Fleetwood sets pace to open title defence with a flawless round

>> ABU DHABI: Defending champion Tommy Fleetwood picked up from where he left off in the UAE capital, racing to the top of the leaderboard early in the US$3 million Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship golf tournament on Thursday with a bogey-free round of 66.

The Englishman was later joined on the top of the leaderboard by Japan’s Hideto Tanihara, who also managed to keep the bogeys away from his six-birdie card.

Former world No.1 Rory McIlroy, playing alongside Fleetwood and top-ranked Dustin Johnson, made an excellent return to competition golf with a three-birdie round of 69.

He started with 11 consecutive pars from the 10th tee, but stayed patient and found some joy coming in.

“It was nice. I was excited to get going. The last couple of months have been really nice in terms of being able to concentrate on things I needed to work on in my game and things I needed to work on health-wise and all that sort of stuff,” said four-time major champion MoIlroy who last played on Oct 8.

American Johnson made four birdies but also an equal number of bogeys, including one on his last hole where he pushed his tee shot into the water, for an even-par 72 start. England’s Justin Rose, the second highest ranked player in the field at No.6, was one better at 71, while No.9 Henrik Stenson finished on two-under par 70.

The 26-year-old Fleetwood, who started his 2017 winning this tournament by a shot over Johnson, then went on to secure the European Tour’s Race to Dubai title at the end of the year. And he showed no signs of cooling off with his round on Thursday, which featured hitting all 18 greens in regulation.

“It really was a very good day, very stress-free,” said Fleetwood, also the winner of the French Open last year.

“I had control of my ball really from the get-go. Just sort of did what you need to do well around here to get a good score. I drove it well.”