Rory McIlroy shrugged off a ‘beach holiday’ mood to get back to business at the Earth Course on day two of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
McIlroy was out among the early starters in the season-ending event posting six birdies in a four under par 68 for a one under par tally in the heatwave conditions.
It left the World No. 2 trailing eight shots behind the leading duo of Sergio Garcia and Francesco Molinari who shot 67s to lead by two strokes at nine under par.
“It was a pretty good day’s golf and I feel I’m a lot fresher than a lot of the guys who have been playing the last couple of weeks,” said Garcia.
Those struggling include the Race to Dubai leading trio of Henrik Stenson (69) who is T17th at three under par with current No. 2 Danny Willett (70) while Alex Noren (69), and No. 3 on the R2D is at four under par.
Noren said: “It’s tough out there when you don’t score on the par fives so I’m pretty disappointed but a 69 is a good score.
“Maybe an hour on the range this afternoon will keep it going for me.”
McIlroy certainly had looked he was on ‘holiday on day one of his DP World title defence in posting a three over 75 and his highest round in 29 loops of the Greg Norman designed course.
But McIlroy turned that around as he looks to go back to No. 1 in the world with a repeat Dubai victory.
“I just mentally was very flat, very flat yesterday,” he said.
“I was still on holiday I think. I just wasn’t really with it. Wasn’t at the races. Yeah, I felt a bit better out there today, but yeah, just wasn’t quite with it yesterday.
“Had not quite switched on to what I needed to do. Yeah, one of those things. Just a bad day, and sort of turned it around today and hopefully I can improve again over the weekend.
“I had two weeks off, and thought I was still on the beach.”
McIlroy returned to his four-time Major winning ways a day after Forbes magazine named he and Jordan Spieth among the top-30 leading under 30 aged money-earners for the past year.
McIlroy was ranked 14th from June 2015 to June 2016 with total earnings of $US 42m while Spieth was 10th and banking $US 53m, and with $US 32m of that coming from endorsement deals with Under Armor, Coca-Cola and Titleist.
While McIlroy got back to ‘work’ fellow Irishman Padraig Harrington is already looking forward to a 10-week competition break, and after adding a 71 to his opening 72.
“I’m off on Sunday night for 10 weeks and will get home, get into the gym and try and finf a bit of yardage for next year,” he said.
“As for my game, I played pretty well all through for the two days but I just haven’t holed the birdie putts.
“I just struggled a bit off the tee finding a lot of fairway bunkers that reduced my birdie opportunities and the ones I have, a few 10 to 12 footers, just slipped by the hole but then they might fall another day.
“But then I am thrilled as about six shots back still has a genuine chance on this golf course.”
Shane Lowry leads the three Irish also shooting 71 to move to a share of 17th place at three under par with Race to Dubai leading Henrik Stenson (69).
“It was a bit of an adventurous day as I was in the threes a few times with a bit of a blimp in the middle of my round,” he said.
“But I managed to get it back with birdies at 11 and 14, and also managed to hit the hole at 15, 16 and 17 while it would be nice to take a ‘4’ at the last,
“So I am not too disappointed and I am still quite pleased as long as the leaders don’t get too far ahead.”
And losing Ryder Cup captain, Darren Clarke scored a first in playing the new Trump International Dubai course. Clarke teamed with ISM manager, ‘Chubby’ Chandler to tackle the Gil Hanse designed layout.
Hanse has certainly fallen on his feet since designing the Craighead Links at Crail with designs at Castle Stuart near Inverness, the Rio Olympic Games layout and rejuvenating Trump Doral in Miami.
