Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship R3

January 21-24
Abu Dhabi GC, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
$8,000,000
Round 1, Round 2, Round 4

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Rory McIlroy will take a one shot lead in to the final round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, with a thrilling final day battle ahead as he goes in search of a first Rolex Series victory.

“I can’t go into tomorrow thinking it’s my turn. I want to make it my turn. I have to go out there and continue to hit the ball like I hit it on the back nine tonight. If I can do that and give myself plenty of chances, I’ll have a real chance.”

The four-time Major winner recorded a five under par round of 67 at Abu Dhabi Golf Club to get to 13 under par and reclaim the lead he relinquished to Ryder Cup team mate Tyrrell Hatton at the conclusion of the second round.

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After starting the week with a sparkling 64 to top the leaderboard in the opening event of the 2021 season, the Northern Irishman needed a birdie on Saturday morning to sign for a level par 72 as the delayed second round was completed, and he was three shots off the lead after 36 holes.

“Today was a little better. It’s so blustery and it’s a different type of golf than we’re used to playing here in Abu Dhabi where there’s usually not much wind. You feel like you have a chance on every hole. There’s like a little more scrambling involved and longer putts.

“I thought I did well today. Obviously had that big stroke of luck on ten, the ball hitting the pin and going in. Apart from that, I played well. I drove it much better on the back nine and I hit it much better on the back nine, so I was really encouraged with that.

But McIlroy roared back to come within touching distance of a first win at an event where he has been runner up four times, carding an eagle and five birdies to move one shot clear of three-time Rolex Series winner Hatton, with double Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship winner Tommy Fleetwood a shot further back.

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“It was a difficult day,” said Hatton. “The conditions were really tough for the whole day. Although I’m pretty disappointed to be honest. I feel like coming back in this morning, I didn’t finish off my round too well and I didn’t actually do anything too wrong.

“Then today, round three, I just felt like I had nothing really go my way. Hit a couple decent shots and ran into a bunker with a terrible lie and had quite a few putts burning the edge or lipping out. Pretty disappointed.

“It’s pretty cool group to be a part of tomorrow. I’m sure the standard of golf will be pretty good and hoping that I can play well and give myself a chance to win.”

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American David Lipsky and Scot Marc Warren are at ten under par after a pair of 68s, one shot ahead of Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello, with Australia’s Jason Scrivener at eight under.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Alex Levy holed his tee shot from 163 yards with a nine iron at the par three 15th hole at Abu Dhabi Golf Club to win a BMW M850I Coupe.

