Golf
2024 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship: Round 1 tee times, pairings and featured groups
World No. 3 Rory McIlroy is the pre-tournament favourite to come out on top at Yas Links Abu Dhabi.
The penultimate event of the DP World Tour begins on Wednesday, November 6 as 70 top players head to the Yas Links course in Abu Dhabi.
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship begins play with a day of group format action, with 24 groups formed (22 trios, two duos) from the 70 competitors. Two of the most keenly-anticipated groups include Rory McIlroy, Thriston Lawrence and Rasmus Hojgaard, and Adam Scott, Tyrrell Hatton and Matteo Manassero.
World No. 3 McIlroy will be many experts’ favourite to clinch a sixth Race to Dubai title this week but the Northern Irishman admitted that he was feeling the effects of a long season.
“I have not played any competitive golf since the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland,” he told reporters last week.
“I took four weeks off – I was keeping pretty busy. I feel good – have done some work on my golf. It has been a long year – next week will be my 27th tournament of the year.”
Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship: Round 1 tee times
With the action taking place in Abu Dhabi, tee times will be at unsociable hours for US-based golf fans hoping to follow the action. Round 1 will begin on Wednesday evening with tea times stretching into the early hours of Thursday.
Here’s a look at the full Round 1 schedule (Eastern Time)...
Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship round 1 tee times and groupings
10:17 pm: Sean Crocker, Adrien Saddier
10:28 pm: Juist Luiten, David Micheluzzi
10:39 pm: Ugo Coussaud, Daniel Brown, Matthew Jordan
10:50 pm: Adrian Otaegui, Darius van Driel, Adrian Meronk
11:01 pm: Adam Scott, Tyrrell Hatton, Matteo Manassero
11:12 pm: Dylan Frittelli, Brandon Stone, Aaron Cockerill
11:28 pm: Jeff Winther, Alejandro del Rey, Paul Waring
11:39 pm: Frederic LaCroix, Grant Forrest, Joe Dean
11:50 pm: Dan Bradbury, Keira Nakajima, Bernd Wiesberger
12:01 am: Thorbjorn Olesen, Tom McKibbin, Nicolai Hojgaard
12:12 am: Jesper Svensson, Angel Hidalgo, Matt Wallace
12:23 am: Rory McIlroy, Thriston Lawrence, Rasmus Hojgaard
12:44 am: Johannes Veerman, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, Jayden Schaper
12:55 am: Richard Mansell, Matthew Baldwin, Gavin Green
1:06 am: Alex Fitzpatrick, Yannik Paul, Shubhankar Sharma
1:17 am: Antoine Rozner, Ewen Ferguson, Marcel Siem
1:28 am: Min Woo Lee, Justin Rose, Niklas Norgaard
1:39 am: Laurie Canter, David Ravetto, Nacho Elvira
1:55 am: Julien Guerrier, Jorge Campillo, Thomas Detry
2:06 am: Connor Syme, Casey Jarvis, Francesco Laporta
2:17 am: Sam Bairstow, Andy Sullivan, Calum Hill
2:28 am: Jordan Smith, Romain Langasque, Guido Migliozzi
2:39 am: Riyuka Hoshino, Sebastian Soderberg, Joaquin Niemann
2:50 am: Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre, Shane Lowry
Viewers in the United States can watch the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on the Golf Channel.
How much is the top prize for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship?
The annual tournament was first introduced in 2006, at which point it was one of three European Tour events held in the Arabian Peninsula. Initially, the total prize fund was $2 million.
By 2019 it was drawing many prominent players and was one of 11 tournaments included in the Rolex Series, which comprises the top events on the European Tour. By this point the prize fund had reached $7 million.
In 2022 the event, which had been hosted at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, was relocated to Yas Links, Abu Dhabi. The 2024 tournament boasts a total prize fund of $9 million, with the winner bagging more than $1.5 million. Last year’s champion was Victor Perez, who managed a narrow one-shot win over Min Woo Lee and Sebastian Soderberg.