Rory McIlroy produced a Seve Ballesteros-like recovery shot during his solid opening-round five-under 67, three adrift of triple champion Martin Kaymer after the opening round in the US$2.7 million Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on Thursday.
World No. 1 McIlroy was even-par after 11 holes when he reached the par-four third hole (his 12th) and smashed his tee shot into a fairway bunker, but from a horrific lie that prompted a very unusual stance, the Northern Irishman somehow muscled his wedge shot to within 12 feet and turned what looked like a bogey into a birdie.
That got his round going and McIlroy added four birdies in his final six holes to finish on 67, the same as his playing partner, world No. 10 Rickie Fowler, who made a bogey on his final hole after sending his shot over the green on the par-four ninth.
However, the round of the day, which saw two holes-in-one, belonged to world No. 12 Kaymer. Two birdies in the last two holes saw him finish one shot better than Belgium’s 22-year-old Thomas Pieters, who went out in the morning and shot a superb seven-under 65.
Kaymer, the defending US Open champion, made the turn in 33 shots, and then made six birdies and a bogey on the back nine.
The German credited his hot putter for the score.
“I think the key to me doing well here the last few years was my putting and today it was the same. I made 10 birdies and there were three putts in those that were over 15 feet, and that’s very rare,” Kaymer said.
McIlroy admitted the shot on the third hole changed everything, but he would have to up his game over the next three days to secure what would be his first Abu Dhabi title after three runner-up finishes.
“I was just trying to get it on the green. From looking like going one-over to finishing five-under, I’m very happy,” McIlroy said. “I’ll need to do a lot more of that over the next few days if I want to have a chance to win. I know I’ll need to hit more fairways, as well. I didn’t drive the ball particularly well today.”
Pieters was going great guns with seven birdies in his first 13 holes, but a bogey on the easy par-three 15th halted his charge and he needed to make a birdie on the final, par-five 18th for his 65.
“I’ve been driving it a lot better. I think that’s the key out here. You have to drive it around the fairway and I drove it long today, so gave myself a lot of wedges in and converted some putts. It was a nice start to the season,” the long-hitting Belgian said.
There was a five-way tie for the third place at six-under 66 — South Africa’s Branden Grace, French duo Gregory Bourdy and Alexander Levy, Mikko Ilonen of Finland and England’s Tyrrell Hatton.
However, world No. 2 Henrik Stenson did not have the best of starts and a double-bogey on his first hole was followed by two more bogeys as he closed with a birdie-free round of 76.
England’s world No. 6 Justin Rose was three-under at the turn, but four bogeys on the back nine saw him finish at one-over 73.
Of the two holes-in-one, the first by England’s Tom Lewis on the difficult seventh won him a Cadillac Escape worth US$88,580, while Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez got one at the 15th hole, winning a five-night stay in the Royal Suite of the official hotel, the St Regis.
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