Rory’s flying high after super shot sets up gr8 finish
RORY McIlroy’s new trophy cabinet could soon need expanding after arguably his best shot of a stellar season capped a superb opening round in the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
A towering three-wood approach from 286 yards to the 18th hole at Jumeirah Golf Estates finished just five feet from the pin to set up a closing eagle and give McIlroy an eightunder-par 64, his lowest score in an event he won in 2012 and 2015.
That left the world number two just a shot off the lead held by France’s Mike Lorenzo-Vera, who shrugged off a lingering illness to cover the back nine in 30 with six birdies in the last eight holes.
Spain’s Jon Rahm, the 2017 champion, is three shots off the pace after a 66, with Tommy Fleetwood and fellow Englishman Tom Lewis another stroke back.
Rahm and Fleetwood are among the five players who can end the week as European number one, but Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger maintained his place at the top of the projected Race to Dubai standings thanks to a battling 70.
McIlroy is without regular caddie Harry Diamond this week but feels so at home at the venue for the season-ending event that he feels he could play it “blindfolded” and such confidence was reflected in a flying start.
The 30-year-old Northern Irishman lipped out three times on the front nine but still recorded five birdies and recovered from his only bogey of the day on the 12th to birdie the 15th and 16th before conjuring up a picture-perfect finish.
“Honestly it’s possibly the best shot I’ve hit all year,” McIlroy said.
“It was right out of the middle. Great to finish like that. It was a great round of golf.”
McIlroy has won four times this season and returned home from his latest success at the HSBC Champions in China to a surprise from his wife Erica in their new home in Florida.
“We had just moved into our new house a couple of months ago but we still had not moved everything in and the trophy cabinet hadn’t been built,” McIlroy explained.
“I got back from China, walked into our sort of game room and up on the wall were all the trophies and stuff. It’s a nice reminder sometimes.”