McIlroy’s Mixed Bag Carries Him Closer To A Fourth Season Dubai Double Victory

3 hours ago by 0

It wasn’t a trademark Rory McIlroy round in producing six birdies but also half as many bogeys but at nine-under he’s sharing second place  and just three shots from the lead heading the weekend rounds of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

McIlroy finds himself tied with Kiwi Daniel Hillier, Denmark’s Rasmus Neegaard-Petersen and double winning Ryder Cup colleagues Shane Lowry and Justin Rose.

Leading the way into the third round is Nicolai Hoygaard who kick-started his round birdie, eagle on route to a sizzling 65 and his 12-under tally.

McIlroy’s second round 69 in defence of the Rolex Series title was capped by back-to-back birdies at the ninth and 10th holes but looking at his scorecard it seemed each time he posted a birdie he gave one back.

“Yeah, I had to battle a little more today than I did he had why,” he said. “The conditions were slightly tougher, as well. So you know, if you looked at the scoring yesterday compared to today, it is a little bit tougher. Yeah, I just — you know, I missed a couple more fairways today. And when I did miss the fairways, I got some really bad lies, like the worst lies I’ve seen this week.

“You know, I didn’t even get it back on to the fairway at the last and had to scramble there.

“But I felt like I showed my scoring skills today, and you know, battled well and stayed patient, and got the ball up-and-down when I needed to. And overall, you know, to shoot 69, I’m pretty pleased considering some of the spots that I found myself”.

Probably a big highlight of McIlroy’s round was his towering 397-yard drive off the par-5 14th tee on route to a birdie.

And while much of the end-of-season talk has been on McIlroy matching Colin Montgomerie’s feat of seven DPWT No. 1 titles it also will be a fourth back-to-back Dubai triumph should McIlroy retain the DPWTC trophy having won both titles in the same year first in 2012, then in 2015 and a year ago.

Good to see Rose in contention after ending a six-week break since being a winning of the victorious European Ryder Cup team.

Rose signed for a second round 67.

“I don’t know”, said Rose in response to being asked what is the key to having so much time off and then coming out to be in contention.

“In some ways I’ve played amazing golf this week and there’s other elements of my game where I do feel super rusty.

“I think probably driven the ball fantastically so far. Iron play has been sharp. Putter probably not so much.

“Today was a weird day on the greens, again struggling to read them but then holed two really, really long ones, a 65-footer and maybe a 40-footer. So I guess it comes out in the wash a bit.

“Maybe that’s the bit, my irons are not quite — even though I’m scoring great and playing well, but hopefully over the weekend can get my irons on and around the greens a bit more.”

 

 



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