McIlroy and Fleetwood headline field at Abu Dhabi Championship

The countdown is on to the 20th edition of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, with under a week to go until the DP World Tour Play-Offs begin at Yas Links from November 6-9, featuring a world-class field led by career grand slam winner Rory McIlroy and reigning FedExCup Champion Tommy Fleetwood.

Staged by Abu Dhabi Sports Council and the DP World Tour, this landmark edition marks two decades of world-class golf in the capital, with the Championship serving as the opening event of the DP World Tour's end of season showpiece, leading straight into the DP World Tour Championship where the Race to Dubai champion will be crowned.

McIlroy, the 2025 Masters Champion, heads to Abu Dhabi leading the Race to Dubai Rankings as he aims to secure a seventh season-long title, following his historic Green Jacket triumph at Augusta National earlier this year and victory on home soil at the Amgen Irish Open.

Fleetwood has enjoyed a superb 2025 campaign, capturing both his maiden PGA TOUR title and the FedExCup at the TOUR Championship before starring for Europe at Bethpage Black with four match wins, to help Europe become the first away team to win a Ryder Cup since 2013.

Just weeks after his heroics in New York, the World No. 5 captured an eighth DP World Tour victory with victory at the DP World India Championship, beating Keita Nakajima by two strokes at Delhi Golf Club.

Hot on McIlroy’s heels in the race for the Harry Vardon Trophy is Marco Penge, who has enjoyed a breakout season, just a year after narrowly retaining his playing privileges with a 110th place finish in the Rankings.

The 27-year-old claimed his first Tour title earlier this year at the Hainan Classic, before adding another victory at the Danish Golf Championship that lifted him to second on the Race to Dubai. Penge then added a third victory to his name earlier this month at the Open de España presented by Madrid to close in on McIlroy ahead of the DP World Tour Play-Offs.

Penge is also leading the way in the battle for ten PGA TOUR cards that are up for grabs, with the top ten finishers in the season-long points race, not otherwise exempt, earning dual membership on the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour for 2026.

The battle for those coveted spots is fierce, with Penge currently leading the charge, followed by Kristoffer Reitan, Adrien Saddier, John Parry, Alex Noren, Laurie Canter, Haotong Li, Daniel Brown, Keita Nakajima, and Jordan Smith rounding out the current top ten not already exempt.

Elsewhere, a total of nine players who represented Luke Donald's historic victorious European Ryder Cup team at Bethpage last month will also be making the trip to Yas Island. Joining McIlroy will be former Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship winners Shane Lowry, Tyrrell Hatton, and Fleetwood, along with Ludvig Åberg, Matt Fitzpatrick, Rasmus Højgaard, , Robert MacIntyre and Sepp Straka. .

Other notable names in the field include UAE-based stars Rafa Cabrera Bello, Tom McKibbin, Richard Mansell, Johannes Veerman and Ewen Ferguson, as the top 70 available players battle for glory at the fourth Rolex Series event of the year.