Dubai: World number two Rory McIlroy will be looking to maintain his enviable record when he competes in the Dubai Desert Classic in February.

The four-times major champion won the event in 2009 and 2015 and has finished in the top 10 in each of his seven previous visits to the Emirates Golf Club.

“I have great memories of this tournament,” McIlroy said in a news release which confirmed British Open champion and world number four Henrik Stenson and US Masters winner Danny Willett, who lifted the Dubai Classic trophy last year, as part of the field for the February 2-5 tournament.

“I made the cut here for the first time in a European Tour event as a 17-year-old amateur in 2007 and it was here I secured my first professional win two years later.

“I will always cherish those important moments in the early part of my career. That first win was a real stepping stone for me, helping my confidence and leading to the successes that followed,” said the Northern Irishman.

The Dubai Classic is the last in the tour’s three-event Middle East swing that also includes the Abu Dhabi Championship from January 19-22 and the Qatar Masters from January 26-29.

“To think the tournament is now in its 28th year, just older than I am, is testimony to its enduring strength,” said McIlroy, a four-time major winner, who will be making his 11th appearance in Dubai, the most number of times he has played anywhere in the world.

The 2016 European Tour Player of the Year and Olympic silver medallist Stenson, who had been a long-time Dubai resident before moving full-time to the United States in 2012, will be a compelling storyline, certain to provide a gruelling challenge to the field.

“It feels nice to get back to a golf course where you have played a number of times. Playing well in front of family, friends and supporters always gives you that extra bit of satisfaction,” said 40-year-old, who became the first Swede to win a Major, a feat he achieved at the 2016 Open Championship at Royal Troon and dedicated it to his friend Mike Gerbich, “one of the real good guys back in Dubai.”

“I am really looking forward to playing in Dubai. It would be great fun to win in Dubai again, but they (the organisers) have once again assembled a strong field and nothing can be taken for granted. We will have to see how things unfold,” said Stenson, who won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in 2007 in a field led by Tiger Woods and Ernie Els.

Defending champion Willett, who, like Stenson, also picked up a first Major (at the 2016 Masters) and had good showings elsewhere around the world, will be hoping to tap into good vibes and emulate Stephen Gallacher, the only back-to-back winner of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

With virtually who’s who on the European Tour in the field, potential winners are aplenty who will be itching to step up to the plate and challenge the top draws for supremacy, promising first-class entertainment for the fans.

Mohammad Juma Bu Amim, vice-chairman and CEO of golf in DUBAi said: “The Omega Dubai Desert Classic has been one of the key drivers in fuelling the growth of golf in the emirate and the confirmation of the some of world’s leading golfers only goes to show we are headed for an exciting week.”

The Omega Dubai Desert Classic is backed by OMEGA as the title sponsor and Emirates Global Aluminium PJSC as sponsor. The co-sponsors are CNN, Drydocks World & Maritime World, Emirates NBD, Gulf News, JA Resorts & Hotels, Mercedes-Benz and wall, while Dubai Duty Free, Neocasa Interiors and Motivate Publishing are the Patrons in golf in DUBAi’s drive to showcase the emirate’s vibrant golfing scene to a worldwide audience.