Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship: Rory McIlroy makes five-under-par first-round start in bid to secure Race to Dubai title
Round-one clubhouse lead stands at nine-under, with LIV’s Tyrrell Hatton also starting well amid birdie blitz; watch the first of the DP World Tour Play-Offs live on Sky Sports Golf this week, with second-round featured groups from 4am and full coverage from 7am on Friday
Rory McIlroy made a solid start in his bid to close out his sixth Race to Dubai title with a week to spare by shooting a five-under-par opening round at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship to put himself among the early pacesetters on the leaderboard.
McIlroy admitted on Thursday he would happily accept a “boring” conclusion to his season on the DP World Tour by claiming the first or second placed-finish he needs on Sunday at the Yas Links to finish the year as Europe’s top player for the sixth time.
And the Northern Irishman also said on Wednesday that he spent three weeks in a studio after his last appearance at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in early October, just hitting balls at a screen with a modified swing and not even looking at the flight of his shots.
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Playing that practice into reality back in competitive action, the 35-year-old claimed three birdies on both the front and back nine, with his final one on the 18th coming after he had registered his only bogey of the round on the par-three 17th.
On a day Aaron Cockerill holed out from the tee on the 157-yard par-three 13th, there was plenty of low scoring on a characteristically warm and sun-kissed day in the Middle East.
Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen and American Johannes Veerman shared the early clubhouse lead after each recording nine-under 63s.
Olesen’s bogey-free round featured two eagles – at the par fives of seven and 11 – while Veerman hit one eagle at the par-five second.
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LIV Golf’s Tyrrell Hatton finished one back on eight-under although the Englishman’s plundering of 10 birdies – which included six in seven either side of the turn – were compromised by two bogeys.
Countryman Paul Waring also finished on eight-under.
More to follow…
Who will win the Race to Dubai? Watch the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the DP World Tour Championship this month live on Sky Sports Golf. Get Sky Sports
