DUBAI // Last year’s duel in the desert between Rory McIlroy and Andy Sullivan was worth a cool €1.23 million (Dh4.7m) to its winner. This time around, the stakes were significantly less, but it was still worth getting out of bed for.
After their respective Round 1 struggles, the duo who gave this tournament one of its most captivating final-day shoot-outs 12 months earlier were reunited early on the second morning. The Ryder Cup teammates were just the second game out.
Around 100 supporters were horse-shoed around the first tee-box when the 8am glamour match was announced. The sort of intimate gathering that McIlroy’s celebrity – and increasingly that of Sullivan, too – rarely allows for these days.
More from Paul Radley in Dubai:
Quotes from Day 2: Sergio Garcia feels good about title chances
Magic tough: Henrik Stenson still in it to win Race to Dubai trophy
Race to Dubai: Here's how the top four fared on Day 2
Round 3 tee times: Francesco Molinari and Sergio Garcia paired
It was an early morning treat, for those who set their alarms and brought the correct footwear to combat the heavy dew.
The defending champion – who has famously not always been the best timekeeper – probably does not even bring an alarm clock with him to this event. His excellence usually means afternoon starts only.
This was one of the rare times when he required a wake up call from his hotel’s front desk. “It has been a while,” McIlroy said. “Luckily enough I’m an early riser anyway. At least I can be in the pool early.”
The crowd around the first was bloated by Team Sulli, the group of 30 or so supporters who travel from the English Midlands to support their man.
As Sullivan addressed his opening tee-shot, one of them said to another: “Well, if this doesn’t get him up for it, nothing will.”
And it did seem to do the trick, too. The Englishman had been subdued rather than poor in shooting four-over on the first day. He found gear straight away playing with the world No 2, to the tune of three birdies on the run from the second.
His playing partner enjoyed a similar sequence from the sixth, and all seemed well with the world again. Sullivan’s laugh regularly bellowed across the fairways.
When McIlroy pitched his approach close to the ninth pin, Sullivan stood with his arm in the air, thumb raised. It was like watching two mates enjoying a knockabout on a local municipal course.
“We just go out there and have a laugh,” Sullivan said. “We get on really well, and I think that brings out the best in both of our games.
“I think there is a little bit of needle between us in terms of us wanting to beat each other, but it just feels like having a Friday game out with your mates.”
By the turn, the gallery had built to the extent the cart that ferries players between the ninth green and 10th tee had to regularly exercise its horn to shoo people out of their path.
One of the most obstinate pedestrians was Sullivan’s father. As the cart made it past him, Sullivan Jr playfully made to push his dad out of the way.
In terms of theatrics on the course, there was nothing quite so spellbinding as the mammoth putt at 17 a year ago, that earned McIlroy the “best bogey” of his career, and, almost immediately afterwards, the title.
But at least Sullivan saved a party piece for the end, firing his second shot to the par-five 18th to within inches to wow the by-now substantial crowd.
“Me and my caddie [Sean Mcdonagh] had a perfect number there,” Sullivan said. “It was perfect for a cut three iron, it came out just as we described it. To get up there and see it six inches from the hole was awesome.”
Sullivan’s point about their partnership bringing out the best in each other was born out in the fact he signed for a six-under 66, and McIlroy a 68. A marked improvement for both, then.
“I was mentally very flat,” McIlroy said of his first round. “I was in holiday mode, not switched on to what I wanted to do.
“It was one of those things, a bad day, but at least I have turned it around today and hopefully I can improve again on the weekend.”
pradley@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
