Rory McIlroy (-5) and Tyrrell Hatton (-5) lead the DP World Tour Championship, the final of the European circuit, after the first round. What a pair. Hatton, as you can see, is not willing to miss a single opportunity to earn points for the Ryder Cup: once his unavoidable commitments with LIV Golf were over, he finished tenth in the Open de España, won the Alfred Dunhill Links, and was second last week in Abu Dhabi… He doesn’t waste time. This level of efficiency is only within reach of top-tier players. The fiery Englishman has only one subject left to pass in high competition, which is no small feat: the Majors. He has already played 38 and doesn’t even have a top-three finish. Who would have thought, but that’s the way it is. The Majors are the Majors, and for now, Hatton struggles with them.
As for Rory… The Northern Irishman, as is well known, is determined to achieve his sixth victory in the European ranking of the year and today he is much closer to doing so. In fact, he almost was before starting the activity this Thursday at the Earth course of Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, but his round of 67 strokes and his leadership have been joined by a lacklustre performance from Thriston Lawrence (+1), the only player who can take the title from him and who also needs to win to achieve it. It’s not a matter of writing off the South African just yet, but he has certainly been left with no room for manoeuvre from the outset. Now he just has to push, push, and push.
The Earth course is not the place to let loose from the tee, at least not recklessly. The Bermuda rough seems denser and trickier than ever this year. It’s almost frightening to see how some balls are not just nestled but anchored. And Lawrence has not been particularly sharp from the tee. He needs to improve in this aspect if he doesn’t want to say goodbye to the objective tomorrow, at the halfway point of the second round…
Rory, truth be told, walks this course like it’s his backyard. It’s the fourteenth time he’s played this tournament. He’s only missed two editions (2017 and 2020) and has already played 53 competitive rounds, including today, more than anyone in history. He knows exactly where he can push a little and where not at all. He knows that on the Earth course, a notable score should fall like ripe fruit. He knows a lot, more than anyone. Apparently, he doesn’t even need to display his best version to sign cards of 68, 67, or 69 strokes, one after another, like making churros. In 53 rounds, he’s only played above par five times, and his average score is 68.53. Anyway, he was 22nd in last year’s edition, his worst result in this tournament, and it’s unlikely that Rory will stumble twice on the same stone. It seems that at a steady pace (his steady pace, of course, which is not the steady pace of mortals), he will give himself a more or less remote chance in the last nine holes on Sunday. He was also at a steady pace last week looking for an opportunity in the final round. Today he wasn’t super from the tee either, but he ended up sinking a long putt of nearly fifteen metres on the 17th to compensate. Rare, very rare, would it be for him not to finish in the top ten, in which case, not even a splendid reaction from Lawrence could take the Race from him.
Some of the ten PGA Tour cards to be distributed this Sunday are in play. There’s a lot of tournament ahead, but for now, the heat is on Sebastian Soderberg (+5), who arrived at the event within the pack of the ten lucky ones (ninth, to be exact), but today he signed a 77 and puts this formidable prize for a great season at risk.
