Can Sergio finally emerge from the pack?

Wednesday, 25 January 2012 10:38

Written by Editor

You just can’t keep Tiger  Woods from the centre of the golfing spotlight and the 14-time major winner is threatening a resurgent year after winning his own limited-field event at the end of 2011. But his challengers now are from a new generation of young golfers, the likes of Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy and Martin Kaymer, in fact those first three are occupying the top three places in the world rankings and all from the UK.
And this is why this week's opening event on the European Tour's "Desert Swing" in Abu Dhabi is such an eagerly anticipated tournament. Not only is Woods launching his season in the Emirate, he does so against the top four players in the world.

It is a mouth-watering prospect to be played out over a fine course at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, probably for the last time before the event moves to a new venue at the stunning Yas Links course.

The current venue creates quality victors like defending champion Kaymer, who is a three-time winner of the tournament, and this suggests a star-studded leaderboard will be challenging for the title come Sunday afternoon. Let's hope so, because a tussle between Woods and players who head the world rankings would offer the perfect start to what promises to be a vintage golfing year.

One player who will surely been keen to join the mix, and might just succeed this week, is Sergio Garcia. Still unbelievably only 32, he is embarking on the 13th full season of a lucrative yet still unfulfilled career. The Spaniard has finished tied eighth and in a share of 13th place in his two previous visits to Abu Dhabi and, like Woods, appears firmly on the comeback trail after his golf had appeared to be in a dangerous downward spiral. Garcia has won two of his last four tournaments. Those victories came back to back in Spain in the latter part of the 2011 season.

He won the Castello Masters on his home course by an astonishing 11 strokes in October, finishing at 27 under par, and the following week triumphed in the Andalucia Masters at a far more exacting Valderrama.

Both wins showed a revamped putting style could withstand the pressure of the sharp end of a tournament which should imbue the Spaniard with confidence as he embarks on arguably the most important year of his career to date.