Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship 2026 preview picks analysis

When the DP World Tour season kicked off in Australia last year, who would ever have predicted that as we head to Abu Dhabi for the first of the two end-of-year playoffs that Rory McIlroy would be chasing Eugenio Chacarra and Patrick Reed as he aims to secure a record-equalling eighth Race to Dubai title? Not me, that’s for sure.

I always suspected there was something special about Chacarra but feared that his temperament may hold him back. However, this is the year he has come of age, winning three times and reeling off a host of other top-10 finishes along the way.

There has been so much to admire about the Spaniard’s play this term but the performance that really made me sit up was his runner-up at the Open de Espana, which he achieved despite enduring horrific pain from a broken toe. He said that had it been any other event then he would not even have teed it up.

So you could have been forgiven for imagining that he would take the following week off to prepare for the season’s climax. Not a bit of it. Instead, he travelled to the India Championship, won it and overtook Reed in the Race to Dubai. And who would bet against him seeing the job through?

I have been following this wonderful game for more years than I care to remember and have seen some very special talents in that time and I have to say that Chacarra reminds me of Seve Ballesteros, a hero to all Spanish golfers. Like Seve, he misses a lot of fairways but he is built like a bull and is able to muscle his way out of the most dreadful of lies. I am not a fan of the long putter but he wields it like a magic wand.

Again like Seve, he wears his heart on his sleeve and I love the way he engages with the galleries.

Reed is, of course, a veteran who opted to quit LIV Golf and has enjoyed a year to remember on the DP World Tour. He enjoyed a purple patch early in the year, winning the Dubai Desert Classic, losing the Bahrain Championship in a playoff and winning the Qatar Masters in an incredible three-week period. He also finished in a tie for second at the Irish Open.

His target was always to get back to the PGA Tour and he has long since locked up one of the 10 PGA Tour cards on offer. It remains to be seen what sort of welcome he will receive and whether the PGA Tour will attempt to fine him before allowing him to return.

Rory McIlroy

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

This has been another fabulous season on the DP World Tour. We have seen some surprising winners, none more so than Scott Jamieson’s emotional victory in his homeland and the return to the winners’ circle of Bernd Wiesberger, Richard Sterne and Adrian Meronk. There has also been the emergence of two-time winners Casey Jarvis and Jayden Schaper.

Alex Fitzpatrick landed his maiden title in India and has caused a huge stir on the PGA Tour.

But apart from Chacarra, the player who has really caught my eye this season is Angel Ayora. The 22-year-old Spaniard possesses one of the best golf swings I have ever seen and is a fabulous ball striker. His only weakness is on the greens but when he sorts this out he could become a serial winner. He has had five top-10s in 2026 and the only thing missing from his CV is a win.

Aaron Rai claimed his second Rolex Series crown at the 2025 Abu Dhabi Championship after beating Tommy Fleetwood in a dramatic playoff.

The Englishman started the day with a one-shot lead but soon found himself two shots back following a fast start from playing partner Fleetwood.

But a run of four successive birdies on the front nine returned him to the top before Fleetwood regained control on a roller-coaster final day.

Rai produced late fireworks, though, birdieing the 16th and 17th to sit level with Fleetwood at the summit heading down the last.

And although he missed a good chance to win inside 72 holes on the 18th green, he made no mistake with his birdie putt at the first extra hole to become a three-time DP World Tour winner.

Rai, who won his first Rolex Series title at the 2020 Scottish Open, made a total of seven birdies - including four in a row from the fourth - and two bogeys in his closing 67 to reach 25 under par, while Fleetwood produced a bogey-free 66 that featured an eagle and four birdies.

McIlroy fired a ten-under-par 62 to sit one shot behind Fleetwood and Rai in a tie for third alongside Nicolai Hojgaard.

Daniel Hillier and Richard Mansell were two shots further back on 22 under.

Rai, of course, would go on to confound his critics by winning the US PGA Championship.

Some things are more important than sport and it is impossible to preview this tournament without a mention of the tensions in the Middle East, which have led to Ryan Fox, Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry, Min Woo Lee, Justin Rose, Ludvig Aberg, Robert MacIntyre and Ryan Gerard deciding not to play this week. For Rose and MacIntyre, it means they also won’t be playing in Dubai - they are both outside the top 50 in the Race to Dubai and obviously can’t improve their positions to make the field of 50 for next week’s season finale. Aberg is 46th and is also in serious danger of missing out.

This week’s field should comprise the top 70 in the Race to Dubai but has been seriously devalued by the withdrawal of the above players. I still strongly believe that these final two events should have been moved.

But it does mean that the likes of Nathan Kimsey and Francesco Molinari, who thought their seasons were over, get a chance they never expected and, with a good week in Abu Dhabi, could make it to Dubai.

Tournament winners:

It was won in 2016 by Rickie Fowler, in 2017 and 2018 by Tommy Fleetwood, in 2019 by Shane Lowry, in 2020 by Lee Westwood, in 2021 by Tyrrell Hatton, in 2022 by Thomas Pieters, in 2023 by Victor Perez, in 2024 by Paul Waring and last year by Aaron Rai.

The course:

Yas Links is a par 72 that measures 7,425 yards. Designed by Kyle Phillips and opened in 2010, it features plenty of water and many huge bunkers and rolling fairways.