Leader Kaymer vows to stay aggressive

RORY MCILROY’S putter briefly went cold at the Abu Dhabi Championship yesterday. So he decided to take another route to the hole.

The world No 1 made his first competitive hole-in-one as a professional as part of a brilliant back nine in his second round, acing the par-3 15th from 177 yards to propel his pursuit of tournament leader Martin Kaymer.

Leader Kaymer, meanwhile, vowed to persist with an aggressive approach after claiming a onestroke lead at the halfway stage following a flawless second-round 67.

The 30-year-old, who rattled in 10 birdies for an opening-day 64, is a three-time winner of the tournament and will start today on 13-under, a stroke clear of Belgian outsider Thomas Pieters and two ahead of McIlroy, pictured right.

The German has proved an able front runner in the past, winning last year’s US Open by eight shots.

“At the US Open I really played my own game, I was trying to see how low I could play and I stayed aggressive,” Kaymer said.

Kaymer’s triumph in North Carolina in June ended a three-year title drought and lifted him back into the world’s top 20. He has not had a single-digit ranking since May 2012, but appears to be approaching the form that once made him among the golf ’s very best.

McIlroy, meanwhile, threw his hands in the air and high-fived playing partner Rickie Fowler at the 15th after his 9-iron landed a yard from the hole, hopped right and trickled into the cup.

“It never left the pin,” McIlroy said after ticking off one of the few things he’d yet to achieve in his career. A 6- under 66 – completed with a 15foot birdie putt at No 18 – moved McIlroy into third place on 11- under, two shots behind Kaymer, to set up a potentially thrilling duel over the weekend between two players who won three of last year’s Majors.