If we stipulate that the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which goes off in November, is a very big deal, with international appeal, and the Mubadala World Tennis Championship gets some notice, too, we perhaps are looking at one other event in the city which has a global audience, or the potential for one.

And that is the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, which is going on this week here in the UAE capital.

It is important because of two names: 1. Tiger Woods. 2. Rory McIlroy.

Those two are 1-2 in the world golf rankings, or 2-1 (Tiger being second), and each of them has reached a point where the curiosity about what they are doing at any given moment is almost global.

Some other good golfers here, including Justin Rose, Ernie Els, Martin Kaymer, Jason Dufner … but Tiger and Rory are the big two.

In The National, our golf writer, Steve Elling, did a big piece suggesting Woods and McIlroy could be the next big rivalry in golf. One that could last for years and pit those two guys 15-20 times a year for a decade or more.

They will play in the same threesome here, with Kaymer, for the first two rounds of the tournament, and then we will see if they are near the top on Sunday — as they were a year ago, when an English guy named Robert Rock came out of the pack and pushed Rory and Tiger to second and third, in that order.

Oh, and Tiger is back, at least as a market force. The tournament here is part of the European Tour, and tourney officials can offer appearance fees (unlike the U.S. PGA Tour), and how much is Tiger getting for landing in the UAE?

We don’t know for sure, but earlier this week we had an official of the Qatar Masters — the next event up on the three-week “Desert Swing” portion of the Euro schedule — saying Tiger was not worth a $3 million appearance fee to have him in their event.

Is that what Abu Dhabi is paying? Maybe. Lots of cash around these guys. Rory, too. On Monday, Nike announced him as an official pitch man, and estimates of the size of his deal range from $10 million to … infinity.

So, yeah. The two events here that someone in the States as well as Japan and Europe are likely to have any knowledge of … the Grand Prix, and this week’s golf tournament.