ABU DHABI // A new term has been added to the European Tour’s decades-old lexicon. Specifically, it is a modification of an oft-used financial phrase.
Blessed with a field filled with several well-compensated stars, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship again goes into the final 36 holes with the top-ranked player headed out of town.
Call it a dis-appearance fee.
For the second time in as many years, the field’s top-rated player failed to survive the cut, with the world No 3 Henrik Stenson finishing two shots over par to miss the weekend play by two strokes.
Last year, world Nos 1 and 2 Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods – who each drew seven-figure bonuses – missed the cut, too.
Stenson, who won the Race to Dubai points title two months ago, came to Abu Dhabi hoping to win the only event of the four staged annually in the region that had escaped him.
Designated the Gulf Slam, the only slamming done this week involved the boot of his car.
The Swede finished in the top eight during the first three years of the Abu Dhabi tournament, including a pair of runner-up finishes, but has missed three of the past six cuts. Ah, memories of yesteryear.
“You mean back when the rough was an inch and not five or six inches?” Stenson said, only partly kidding.
The punitive nature of the rough has been a touchy subject all week. Asked for a common denominator in the disappearance of elite players, Stenson did not hesitate to offer an opinion.
“It’s probably down to the set-up,” he said, making it clear that he did not know the particulars of the missed cuts by Woods and McIlroy last year.
“If I were to give you a qualified guess, I’d put it down to that.”
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