When Lee Westwood tees off at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on Thursday, it will be his 28th season on the European Tour.
The Englishman, 47, arrived in Dubai early this month to begin his pre-season and is confident of getting 2021 off to a positive start in familiar surroundings.
Twelve months ago Westwood secured the Falcon Trophy at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club by two strokes ahead of compatriots Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood and Frenchman Victor Perez.
“It’s always good coming back to a tournament and a venue where you’ve won before,” Westwood said during a pre-tournament media conference on Tuesday.
“You have that little bit of confidence. I played the back nine today. I was walking up on to that 18th green and the last time I was there was when I was winning the tournament last year.
“Other than the win last year I’ve had some good performances here. It’s a golf course that sets up well for me.”
Having got the 2020 season off to a winning start Westwood was playing at the Honda Classic in Florida when the coronavirus pandemic forced golf into a three-month shutdown in March.
He concluded the season with a second-place finish behind Fitzpatrick at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in December to clinch a third Order of Merit title on the European Tour.
“Nobody could have predicted that,” he said of the pandemic. “Then at the end of the year it was great to finish off well in the desert, things fell my way and I won my third Race to Dubai.
“It’s testament to taking one day at a time. You can’t look into the future and try and plan anything. Like this week, you have to take each day as it comes, take each shot on its merits, and who knows, what will happen by the end of the week.”
To be staged for the 16th time, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship will carry a purse of $8 million, an increase of $1m from this year and includes the likes of Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy – the world No 3 and No 4, respectively, and two-time Abu Dhabi champion Tommy Fleetwood and 2019 among a stellar field.
“They’ve got a great field together,” Westwood said. “It’s a real high-quality field and a good amount of World Ranking points. It’s a big tournament to start the year with.”
