Tommy Fleetwood leads after round of 62; LIV's Tyrrell Hatton also started well amid birdie blitz; watch the first of the DP World Tour Play-Offs live on Sky Sports Golf this week, with second-round featured groups from 4am and full coverage from 7am on Friday
Thursday 7 November 2024 13:40, UK
Rory McIlroy made a solid start in his bid to close out his sixth Race to Dubai title with a week to spare by shooting a five-under-par opening round at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship as Tommy Fleetwood tied the course record with a round of 62.
McIlroy admitted on Thursday he would happily accept a "boring" conclusion to his season on the DP World Tour by claiming the first or second placed-finish he needs on Sunday at the Yas Links to finish the year as Europe's top player for the sixth time.
And the Northern Irishman also said on Wednesday that he spent three weeks in a studio after his last appearance at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in early October, just hitting balls at a screen with a modified swing and not even looking at the flight of his shots.
Playing that practice into reality back in competitive action, the 35-year-old claimed three birdies on both the front and back nine, with his final one on the 18th coming after he had registered his only bogey of the round on the par-three 17th.
"Overall it felt pretty good," said McIlroy after shooting 67, which puts him five shots behind leader Fleetwood.
"I've gotten comfortable with doing this sort of rehearsal before I take the club back and it felt fine.
"I probably wasn't as imaginative out there, I was hitting very straight shots, and I hit a couple where I didn't really see the picture of what I was trying to do with the ball flight just because I was thinking a little bit too much on what I was doing with the swing.
"But overall I'm quite fortunate that it's a nice week to come back because there's not too much wind and it's pretty wide off the tee, so I feel like I can concentrate more on what I'm trying to do with the motion."
Fleetwood, the next highest-ranked player in the reduced 70-player field, was more in the zone as he made eight birdies to go with an eagle at the par-five second hole in a bogey-free round of 10-under.
The Englishman took the solo lead for the first time by rolling in a birdie putt from 10 feet at the 18th.
Fleetwood finished a stroke clear of Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark and Johannes Veerman of the United States.
Olesen's bogey-free round featured two eagles - at the par fives of seven and 11 - while Veerman hit one eagle at the par-five second.
On a day Aaron Cockerill holed out from the tee on the 157-yard par-three 13th, there was plenty of low scoring on a characteristically warm and sun-kissed day in the Middle East.
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LIV Golf's Tyrrell Hatton finished one back on eight-under although the Englishman's plundering of 10 birdies - which included six in seven either side of the turn - were compromised by two bogeys.
He is tied in fourth place after shooting 64 with Laurie Canter, Paul Waring and Francesco Laporta.
Who will win the Race to Dubai? Watch the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the DP World Tour Championship this month live on Sky Sports Golf. Get Sky Sports
