RORY MCILROY IS five shots off first round leader Tommy Fleetwood after the opening round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Fleetwood carded a course record-equalling 62 to take a one-shot lead. He wielded a new putter to great effect as he made an eagle and eight birdies on a day of low scoring which saw 63 of the 70-man field break par at Yas Links.
Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen and American Johannes Veerman were Fleetwood’s nearest challengers on nine under par, with the English trio of Paul Waring, Laurie Canter and Tyrrell Hatton all shooting eight under. Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre was another stroke back following a 64,
McIlroy is in a tie for 18th after his round of five-under 67, with Tom McKibbin in a tie for 28th after a four-under 68, and Shane Lowry a short further back after his three-under 69, leaving him in a tie for 35th.
McIlroy’s round featured six birdies, while his only bogey arrived on the par-three 17th. McKibbin only dropped one shot in his round, on the 10th, but rebounded with birdies on 11, 14 and 16 to finish strongly. Lowry’s round contained three birdies on 9, 11 and 15 – and 15 pars.
McIlroy leads Thriston Lawrence by 1,572.39 points on the Race to Dubai, with Rasmus Hojgaard a further 347.89 points adrift, meaning a win or runners-up finish would seal a sixth money list title ahead of next week’s season-ending event in Dubai.
The leading trio have been placed in the same group for the first two rounds and while Lawrence matched McIlroy’s score, Hojgaard went one better with a 66.
“Honestly it’s nice to be paired with Thriston and Rasmus because you can sort of keep an eye on what they are doing,” McIlroy said.
“It’s been a really good year, very, very consistent. Started well with the win in Dubai and I’ve let a couple slip away as well. But I’ve had a great deal of consistency, and that’s the reason that I find myself in the place that I am.
“And I wanted to come here to the Middle East these two weeks and finish the season off the way I felt it deserves to be finished off.”
Fleetwood, who won this event in 2017 and 2018 at a different venue, was four under par for his first three holes and followed a birdie at the seventh with five more on the back nine.
“I got off to a great start (but) I didn’t feel like I swung it perfectly early on and I actually felt like I started playing better as the round got to the back nine,” Fleetwood, who received some putting tips from former players Ken Brown and David Howell during a practice round, said.
“Putted amazing. Felt like I read the greens so well. Beautiful pace control and hit a lot of good putts and started holing them.
“When you shoot a 62, obviously everything is going to have gone very, very well. Just happy to have got off to a great start.
“I always feel like I’m a good putter. It doesn’t always show. But definitely sort of the second half of this year, I haven’t putted as well or converted as many putts as we’d have liked.
“We’ve been working on that and I happened to bump into Ken and Howler on the course and we were talking about a couple of things.
“They are two of the best putters I’ve ever met and any time you’re talking to those guys, you’re always going to pick something up.”
- Additional reporting by The42
Might that be down to the teamwork element? Playing sports requires good communication and a willingness to help others out. Employers look for that kind of thing!