Dubai-based teen Josh Hill taking second Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship appearance in stride

Englishman, born and raised in Dubai, qualified by winning last month's Abu Dhabi Amateur Championship

Josh Hill after wining the Abu Dhabi Amateur Championship at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club to earn his place at the 2022 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Photo: HSBC Championship 2022

Josh Hill, Dubai-born-and-based teenager, will be competing this week on the DP World Tour alongside Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and the like.

Yet on Wednesday, on the eve of the inaugural Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links, the 17-year-old Englishman didn’t seem too perturbed.

He’s been here before, of course, if not quite literally but in contesting the 2020 tournament at its former home at Abu Dhabi Golf Club. In doing so, Hill became the youngest player to ever compete at the event. The following week, he participated in the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, too.

Back then, Hill was only 15. Much, though, has changed since. Chiefly, now he sounds a veritable veteran.

“Two years ago, I approached it differently,” Hill said. “I was two years younger and was celebrity-watching rather doing what I needed to do to play the best golf I could. I’ve learned from that and this year done the preparation I need to do in order to play the best I can, rather than watching the best players hit balls and just admiring them. I’m getting on with my own stuff.

“Obviously playing with the best players in the world and getting in the mix with them is great. But I’ve just got to look at my own game and play the golf I know. And we’ll see what happens from there.”

Feeling more comfortable among the great and the good of Europe’s lead circuit will surely help this week. Experience from 2020 bagged, Hill certainly seems more confident.

Two years ago, he played a practice round with then-world No 1 Brooks Koepka. Two days ago, Hill rocked up for another recce of the course, saw there was space on the tee sheet alongside Lee Westwood and Bernd Wiesberger, and promptly scrawled his name beside them.

So, he casually walked onto the tee, introduced himself to the pair with 33 DP World Tour wins between them – Westwood 25, Wiesberger 8 – and set about soaking in as much as he could.

“I’d actually met Wiesberger before, but not Westwood,” Hill said. “But the thing I learned in 2020 is don’t let anyone stop you from preparing the best. If you don’t mix with the best players, it’s very hard to be one of the best.

“I’ve just got to step up and go be confident with them and it worked quite well. It was good fun. They’re good guys, really friendly."

With "celeb-watching" consigned to past, there was still much to be gleaned.

“I wasn’t really asking questions," Hill said. "I was just observing, seeing how they go about things. When you’re in those opportunities you’ve got to learn from it. I took some stuff away from that round, thought about it and hopefully be able to apply it to my own game.”

Hill, who qualified for this week by winning last month’s Abu Dhabi Amateur Championship, recognised principally how both the 2021 European Ryder Cup stars exerted a real calmness. It’s definitely something he can relate to; his remarkable level-headedness has carried him through the Dubai amateur scene, the success on the Mena Tour – Hill created history in 2019 by winning the Al Ain Open to become the youngest winner of an Official World Golf Ranking event – and in international amateur events.

Additional comfort can be found also in that he knows Yas Links “decently well”, although Hill acknowledges it’s a markedly different set-up. And he likes the draw, a "nice” 8:50am tee time on Thursday with Victor Dubuisson and David Drysdale.

Then there’s the bonus of playing in front of a home crowd, with friends, family and members from Trump International Golf Club - his home course – making their way down to Yas Island from Dubai.

Patently, nerves won’t be an issue.

“I think I’ll be fine,” Hill said. “Obviously there’s always been excitement, but you’re not here for being excited. You’re here to do a job and do the best you can.

“So, focusing on what I need to do to play well rather than building up that excitement. Because that can also create nerves. The way I’ve handled it this week and gone about it has been very good, and I’m proud of myself so far. Let’s go put it into tournament play now.”