Rory McIlroy will be looking to make history at the Dubai Desert Classic this week as he bids to become the first player to record back-to-back wins in the Gulf region's premier tournament.

The talented Ulsterman made his senior-level title breakthrough here last year at the age of 19 when he sunk a four-footer at the last to hold off a late charge from England's Justin Rose.

That proved to be the appetiser for a tremendous season that established him inside the world's top 10 with an impressive run of top 10 finishes and a runners-up spot in the Race to Dubai, the former Order of Merit.

Back at the Emirates Golf Club, McIlroy knows that a repeat performance on Sunday would set him up nicely for a year in which he hopes to get closer in the majors and play a leading role in the European Ryder Cup team.

"I think the thing about this tournament is it's become very familiar to me because I think this is my fifth Desert Classic - it's the event I've played the most on the European Tour," he said.

"I feel very comfortable on the golf course because I've got to know it so well over the past few years."

McIlroy got his season underway two weeks ago as the European Tour's Gulf Swing got underway in Abu Dhabi and he showed good early form with a third place finish behind Martin Kaymer and Ian Poulter.

Keeping the momentum going in Dubai is vital to McIlroy's plans as he begins his preparations for the year's first major, The Masters, at Augusta National in early April.

"I have to keep working hard to keep this run going and if I can do that, hopefully I can keep getting better and better and try and achieve what I want to in the game, which is ultimately trying to get to be the best player in the world."

McIlroy is not the only former winner looking for a bounce in Dubai.

Sweden's Henrik Stenson, the 2007 winner here and third-place finisher last year, has struggled for form so far this year tieing for 21st in Abu Dhabi and tieing for 64th in Qatar last week.

He apportioned some of that mediocre form to the new rules adopted by the USGA and the Royal and Ancient this year which mandate smaller "V-grooves" rather than square or "U-grooves," which generate more spin.

"Last week was not good. I had a bad week," he agreed.

"But it feels like the game is coming together. I've had a good two days with some testing of equipment, this changeover of grooves and wedges kind of left me out a little bit due to a few circumstances.

"I thought I was going to receive some late last year that was the same grooves as they used to play on my wedges and it turned out they didn't make that one."

Abu Dhabi winner Kaymer, currently a career-high sixth in the world rankings, Qatar Masters winner Robert Karlsson and European No.1 Lee Westwood are all in the field.

The Englishman, ranked fourth in the world was cursing his luck after he cracked the face of his driver in the third round at Qatar, an incident, he feels, that could have cost him the trophy.

But after some frantic testing of new equipment since Sunday he feels he has sorted out the problem.

"I've got three or four (drivers) I can choose from now and pick the best one and I've got two or three backups," he said.

The Desert Classic will also have one of the oldest debutants in its 21-year-old history in the form of 60-year-old American legend Tom Watson, who rocked the world of golf last July when he came within one putt of winning the British Open at Turnberry.

It will be the first time he has teed off in a regular European Tour event since the 1993 German masters, where he finished tied for seventh.