Eugenio Chacarra called it. A day after opting to accept a two-stroke penalty for improving his lie, rather than protest his innocence, Rory McIlroy burned up Yas Links
It is untrue to say the ruling, invoked by the referee post-round after video review and accepted by McIlroy, did not cause a kerfuffle.
McIlroy did his best to limit the fuss, pointing out that the TV footage did not look good, and that he had to take his medicine.
But such is the attention paid to his every move; there were always going to be some reverberations at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship.
His playing partner, and biggest rival in the chase for the Race to Dubai title, went straight into bat for him.
“I don't think he improved [his lie for a greenside chip at the 12th hole in the opening round] at all, and obviously he's a class man,” Chacarra said at the end of the eventful first day playing with McIlroy.
“And I know he's going to go fired up tomorrow. That's going to fire him up, and he's going to probably shoot the lowest round of the day.”
Whether it stays as the lowest total of the day, given the benign scoring conditions on Day 2, remains to be seen.
But by the time he had finished the 18th, McIlroy held the lead in the tournament, having started the day in the lowest third of the field.
McIlroy himself denied that a sense of injustice had fuelled his sparkling round of 63, which took him to 11-under for the tournament. But he is so often at his best when facing adversity.
“Yesterday was yesterday, and today's a new day," McIlroy said.
“I had to take an unplayable at the first and made a bogey. It wasn't like I got off to the greatest of starts today.
“But then obviously I got it going. As I said last night, I felt like I'd played well enough to get back into the golf. I played well enough to feel like I could play my way back into the tournament.
“I went out today and played a good round of golf and did get myself back into it.”
The world No 2 said he was already over the drama that happened at the end of Day 1 by the time he was sat in one of the tournament 4x4s heading back to the hotel.
“Before I left the course, I made peace with it,” McIlroy said.
“I didn't dwell on it, or feel like I did anything wrong. But then at the same time, I said the video didn't look good, the close-up of it.
“I just never wanted, [in terms of] the perception, people feeling like I got away with something. I just wouldn't want that sitting with me.
“I'd much rather be two shots worse off than be called a cheat. So that's what I did, and I made peace with it.
“At least I went out today, like it wasn't playing on my mind. I had a clear conscience, and I could just go and play.”
Aside from trying to win the Falcon Trophy for the first time, McIlroy is also trying to haul in Chacarra at the top of the Race to Dubai.
He has to make up nearly 1,000 points on Chacarra in the standings over the course of this week and the season finale in Dubai next week.
By the end of the second round, he had an 8-shot cushion over the Spaniard, who is on 3-under after struggling to a 1-under-par 71 on Friday. Patrick Reed, who is second in the standings, is even further back, on 1-over.
“Everything can change,” Chacarra said. “I need another fast start tomorrow.
“I'm going to go to work today in the afternoon and talk to the team, [to see] why that happened. Hopefully we can fix the things for the weekend.”
