP World India Championship.

He begins the DP World Tour Play-Offs 26^th in the Race to Dubai rankings and in some of the best form of his life.

Tyrrell Hatton

Englishman Hatton was already a high-profile player before joining LIV Golf, but if anything, his star has only risen since then.

As well as claiming his maiden win on the circuit in 2024, he has also added his seventh and eighth DP World Tour titles, the most recent of which came in just his second start of the year at the Dubai Desert Classic.

Hatton, who also played a pivotal role in Team Europe’s Ryder Cup win over the US, begins the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship third in the rankings and still in with a chance of claiming the season-long title for the first time.

Ludvig Aberg

Ludvig Aberg is one of two players in the field – the other being Shane Lowry – who didn’t qualify for the first of the DP World Tour Play-Offs via his Race to Dubai ranking, with the Swede six places below the required position in 80^th.

However, he takes his place by virtue of his appearance in the European Ryder Cup team, giving him the chance to accumulate the points necessary to make it to the DP World Tour Championship.

He should certainly be confident of managing at least that, having claimed his second PGA Tour win at February’s Genesis Invitational, with several more top-10 finishes since.

Aberg’s most recent DP World Tour start resulted in a T20 at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, and he’ll be hoping for another solid performance in the penultimate tournament of the season.

Shane Lowry

Thanks to the Ryder Cup, Lowry has a moment that will live with him forever to take from the 2025 season, as he holed the putt that ensured the trophy would be staying in European hands for at least another two years.

The Irishman has also been in decent form in strokeplay tournaments this season, although the year is threatening to go down as one of frustration on that score.

Lowry has finished runner-up twice on the PGA Tour this season, along with two more top-10 placings.

On the DP World Tour, he has also failed to win, but he came close at the DP World India Championship before finishing tied for third.

While he’ll be looking for the win in Abu Dhabi, the first thing on the agenda will be to haul himself into the top 50 of the Race to Dubai rankings from a starting position of 112th for a DP World Tour Championship place.

Matt Fitzpatrick

Earlier in the year, 2022 US Open champion Fitzpatrick was in a slump he was showing few signs of emerging from.

In March, he split from long-term caddie Billy Foster in a bid to address his poor form, which had seen him slip well outside the world’s top 50, having previously enjoyed sizeable stints in the top 10.

Whether or not the parting of the ways with Foster ultimately had a bearing on his form, things have clicked for the Englishman in recent months, as evidenced by a T8 in the PGA Championship and a T4 at Royal Portrush in The Open, among several other impressive performances along the way.

Now back inside the world’s top 30, and having been impressive for Team Europe in the Ryder Cup, he will be confident of a strong performance in the DP World Tour Play-Offs, starting in Abu Dhabi.

Patrick Reed

The 2018 Masters champion heads to the DP World Tour Play-Offs during a good year which included finishing third at the Augusta National Major in April and following that up with his maiden LIV Golf win in Dallas at the end of June.

He has also produced some strong performances on the DP World Tour this season, notably third at the BMW PGA Championship, meaning he comfortably qualified for the Play-Offs in 22^nd despite his schedule limiting his appearances on the circuit.

He’ll be hoping to continue his excellent year by consolidating his position in the top 50 of the Race to Dubai rankings in Abu Dhabi.

Robert MacIntyre

Since becoming one of 10 DP World Tour players to earn a PGA Tour card following the 2023 season, MacIntyre hasn’t looked back, with his first two wins on his new circuit coming in 2024.

He then claimed his fourth DP World Tour win at October’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

MacIntyre also finished runner-up at this year’s US Open and T7 at The Open before acquitting himself well at the Ryder Cup for the second edition in a row, raising his profile to the highest it’s ever been.

He begins the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship sixth in the Race to Dubai rankings in his bid to lift the Harry Vardon trophy for the first time.

Marco Penge

It’s a testament to Marco Penge’s progress over the last 12 months that a year ago, it would have been impossible to justify featuring him in a list such as this.

Penge began the year ranked 416^th in the world, with his last two professional wins coming on the Challenge Tour over a year earlier.

However, since the turn of the year, Penge has claimed his first three DP World Tour wins and has reached a career-high world ranking of 29^th. He is also currently only behind McIlroy in the Race to Dubai rankings.

As a result of his heroics, he also occupies the top position of the 10 offering PGA Tour cards at the end of the season.

Before he inevitably turns his thoughts to life on the US-based circuit, there’s the small matter of the DP World Tour Play-Offs, where he could yet pip McIlroy to the Harry Vardon trophy.

Alex Noren

The 43-year-old has enjoyed a career resurgence in 2025.

There have been strong performances on the PGA Tour, including T7 at the 3M Open and T3 at the Wyndham Championship.

However, it’s on the DP World Tour where Noren has really shone. In September, he won two big events, the Betfred British Masters for his first worldwide victory since 2018, followed by the BMW PGA Championship.

As a result, he is now in line for a PGA Tour card next season, thanks to his position of eighth in the Race to Dubai rankings, regardless of where he finishes in the FedEx Cup Fall rankings.

The Swede is also back inside the world’s top 20 for the first time since the end of 2018, and he will be hoping to continue his rich vein of form in the final phase of the DP World Tour season.

Rasmus Hojgaard

Along with Viktor Hovland, who missed the latter part of the Ryder Cup with a neck injury, Rasmus Hojgaard must have bittersweet memories of the Bethpage Black match.

Even though he finished on the winning team, he was the only player not to contribute at least half a point, although in his defence, he only played in two sessions.

That’s not to take away from what has been an otherwise excellent season for the Dane, who qualified automatically for the match thanks largely to his performances on the DP World Tour.

Hojgaard finished the 2024 season runner-up to Rory McIlroy at the DP World Tour Championship, and he’ll be looking for a solid start to the Play-Offs at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.