Rory and Reed stalk each other in the desert

THE alchemy of the draw sheet takes with one hand and gives with the other. For while Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed have been kept apart for the third round of the Dubai Desert Classic, those of a devilish inclination may look forward to one of the earlier groups.

That will see Henrik Stenson going off at 8.15am local time in the company of the man who replaced him as Europe’s

Ryder Cup captain, Luke Donald. This tournament just will not let the LIV subplots die.

Of course, the prime head-tohead would see McIlroy facing Reed, which for a time yesterday appeared to be on the cards. It remains a possibility as the protagonists of ‘tee-gate’, or the storm in the tee cup, if you prefer, are locked together at eight under par. That leaves the world No1 (above) and the LIV rebel just two off the lead shared by Belgium’s Thomas Pieters, the American amateur Michael Thorbjornsen and Richard Bland, the 49-year-old Englishman, who to many on the DP World Tour is seen as the acceptable face of LIV.

Adding to the LIV flavour on the leaderboard, McIlroy was joined at eight under by Bernd Wiesberger, a former Ryder Cup team-mate for Europe who will be part of his third-round group. It will be interesting to observe the dynamic between a breakaway rebel and LIV’s staunchest critic, though McIlroy will most likely be more focused on shaking off the rust of his four-week winter break. Unlike the opening round, in which he somehow carded a 66 from a series of unconvincing swings, his 70 on Saturday was characterised by numerous missed drives. He hit only two fairways all day and was largely bailed out by his short game, so he was relieved to be in contention at all.

Those struggles had long since overtaken any desire to talk about Reed. When he was asked about possibly being grouped with the American, he said: ‘I need to sort my game out. That’s how I think. I need to go to the range. I need to straighten up my tee shots and feel like I have a chance going into the next two days.’

The 33-foot putt he sank for eagle at 13, the highlight in a frustrating round of 15 pars, ensured he still has that chance.