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Despite not playing competitively since the US Masters in November, Rory McIlroy showed no signs of rust on the opening day of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship as he shot to the top of the leaderboard in the early stages of round one at eight under par, one clear of Tyrrell Hatton.
The world number six has a stellar record at what is this year’s season-opening tournament on the European Tour with top three finishes in his last four appearances. Despite that, he has never got his hands on the title but that could change this week.
European Ryder Cup captain Pádraig Harrington was also enjoying a good start to the season at two under par through 16 holes while Shane Lowry – who won this title two years ago – was only getting underway at 3pm local time with Graeme McDowell teeing off 10 minutes later meaning both will have to complete his first round on Friday morning.
Playing alongside Race to Dubai winner Lee Westwood – who opened with a three under par 69 – and Justin Thomas – who struggled to a 73 for one over on his first appearance since apologising for using a homophobic slur at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii – McIlroy stole the show in the opening half of round one.
After a delay of two hours and 55 minutes due to fog McIlroy came out firing on the Par 5 10th – his first – with an opening birdie four. And that lit the blue touch paper.
A beautiful tee shot to the Par 3 12th set up a birdie two and he would repeat the trick at the next short hole, the 15th.
With the length McIlroy possesses it’s always a case of making the most of the Par 5s and he did exactly that on Thursday morning by picking up birdies at all four, the second of those coming at the 18th.
That set off a run off three birdies in-a-row with the Par 4 first reduced to a drive, a 79-yard flick of a wedge and a putt before the Par 5 second reaped another four to move the 31-year-old to six under.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for McIlroy with the front nine Par 3s causing more bother than the two on the back nine. However, McIlroy’s short game looked sharp as he got up-and-down from a front bunker at the fourth before repeating the trick from short of the green at the seventh.
Those two saves came either side of another birdie at the sixth and were followed by a 25-footer for a birdie at the Par 5 eighth to get to eight under. McIlroy may well feel he left a few out there with his putting in particular looking very impressive but an opening 64 leaves him looking down on everyone else.