John McAuley
DUBAI // Rory McIlroy’s day began with inadvertently being awarded a third Omega Dubai Desert Classic title and concluded with three successive birdies.
It was just the bit in between that did not quite live up to the defending champion’s star billing.
“I didn’t have my best stuff with me and struggled at the start and around the middle of the round,” said McIlroy after shooting a level-par 72 Friday at Emirates Golf Club to stay 4-under overall. “I needed something just to, first and foremost, be here for the weekend.”
Such was his situation, that McIlroy genuinely feared he would miss the cut.
“I was definitely thinking about it, especially over the putt on 12,” he said. “I bogeyed 11 and had a 6-footer for par on 12, and if I missed that, 1-over for the tournament, would have been a long way back from there. To make that putt and play the next six holes at 4-under par was a nice way to finish.”
Dubai Desert Classic: Pairings and tee times (UAE) for Round 3
It was the start that was not up to his lofty standards. After the first-tee announcer introduced McIlroy as the ‘2019 Dubai Desert Classic champion’, the Northern Irishman’s immediate future contained an opening bogey, with another three to come on the front nine. He had a single birdie, on the fifth.
But McIlroy responded to another bogey on 11, which pulled him below the projected cut, with a redemptive par on 12 and from there put in enough work to hang around for the remainder of the tournament.
“Birdieing the last three holes definitely gives me a little bit of momentum going into the weekend,” he said.
As it stands, McIlroy is six off the lead at the halfway stage, but in a tie for 23rd. Yet champion at the event in 2009 and again last year, he is not out of it, by any stretch.
“Not at all,” the world No 2 said. “There’s a lot of players between myself and the lead, but at the same time, I’ve come back from bigger deficits than this, and this is one of my favourite places.”
McIlroy envisages heading out earlier Saturday will provide him with the better conditions for scoring, when the greens are softer and the fairways a little less fiery. His second round contained some decent play, he said, but he simply struggled with a few short putts. Nonetheless, he is looking forward Round 3.
“Go out and post a number in the mid-to-low 60s and that should hold up pretty well throughout the day,” McIlroy said. “So that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
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