Health in check and batteries fully recharged, beware McIlroy
This time last year, Rory McIlroy had just announced his withdrawal from the tournament.
The four-time major champion, also a four-time runner-up in Abu Dhabi, had sustained a rib injury and was forced to pull out. He described his omission as "bitterly disappointing".
That would probably cover McIlroy’s 2017 on the course, if only because the injury meant golf’s most talented exponent did not capture any titles in a calendar year for the first time since 2008. Consequently, he has slipped to world No 11.
However, McIlroy returns to Abu Dhabi having taken almost four months away from competitive action and declared this week he is fully recovered and intent on a successful 2018.
Playing an unprecedented eight tournaments in the build-up to the Masters, Abu Dhabi represents the first stop on McIlroy’s comeback. He has been close in the capital so many times and has "unfinished business" there.
Refreshed and refocused, he should be a real threat this week.
Dominant Dustin looks prepared and poised to go one better
Dustin Johnson arrived in Abu Dhabi last year not really knowing what to expect. Granted, as world No 3 and reigning US Open champion, many would have anticipated a strong showing, but the American was making his tournament debut.
Beginning slowly – he was level par after the first round – Johnson soon found his groove. Eventually, he finished joint-second, one shot shy of Tommy Fleetwood. All in all, it was not a bad bow.
Not long after Abu Dhabi, Johnson won three times in a row, climbed to world No 1 and appeared set to dominate golf for some time.
An injury on the eve of the Masters knocked him back, but signs are that Johnson has returned to his best. Last week, he won the Sentry Tournament of Champions by eight shots to open 2018 in pretty ominous fashion. Atop the rankings, he appears there to stay.
No longer a National course novice, Johnson is favourite for the Falcon Trophy.
Rose’s late bloom in 2017 can continue through the New Year
Given its make-up, the golfing season can feel never-ending. It straddles years, is both tiring and taxing, and therefore demands dedicated downtime in December to recharge batteries and go again.
Still, perhaps just a small part of Justin Rose did not want the break to come.
The world No 6 enjoyed an incredible conclusion to 2017: in his final 10 appearances, Rose won three times, finished in tied-second and registered six other top-10s. In November, he missed out narrowly on the Race to Dubai title.
Back in action this week, he will be looking to continue that remarkable run.
Rose has competed in Abu Dhabi only twice before, but finished second in 2013 and 12th two years later. Last year, he came agonisingly close to sealing a second major title, when he was beaten in a play-off at the Masters.
Another top-notch performance in Abu Dhabi would set the wheels in motion for another genuine tilt at the Green Jacket.
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Read more
Dustin Johnson Q&A: World No 1 is targeting 'more of the same' after a trophy-laden 2017
Rory McIlroy: Plays down heart health fears ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
Matt Kuchar interview: Golf's globetrotter excited to make Abu Dhabi championship debut
Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship: Cabrera Bello, Els, Westwood added to 'incredible' line-up
Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship: A look at the player profiles of the 'Magnificent Seven'
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Defending champion out to prove 2017 was no fluke
Last year’s victory set Tommy Fleetwood on his way to achieving one of his professional life goals.
Winning by a single stroke in January - only his second European Tour triumph - by November he had added the Race to Dubai crown. Anointed Europe's No 1, the Englishman spoke of a desire to be the best golfer in the world.
Better still, DP World Tour Championship winner Jon Rahm said that day: “We’re just about to find out how good Tommy Fleetwood is.”
That would mean backing up his breakout year. For Fleetwood, the next step is obviously the majors, and there is a Ryder Cup debut to factor in, also.
Thankfully, he finished a hugely credible sixth in Hong Kong the week after his Dubai high, then emerged from a well-earned break to win all three matches at the EurAsia Cup.
Clearly, Abu Dhabi could spark another stellar run. Retaining the Falcon Trophy would reaffirm a star on the rise.
Captain runs rule over Ryder Cup contenders
So far, so good, Thomas Bjorn.
Europe's Ryder Cup captain passed his first test with flying colours these past few days, as blue eventually dominated the board at the EurAsia Cup in Malaysia. Needing a fast start on Sunday, Bjorn's side won eight of their first nine matches to help Europe on their way to 14-10 victory.
Now Bjorn’s focus shifts to reclaiming the Ryder Cup from the United States in September.
Abu Dhabi provides a perfect opportunity to lay groundwork, with Bjorn getting a close-up look at some potential participants. The likes of Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton excelled in Malaysia, winning all their matches.
But Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Danny Willett and Graeme McDowell represent former Ryder Cup stars seeking to muscle in on a place in France later this year. Last week, Poulter reminded that, even having just turned 42, he has “plenty left in the tank for Paris”.
The engine revs up in Abu Dhabi.
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
if you go
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct to Kolkata from Dh1,504 and Dh1,450 return including taxes, respectively. The flight takes four hours 30 minutes outbound and 5 hours 30 minute returning.
The trains
Numerous trains link Kolkata and Murshidabad but the daily early morning Hazarduari Express (3’ 52”) is the fastest and most convenient; this service also stops in Plassey. The return train departs Murshidabad late afternoon. Though just about feasible as a day trip, staying overnight is recommended.
The hotels
Mursidabad’s hotels are less than modest but Berhampore, 11km south, offers more accommodation and facilities (and the Hazarduari Express also pauses here). Try Hotel The Fame, with an array of rooms from doubles at Rs1,596/Dh90 to a ‘grand presidential suite’ at Rs7,854/Dh443.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Scoreline:
Barcelona 2
Suarez 85', Messi 86'
Atletico Madrid 0
Red card: Diego Costa 28' (Atletico)
