Abu Dhabi, Jan 13: World Number one, Brooks Koepka, who with four Majors in a short period has been one of the biggest stars in world golf gets ready for his maiden appearance at the Hero Challenge which arrives in Abu Dhabi for the first time.
Koepka, twice winner of the US Open and PGA Championships is one of the three Major champions in a field of six who will battle it out in the innovative shoot out, which will take place at the iconic Yas Marina Circuit on Tuesday.
The other two Major winners in the field are Louis Oosthuizen, an Open winner in 2010, and Danny Willett, the 2016 Masters champion. Interestingly between the three of them, Koepka, Oosthuizen and Willett have won all four Majors at least once.
The three other players are Bernd Wiesberger, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Viktor Hovland, the young gun who has been one of the stars to watch in 2019.
Koepka said, “The Hero Challenge will be a great way to start my first tournament week of the season and I’m looking forward to getting involved in the fun. It’s pretty cool to have the chance to play golf at such an iconic location like Yas Marina.
He added, “It’s a spectacular place, especially when you see it on TV with the Formula One cars racing around.”
Oosthuizen said: “The Hero Challenge looks like a lot of fun, and especially this time round as we’ll be playing in such a cool location in Yas Marina. I can definitely say that it will be a first for me to play golf at a Formula One track and I’m looking forward to going up against the guys in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.”
The Hero Challenge, which started at the British Masters in 2016, is now in its fourth season. The last three seasons, 2017, 2018 and 2019, have seen the shoot out at three events every year. The massive popularity of the event has led to Hero adding two more in 2020 to make it. The two additional events will be held in Abu Dhabi and Stockholm at the Scandinavian Mixed event. The fifth and final event will be held in Dubai and it will feature winners of the first four Hero Challenge events.
With no player ever having repeated a win at Hero Challenge, the upcoming competition will also throw up a new winner for the 11thtime as none in the field have won it before.
