Confirmed. Official. Alfredo García Heredia has entered the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, so we will have six Spaniards in the play-off of the DP World Tour which will be played at the Yas Links course and will be the step before the DP World Tour Championship, the grand Final in Dubai.
The Asturian finished the regular year last Sunday in South Korea in 72nd place in the Race to Dubai and, as you know, the top 70 available were entering in Abu Dhabi. He really had many chances to enter, but he had to wait until six in the evening this Monday, the moment when registrations were definitively closed and, therefore, it was possible to know for sure who would play and who would not.
Finally, there have been six withdrawals. In addition to the already known absence of Jon Rahm, Zander Lombard, long-term injured, Matthieu Pavon, Aaron Rai, Billy Horschel, and Ludvig Aberg have joined. The absence of these six players has opened the doors to those classified between positions 71st and 76th, namely, Matthew Baldwin, Alfredo García Heredia, David Micheluzzi, Joost Luiten, Adrien Saddier, and Sean Crocker. Interestingly, Baldwin, Micheluzzi, and Crocker didn’t even play in Korea, so they took a gamble on these absences occurring.
The withdrawals of Pavon and Rai mean that neither of them will play the Final in Dubai either, as both are outside the top 50 of the Race to Dubai. Rahm had also almost definitively ruled out his presence in the Final, while we will have to see what happens with Horschel and Aberg. Right now, the European Tour’s projection for the Final in Dubai, as communicated internally to the players, is that the cut will be at 52nd place. That is the target to reach in Abu Dhabi.
Regarding the six Spaniards who will be in Abu Dhabi, Hidalgo, Campillo, Elvira, and Otaegui have secured their presence in Jumeirah, while Del Rey and García Heredia will have to have a great tournament at Yas Links to earn their place in the last tournament of the season.
