Rory McIlroy was off to an electric start with a seven-under par round of 65 to lead by two shots in the DP World Tour Championship final Rolex Series event of 2021.
McIlroy, who won The CJ Cup @ Summit on the PGA TOUR last month, is aiming for a second victory in consecutive appearances at the end of 2021. McIlroy is also hoping to make the history book with a third DP World Tour Championship, as he earlier won in 2012 and 2015.
The four-time Major Champion followed a birdie on the first with an eagle on the second and he was six under through his first eight holes on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates. He dropped his first and only shot of the day on the ninth.
World No. 2 Collin Morikawa, who is also the current Race to Dubai leader, posted six birdies and two bogeys in a four-under par round of 68 with nine other players in a share of fifth place. They are three shots behind McIlroy.
While this is the last event of the year on the European Tour, McIlroy will again be clashing in two weeks’ time at Tiger Woods’ event, the Hero World Challenge at the Albany, Bahamas,
Morikawa, the Open Champion remains firmly on course to become the first American winner of the Race to Dubai, with his nearest rival Billy Horschel opening with two over par round of 74 in a share of 45th position.
Trailing McIlroy by two shots are three players: Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen, South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Denmark’s Joachim B Hansen, the winner of last week’s Aviv Dubai Championship on the neighbouring Fire Course.
English trio Tyrrell Hatton, Paul Casey and defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick, all of whom have a long shot to become European Tour No. 1 with a victory, carded opening rounds of 70 each and are five shots back in a share of 20th.
Australian Min Woo Lee, the other player who could win the Race to Dubai with a win, signed for a level par 72.
McIlroy said, “I’ve been coming back here now or 12 years and it flies by. I think a lot of experience around this place, a lot of great memories and memories of great shots and great putts.
It’s comfortable for me. I think if you can carry the ball over 300 on this course. It gets a lot easier, just getting over some of those fairway bunkers and the landing areas become that bit wider. Someone like Dean (Burmester) or myself today, that’s an advantage for us and I’ve been able to use that to my advantage over the last few years here.
On the eagle on two, he said, “Honestly all I was trying to do was get it in the front bunker. I didn’t think I had enough club to get it over but I absolutely flushed it. Right edge of the green I was aiming at, and tried to hit a hard draw in there to at least try to get it to the lip of the bunker. I had an uphill bunker shot and as soon as I hit it I felt like I might actually have a chance to cover it. So it was nice to hole the putt and obviously a great way to start.”
