Hojgaard leads by 2 shots at World Tour Championship

Alison Lee rides her hot streak and shares the lead with Nasa Hataoka at LPGA finale

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES » Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Tommy Fleetwood were in a group of marquee players moving into contention at the season-ending World Tour Championship on Friday.

Rory McIlroy wasn’t among them.

While the No. 2-ranked McIlroy was, in his words, “stuck in neutral” on his way to shooting an evenpar 72 in the second round, Rahm, Hovland and Fleetwood all had 66s on the Earth Course to be in a good position heading into the weekend.

Nicolai Hojgaard, a 22-year-old Dane boosted by his recent Ryder Cup experience, had a back nine of 30 containing four birdies and an eagle to shoot 66 and lead on 11-under par, two shots clear of a fiveman group including Hovland and Fleetwood.

Rahm, ranked No. 3, was five shots back and happy with his game, though frustrated by a three-putting from 20 feet for bogey at his last hole — No. 9.

McIlroy was languishing on 1 under for the tournament, 10 back and tied for 34th place in a curtailed field of 50 for the last event of the European tour’s 2023 season.

“There is a low one out there,” said McIlroy, who has already clinched the Race to Dubai title and was crowned Europe’s No. 1 player for a fifth time. “And I’m going to need one to get myself back in the tournament.”

Hojgaard, who was in a share of the lead after the first round, wasn’t really a factor early in round two after bogeys at Nos. 3 and 4. He rebounded with birdies at two of the next three holes and finished birdiepar-birdie-eagle, hitting his second shot at the par-5 18th to 6 feet.

Ludvig Aberg powers to a 64 and leads RSM Classic by 1 shot at Sea Island

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, GA. » Ludvig Aberg had a pair of two-putt birdies, one of them on a par 4, and kept bogeys off his card for the second straight day for a 6-under 64 on Friday to take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the RSM Classic.

In the final tournament of the longest PGA Tour season, Aberg will try to end his short year with victories on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. He already won the European Masters in Switzerland, a performance that secured his spot on Europe’s winning Ryder Cup team.

Not bad for a 24-year-old Swede who only turned pro in June. Not surprising, either.

“I know my capabilities and I know my strengths,” said Aberg, who finished at Texas Tech this spring and earned a PGA Tour card as the No. 1 player in the PGA Tour University ranking. “But also, to be able to do it this quickly, probably not. It’s been so much fun.

“I still pinch myself in the morning whenever I wake up that I actually get to do this for a living, but it’s really cool and I’m looking forward to a bunch of years ahead of me.”

For now, he has 36 holes on the wind-blown Seaside course at Sea Island Golf Club, and a host of players right behind him, each facing various levels of pressure.

NAPLES, FLA. » Alison Lee birdied four of her last five holes Friday to extend a hot streak that stretches from Saudi Arabia to South Korea to Florida. Her 8-under 64 gave her a share of the lead with Nasa Hataoka in the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.

Hataoka atoned for missing a short par putt by closing with a pair of birdies, finishing with a 25-footer on the last hole for a 67 in a wide-open chase for the $2 million prize.

Lee had five birdies in seven holes at the start, and then had a strong finishing kick that included a wedge to a foot on the 15th and a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th.

The 28-year-old Californian has never won in her nine years on the LPGA Tour, but no one brought as much momentum. In her last three tournaments worldwide, she has runner-up finishes in the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea and The Annika last week in Florida. She also won an Aramco Team Series event on the Ladies European Tour.

Lee now is 46-under par in her last 10 rounds.

“I feel like the last month, everything is falling into place,” Lee said.

Lee and Hataoka were at 14-under 128, remarkably low scoring for Tiburon Golf Club but to be expected given the 4 inches of rain that drenched the course on the eve of the tournament. The greens were soft and rolled well given only 60 players are in the field.