Rory McIlroy is in Abu Dhabi this weekend for European Tour event, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, which brought to mind a piece from a few weeks ago.

About McIlroy, 24, becoming engaged, on New Year’s Eve, to Caroline Wozniacki, 23, his girlfriend of approaching three years.

And my “bah-humbug!” suggestion is that these sorts of things do not end well, and in this case it is Wozniacki, formerly women’s tennis world No. 1, who seems to have the fading career.

That story is here.

In it, I recap how Wozniacki’s tennis fortunes have fairly steadily declined since she and Rory became an item — sometimes known as “Wozilroy” in the British press — about the time of Wimbledon 2011.

She was No. 1, back then, and was about to win her seventh WTA event of the year, at New Haven, and the only outward sports issue was a failure to win a grand slam event.

Now, that is not nearly the worry it was then.

She has not won much of anything since she and Rory became an item. To be precise, she has won once, at Luxembourg late in 2012.

Interestingly, for a time, it was suggested it was McIlroy whose game suffered, during a rocky first half of 2012, but then he won the PGA Championship that year and ended the year world No. 1 as well as the leading money winner on both the PGA and European tours.

(His 2013 was definitely rocky, almost from the moment he signed a big endorsement deal with Nike, while in Abu Dhabi a year ago. But he won the Australian Open late in 2013, and has looked very sharp here this year.)

Meanwhile, in 2012, Wozniacki lost 18 of her first 50 matches. She went out in the first round of two majors and in the second round of another.

Her 2013 was hardly any better, and she has drifted down to No. 10 in the world, not because she remains a force in the women’s game, but because once you get past the top three or four women it is hard to find players who are consistently effective.

The conclusion I have come to is this: These sorts of two-sports relationships are very difficult. Major issues arise over long periods of time spent apart, sometimes on the other side of the world, and who should give up more practice time and take on more travel time.

Somebody is calling someone in the middle of the night, and someone is having their training regimen interrupted.

It was Gary Player, the former golf great from South Africa, who said McIlroy needed to make a choice between being a boyfriend or being the best golfer he can be. He was criticized for it, but maybe he knows what he is talking about.

Perhaps the two most successful sports marriages of the past 20 years involve Roger Federer and Mirka, and Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. But in each case, by the time they married one partner’s career was over. For these pairs, it was Mirka’s (because of injuries) and Graf’s (because she retired).

McIlroy and Wozniacki seem like nice kids. Maybe they would have a long and happy marriage and also be elite professional athletes.

History, however, seems to suggest that only one partner can continue to be among the global elite. That choices ultimately get made.

Wozniacki’s continued struggles, which seem to come with a minimum of angst (perhaps because she has won nearly $16 million while playing tennis), would seem to suggest that perhaps someone in that relationship already has decided whose career will take the back seat.

If that is not a problem for her, it certainly is not a problem for me.