EUROPEAN AND US TOUR EVENTS:CHRONOLOGICAL EXACTITUDE has never been a pressing concern for those who run the European Tour so it is hardly unusual to find that the 2009 golf season started in November last year. But as the massed ranks of the tour gathered yesterday at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club there was still a sense of "first day at school" in the air. Swings were being checked, gossip was being exchanged and lofty goals were being voiced in the knowledge there was little empirical evidence to suggest they were hopelessly optimistic.

There may already be some scores on the doors, and those scores may have Sergio Garcia at the top of the tour’s money list, but everyone knows that the real business starts with today’s opening round of the Abu Dhabi championship, the first of three big-money tournaments in the Middle East that will establish the frontrunners in the Race to Dubai, the replacement for the tour’s Order of Merit.

“Any time you start something new it is exciting,” said Garcia, who arrived in the Middle East as the world’s second-ranked golfer and as one the favourites to end the season as Europe’s leading golfer and take home a winner’s share of the $20 million prize-fund on offer at the season’s final event, the Dubai World Championship.

The money would be nice, he conceded, but nicer still would be a major championship victory. “This is going to be an important year for me and I’m looking forward to getting into a good rhythm and get some good emotions in these next three weeks,” was as far as he would go although, when pressed, he did concede that winning this year’s British Open at Turnberry was at the top of his priorities.

Garcia’s reluctance to install himself as a pre-tournament favourite for any of golf’s four biggest events was understandable. He has suffered more disappointments than most in his pursuit of a major, not least in the last couple of years when he has twice been beaten out by Pádraig Harrington.

Indeed, the pair have become something of double act in recent times, albeit of the Punch and Judy rather than the Tracy and Hepburn variety. After years of dancing around the subject, the two have agreed that their personal relationship is well-nigh non-existent. “There are guys you connect with more than others,” said the Spaniard.

Garcia deserves a gold star for honesty, and another one for further establishing the tone for what promises to be an enduring rivalry.

Harrington seemed ready for the contest, although not just with Garcia. “I believe I will be a better player this year,” the Dubliner said – a bold statement for a man who twice shot 32 on the back nine of a major championship on the Sunday to win the trophy.

Yet if their rivalry is one of the most enticing sub-plots of the season ahead, it is not the only one. Outside the ropes, there are the global economic problems and the impact they will have on the tour itself. Although it has found itself largely insulated by the windfall of sponsorship money from Leisurecorp, the Dubai-based company which is funding the Race to Dubai, it is hard to imagine there will not be collateral damage as the corporate world suffers.

On the brighter side, the influx of money from Dubai has tempted the likes of Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas to join the tour for the first time, while also attracting former tour members to rejoin, with Geoff Ogilvy, the world number six, the most prominent.

Martin Kaymer, who this week will be defending a title he won last year, narrowly failed to make last year’s Ryder Cup team but he will be a fixture in many to come. So, too, will Oliver Wilson and Nick Dougherty. But if those three comprise the vanguard of the youth movement, the undoubted leader is the teenager Rory McIlroy.

At 19, the Ulsterman has already played his way into the world’s top 50, even though he has yet to win his first event as a professional. That will change this year, or to put it another way – the chances of McIlroy not winning a European tour event in 2009 are about the same as Garcia and Harrington becoming best friends.

Abu Dhabi Championship

Course: Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

Field: 120.

Punters' leading lights: Sergio Garcia (7/1), Henrik Stenson (8/1), Pádraig Harrington (10/1), Rory McIlroy (16/1), Michael Kaymer (16/1).

Length: 7,510 yards. Par: 72.

Prize-money: €1.51 million (€252,698 to winner).

Course records: 72 holes, 268 Chris DiMarco (2006). 18 holes, 62 Henrik Stenson.

Irish in the field: Pádraig Harrington, Paul McGinley, Damien McGrane, Peter Lawrie, Rory McIlroy and Gary Murphy.

Defending champion: Michael Kaymer won by four from Henrik Stenson and Lee Westwood.

Other course winners taking part: Paul Casey.

On TV: Live on Sky all four days, starting at 7am today.

Weather forecast: Rainy and windy on day one. Cloudy and overcast but less windy for the rest of the weekend.