2021 Abu Dhabi Championship Winner Odds: Can McIlroy Win Again?

Image source: Jonathan Palombo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The first Rolex Series event of the 2021 season will be the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship held between the 21-24 January. Top golf players Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy have already confirmed their participation, but we can also find several previous winners in the field. The 2021 Abu Dhabi Championship winner odds favor McIlroy, let’s see his and other top players’ chances now. 

The 2021 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship will be the first European Tour event of the season. It is also one of the four Rolex Series events in the calendar. This will be the 16th edition of the tournament, which has the prize fund of $7 million. English golfer Lee Westwood won the event last year and will compete again. Westwood also won the Race to Dubai and was voted Golfer of the Year for the fourth time. So it’s not surprising that he is mentioned in the favorites but we can find several other great players with a chance for victory. Like world No3 Justin Thomas, who will take part in his first Abu Dhabi race. Or world No7 Rory McIlroy who has already finished as a runner-up twice before. 

2021 Abu Dhabi Championship winner odds favor Thomas and McIlroy 

Online sportsbooks in the US mention the two highly ranked players, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy with similar odds. This will be Thomas’ fourth full-fledged European Tour and his first Abu Dhabi race. The former world No1 and 2017 PGA Championship winner won two tournaments last year in the PGA Tour with the last one being the St Jude International from last August. Now Thomas can get his first win of the season after skipping one of his favorite races in Hawaii. He has the odds of 8.00 to win in Abu Dhabi. 

Rory McIlroy has dropped to his lowest world ranking since February 2019, to the 7th place. The main reason for his setback was the lack of races as he hasn’t taken part in any tournament since last November. Then McIlroy competed in the Masters and finished in T5 at the end. This was his best result last year in a disappointing season. But the four-time major champion usually performs well in Abu Dhabi and can get back to winning here. He has the odds of 7.50 at the Bet Online Sportsbook in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Championship winner odds to do so. 

Former tournament winners are also in the favorites

English golfer Tommy Fleetwood has managed to win the Abu Dhabi Championship twice in a row, in 2017 and 2018. His first victory at the course was the start of a great season when he also won the European Tour and made a Ryder Cup debut. Fleetwood achieved great results in the major tournaments as well after finishing second in the 2018 US Open and in the 2019 The Open Championship. Last season he wasn’t getting similar results but can prove his abilities in his strongest course with the odds of 13.00 to claim victory. 

Online gambling sites in the US also mention world No10 Tyrrell Hatton in the favorites with the same odds (13.00). He won his first PGA Tour event, the Arnold Palmer International last year. And he was the winner of the BMW PGA Championship in Virginia Water, UK last October which was his fifth European Tour victory. We shall see if Hatton can continue in the same form and achieve his best result in Abu Dhabi. While another former winner of the tournament, Matthew Fitzpatrick has the odds of 15.00 to win again. He won the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai last month and seems to be in great form too. 

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