Rory McIlroy’s hopes of clinching the Race to Dubai with a week to spare at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship suffered a late second-round setback after an ugly triple bogey on the par-three 17th contributed to him finishing nine shots adrift of England’s Paul Waring, who set a new course record.
McIlroy, who will be sure of finishing 2024 as Europe’s top player for the sixth time even before next week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai if he finishes first or second this Sunday, was already seven off the blistering pace set by Waring as he stood on the penultimate tee despite being an impressive seven-under for his own round at that point.
The short 17th hole was the only hole McIlroy had bogeyed in the first round and the 211-yarder again tripped him up on Friday, albeit in more spectacular fashion on Friday.
After finding the right-hand-side bunker with his tee shot, the 35-year-old’s chip went long onto the green and ended up rolling straight in to the sand on the other side.
Now with a particularly bad downhill lie, McIlroy could only just get it out onto the edge of the bunker with his next chip. He then went beyond the pin with his chip into the green before three-putting.
“I played quite nice up until that point, and even felt like I hit a nice shot into 17, a nice flighted five iron, hit the down slope and trundled into the bunker,” said McIlroy.
“It wasn’t a great leave in the first place, but the club bounced on me, there wasn’t a lot of sand wherever the ball was in the bunker there, and I just sort of made a mess of it from there.”
Perhaps crucially, though, he immediately hit back to birdie the par-five 18th to pull one shot back and leave him in a tie for 14th on the leaderboard after back-to-back rounds of 67.
“I bounced back well, two good shots into the last and made a birdie there,” McIlroy added. “So I just have to go out (on Saturday), try to get off to a fast start and get myself back into it.”
McIlroy came from 10 shots behind at halfway to win in Dubai in January, but admitted: “I’d like to see the course get a bit firmer. There was a couple of greens today that got a little bit shinier and a little trickier, so I need the golf course to firm up and toughen up a little bit to have a chance.
“There’s so many get-able holes out there, the par fives and some of the shorter par fours. It will be up to me, I shot 63 on that Saturday in Dubai, this year I’m going to need something similar, if not lower, to give myself a chance going into Sunday.
“I know it’s out there. I was seven-under through 13 holes today, so it is possible.”
Record-smashing Waring in control after stunning 61
The whole field now has a clear target to catch into the weekend after world No 229 Waring opened a five-shot lead at the top of the 70-player leaderboard thanks to a record-setting 61 around the Yas Links.
Having shot a eight-under 64 on Thursday, Waring has also set a new record for the lowest combined score to par (19 under) in DP World Tour history after two rounds.
The Englishman holed his second shot at the sixth from 119 yards for an eagle and also recorded nine birdies to reach 19 under par in pursuit of his second title on the tour.
That gave the 39-year-old a five-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood, Thorbjorn Olesen, Johannes Veerman and Niklas Norgaard.
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Waring rounded off his round in spectacular fashion on the par-five 18th, hitting his third shot from 265 yards to within three feet of the pin after having to pitch back on to the fairway following a wayward drive.
“That was the best shot I’ve ever hit in my life to be honest,” Waring said.
“The tee shot on 18 was a little bit peculiar for me because I had been hitting it great all day, so even over that three wood I felt like could I hit a solid shot into the part of the green and just hit a little draw.
“In total honesty I’m just trying to keep going, keep making birdies. My caddie made the remark a few days ago, we played a little bit golf at Trump over in Dubai and we played the Fire Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates as well and for those two rounds, I actually had 50 per cent birdies.
“We were having a bit of a laugh yesterday (Thursday) because I had nine birdies so that was 50 per cent, so he said today, right, every round, you’ve got to better 50 per cent birdies.
“Obviously feel great, swinging it great. Putter is behaving. That’s I’d say a weak spot for me now and again but I’ve done a lot of work on it, and since moving over to Dubai I’m very used to these style of greens as well.”
Fleetwood, who had equalled the previous course record with a 62 on Thursday, added a 68 as he bids to win in Abu Dhabi for the third time.
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