– Tommy Fleetwood (-8) has already taken the lead at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. The last thing he did was win in India. Nothing, there’s no way, no one can bring him down from the cloud. At least for now. If he manages to stay in the fight to win in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, it will have to be agreed that the Englishman has made the definitive leap he was missing.
– Fleetwood shares the lead with four other players: Shane Lowry, Richard Sterne, Kazuma Kobori, and Adrien Saddier. Lowry is ready to take advantage of that new express category of Ryder Cup player. Kobori has torn up the greens. Sterne seems to be returning to his best form. And Saddier is determined to convince even the most sceptical who still don’t see him in the PGA Tour shirt.
– Birdies, birdies, birdies, and more birdies. Without wind, there’s no paradise at Yas Links. They eat it up. It’s their only defence. The fairways and greens are firmer than last year, but it matters little. It’s too small for them. Lots of wedge to green, lots of par 5s reached in two. Very low rounds. A playoff, or whatever they want to call it, of the DP World Tour, deserves a bigger stage. More challenge. Conditions that really separate the wheat from the chaff. The problem isn’t the -8 lead. The issue is that six under par isn’t even in the top 10. A round of 69, three under par, is almost like playing to par. Is it serious? Not at all. But if you’re trying to select the top 50 on the circuit, maybe another course or preparation is needed…
– Much credit to Alex Noren and Keita Nakajima. Both have shot -7 playing in the last groups of the day. They played the last holes with quite a curious wind. It’s true that the air was sluggish today. It didn’t appear until the end. But the last two hours were indeed spicy. Watch out for the Swede and the Japanese. Their 65s are more valuable than the leaders’ 64s.
– Magnificent performance by Marco Penge (-5). It wasn’t easy for the Englishman. He played with Rory McIlroy and Tyrrell Hatton. As much as he’s destined for great things, he’s not yet used to this type of match. Exceptional response. He beat McIlroy by one stroke, who was somewhat poor throughout the day, a round neither here nor there, and lost by one to Hatton.
– Only seven players out of the 72 participants played over par. The most surprising case is Tom McKibbin (+3). The Northern Irishman probably doesn’t care much either. What he had to do, he’s already done, which was to win last Sunday in Hong Kong and get into the Masters.
