– Michael Kim (-8) is the first leader of the DP World Tour Championship, the final of the European circuit held in Dubai, at the Earth course of the Jumeirah Golf Estates, to be more precise, the venue for the event for the seventeenth consecutive edition (since 2009). The American is getting the hang of the European circuit, and in what a way, where he has been a regular in the autumn events, with a victory included in the Open de France. Hopefully, some other great players from the PGA Tour will follow his example in the coming years and cross the pond to test themselves in another environment, instead of spending two, three, and even four months away from competition.
– Kim has signed an immaculate 64-stroke card, without bogeys, which could well have gone to a record of genuine scandal, if we consider the large array of excellent birdie opportunities he did not take advantage of. His tee-to-green game was spectacular.
– Tommy Fleetwood (-7) has not missed his appointment with excellence, once again, continuing this long honeymoon he is having with golf. He can no longer win the Race to Dubai, but surely he wouldn’t mind at all taking this big tournament and finishing second in the ranking. Neither seems impossible right now, not even improbable.
– Rory McIlroy (-6), for his part, is ready to quash any hint of rebellion and, therefore, excitement. As it should be. The excellent start by the Northern Irishman, with a round of 66 strokes, coincides with a lacklustre performance by Marco Penge (+2), his main threat in the fight for the Race to Dubai, so Rory’s chances of adding his seventh triumph in this long race, which were already great, become immense. Let’s not forget that Penge needs to be at least second and is already nine strokes away from that position and ten from the lead.
– Neither does Tyrrell Hatton (-2) seem a very serious threat at the moment. The Englishman needs to win and for Rory to finish worse than eighth to achieve his first Race to Dubai. Let’s not kid ourselves: once the first round is played, it seems as difficult for Tyrrell to win as it is for Rory to finish below eighth place. Anyway, let’s still give Hatton and the golf fairies some room to work their magic…
– Let’s also wait, at least until tomorrow, to see if a third Spaniard is capable of truly getting into the fight to win on this course, as Álvaro Quirós and Jon Rahm have done before. Given how things are going and how they tend to go each year on this course, it seems that a score around -18 or -20 would be needed to be in the mix, so Jorge Campillo (-2), Ángel Ayora (-2), and Nacho Elvira (-2) are already left with little room for manoeuvre and Eugenio Chacharra almost without a safety net. They need, to start with, an explosive Friday, without half measures.
