World No. 1 Rory McIlroy set up a season ending shootout with World No. 2 Luke Donald and then praised the player ranked 188 places lower on the rankings – Scotland’s Marc Warren.
McIlroy stormed home on day three of the event to be five under par of his closing eight holes in a round of 66 to match the same score as Donald for both players to be three shots clear of their nearest rivals on 17-under par.
The Major winning South African duo of Charl Schwartzel (67) and Louis Oosthuizen (68) are next best on 14-under par.
McIlroy will be striving to capture his fifth victory this season and win the Dubai event for a first time while Donald is out to clinch a fourth success and back-to-back victories following his triumph a week earlier in Japan.
Rory McIlroy speaking with Scotland’s Marc Warren during day three of the 2012 DP World Tour Championship, Dubai. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
It will be only the second time McIlroy and Donald have gone head-to-head in a European Tour event with the first occasion being five years ago the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews.
McIlroy, competing in just his third event as a pro, wrapped up his Tour card when Scotland’s Paul Lawrie bogeyed the last to present McIlroy with third place on his own.
Donald, then ranked 17th in the world, ended the day five shots and 20 places adrift of McIlroy who was ranked a lowly 233rd.
“It’s very important for me now to win tomorrow and to underline I am Number One in the world heading into next year,” he said.
“Of course, no matter happens I will still be No. 1 on the rankings but it will be nice to put an exclamation mark on it, if you want.
“So it’s very important as I really want to end the year with a win.
“Every time that I’ve went out with a chance to win, I’ve played well; and whether that means I’ve won or been or been beaten like I was in China against Peter Hanson, I’ve still played well and given myself a good chance and that’s what I want to do now in my last event of the season.”
And McIlroy, who last played alongside Warren in 2008 at U.S. Open qualifying at Walton Heath, singled out Warren for praise.
“It was over four years ago at Walton Heath when Marc and I last played, but he’s a good player, a very good player,” said McIlroy.
“However Marc also is either very good or he goes off the boil a little bit but his good stuff is very good and he’s won twice on Tour.
“I know he’s had a few struggles the last couple of years, but he swings it well. He has started working with Pete Cowen over the last couple of years which I think has helped him.
“He’s a solid player, drives it long, flights his irons very well, so he’s a pretty solid golfer.”
Warren went into day three tied for the lead on 11-under par with both Donald and McIlroy but soon struggled with bogeys at two and nine before finally settling down to birdie 16 and 17 in a round of 72 to be tied in seventh spot.
“I didn’t think arriving here in Dubai I would be playing back-to-back rounds with the Number Two and Number One in the world,” he said.
“I can understand why they are the game’s top-two ranked golfers and it reminds me that I how far I have to go to get anywhere near their level.
“Rory was great company and we chatted our way all around the golf course.
“He’s such a special talent and that was clearly obvious but in comparing Luke with Rory I feel that if Rory is right on his game he would be very hard to beat.
“He’s so long and so straight off the tee and just putts brilliantly whereas Luke’s short-iron play through the bag is incredible and I sat back thinking about in on Friday night and he probably missed one iron shot all day and even that was to 15-feet.
“The two of them are just head-and-shoulders above anyone I’ve ever player with before in my career.”
Donald easily got the award for the brightest shirt on day three, a glowing orange number.
“I look like an Easy Jet pilot, so I will just have to go and back it up again tomorrow,” said Donald.
And Donald has now played 100 holes of the Greg Norman designed Earth Course without a bogey.