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Pos.	Player	To Par	R1	R2	R3	Total
1	Rory McIlroy	-13	64	72	67	203
2	Tyrrell Hatton	-12	65	68	71	204
3	Tommy Fleetwood	-11	71	67	67	205
T4	David Lipsky	-10	72	66	68	206
T4	Marc Warren	-10	72	66	68	206
6	Rafa Cabrera Bello	-9	67	67	73	207
7	Jason Scrivener	-8	67	70	71	208
T8	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	-7	71	71	67	209
T8	George Coetzee	-7	70	71	68	209
T8	Mikko Korhonen	-7	69	69	71	209
T8	Michael Lorenzo-Vera	-7	69	72	68	209
T8	Wade Ormsby	-7	69	70	70	209
T8	Chris Paisley	-7	72	68	69	209
T8	Matt Wallace	-7	68	70	71	209
T8	Fabrizio Zanotti	-7	66	71	72	209
T16	Adri Arnaus	-6	74	67	69	210
T16	Richard Bland	-6	72	69	69	210
T16	Stephen Gallacher	-6	69	68	73	210
T16	Lucas Herbert	-6	68	68	74	210
T16	Victor Perez	-6	68	73	69	210
T16	Thomas Pieters	-6	69	71	70	210
T22	Nino Bertasio	-5	71	67	73	211
T22	Kristoffer Broberg	-5	69	69	73	211
T22	David Drysdale	-5	73	70	68	211
T22	Victor Dubuisson	-5	73	69	69	211
T22	Ignacio Elvira Mijares	-5	68	68	75	211
T22	Jazz Janewattananond	-5	68	69	74	211
T22	Romain Langasque	-5	67	70	74	211
T22	Alexander Levy	-5	72	70	69	211
T30	Lucas Bjerregaard	-4	68	74	70	212
T30	Grant Forrest	-4	72	70	70	212
T30	Scott Jamieson	-4	71	70	71	212
T30	Robert MacIntyre	-4	72	69	71	212
T30	Jordan Smith	-4	72	71	69	212
T30	Richard Sterne	-4	71	72	69	212
T30	Bernd Wiesberger	-4	70	72	70	212
T37	Masahiro Kawamura	-3	71	70	72	213
T37	Kurt Kitayama	-3	68	74	71	213
T37	Joost Luiten	-3	69	70	74	213
T37	Aaron Rai	-3	69	72	72	213
T37	Andy Sullivan	-3	72	71	70	213
T42	Marcus Armitage	-2	73	70	71	214
T42	Nicolas Colsaerts	-2	72	71	71	214
T42	Rasmus Højgaard	-2	71	72	71	214
T42	James Morrison	-2	69	73	72	214
T42	Robert Rock	-2	72	71	71	214
T42	Antoine Rozner	-2	71	72	71	214
T42	Matthias Schwab	-2	71	71	72	214
T42	Callum Shinkwin	-2	70	69	75	214
T42	Matthew Southgate	-2	74	65	75	214
T42	Danny Willett	-2	71	72	71	214
T52	Benjamin Hebert	-1	68	73	74	215
T52	Tapio Pulkkanen	-1	73	70	72	215
T52	Justin Rose	-1	70	72	73	215
T52	Oliver Wilson	-1	70	70	75	215
T56	Alexander Björk	E	70	72	74	216
T56	Julien Guerrier	E	74	68	74	216
T56	Calum Hill	E	72	71	73	216
T56	Søren Kjeldsen	E	71	72	73	216
T60	Scott Hend	1	71	72	74	217
T60	Henrik Stenson	1	71	72	74	217
T60	Lee Westwood	1	69	73	75	217
T63	Justin Harding	2	73	69	76	218
T63	Padraig Harrington	2	70	73	75	218
T65	Sebastian Soderberg	3	69	71	79	219
T65	Jeff Winther	3	74	69	76	219
CUT	Thomas Aiken	E	73	71		144
CUT	Gaganjeet Bhullar	E	72	72		144
CUT	Steven Brown	E	69	75		144
CUT	Matthew Fitzpatrick	E	70	74		144
CUT	Ryan Fox	E	73	71		144
CUT	Gavin Kyle Green	E	74	70		144
CUT	Joachim B. Hansen	E	72	72		144
CUT	David Horsey	E	70	74		144
CUT	Maximilian Kieffer	E	72	72		144
CUT	Francesco Laporta	E	72	72		144
CUT	Min Woo Lee	E	71	73		144
CUT	Ahmed Marjan	E	72	72		144
CUT	Graeme McDowell	E	72	72		144
CUT	Guido Migliozzi	E	73	71		144
CUT	Adrian Otaegui	E	72	72		144
CUT	Kalle Samooja	E	73	71		144
CUT	Justin Thomas	E	73	71		144
CUT	Laurie Canter	1	70	75		145
CUT	Ashley Chesters	1	72	73		145
CUT	Jamie Donaldson	1	72	73		145
CUT	Lorenzo Gagli	1	72	73		145
CUT	Garrick Higgo	1	73	72		145
CUT	David Howell	1	74	71		145
CUT	Pablo Larrazabal	1	74	71		145
CUT	Haotong Li	1	71	74		145
CUT	Shane Lowry	1	75	70		145
CUT	Richie Ramsay	1	74	71		145
CUT	Julian Suri	1	71	74		145
CUT	Kiradech Aphibarnrat	2	69	77		146
CUT	Ross Fisher	2	72	74		146
CUT	Raphael Jacquelin	2	78	68		146
CUT	David Law	2	70	76		146
CUT	Matthieu Pavon	2	77	69		146
CUT	Joel Stalter	2	73	73		146
CUT	Justin Walters	2	71	75		146
CUT	Dean Burmester	3	78	69		147
CUT	Jorge Campillo	3	74	73		147
CUT	Sean Crocker	3	73	74		147
CUT	Robert Karlsson	3	77	70		147
CUT	Martin Kaymer	3	74	73		147
CUT	Tom Lewis	4	72	76		148
CUT	Edoardo Molinari	4	74	74		148
CUT	Ian Poulter	4	71	77		148
CUT	Brandon Stone	4	70	78		148
CUT	Zander Lombard	5	74	75		149
CUT	Ross McGowan	5	71	78		149
CUT	Eddie Pepperell	5	71	78		149
CUT	Alvaro Quiros	5	73	76		149
CUT	Shubhankar Sharma	5	76	73		149
CUT	Paul Waring	5	73	76		149
CUT	Chris Wood	5	74	75		149
CUT	Ashun Wu	5	76	73		149
CUT	John Catlin	6	75	75		150
CUT	Thomas Detry	6	74	76		150
CUT	Renato Paratore	6	78	72		150
CUT	Richard McEvoy	7	75	76		151
CUT	Marcus Kinhult	8	81	71		152
CUT	Sami Valimaki	8	77	75		152
CUT	Thomas Bjørn	9	72	81		153
CUT	Oliver Fisher	9	76	77		153
CUT	Haydn Porteous	9	77	76		153
CUT	Wilco Nienaber	10	76	78		154
CUT	Ahmad Skaik (a)	12	76	80		156
CUT	Arjun Gupta	13	79	78		157
WD	Joakim Lagergren	3	34			34
WD	Andrea Pavan	2	69			69
DNS	Andrew Johnston	E