Rory McIlroy opened with a 67 on Thursday to take a share of the opening lead at the DP World Tour Championship at 5-under.
McIlroy started the week with a 1,785.02 point lead in the Race to Dubai Rankings over South African Thriston Lawrence with 2000 points on offer to the winner on Sunday. The Northern Irishman only needs a top-10 finish to secure his sixth Race to Dubai crown and match Seve Ballesteros.
“I thought I played well. I hit the ball pretty well. I gave myself plenty of chances, plenty of looks,” said McIlroy.
“I want to go on from here and win the golf tournament. I’ve opened up with a really good score, but I need to go out and play similarly over these next three days, not just to try to win the tournament, but also to try to get the job done in the Race to Dubai.
“I’m under no illusions that that was probably Thriston’s worst day. If he goes out and has three good ones, I still need to go out there and play some very solid golf.”
Tyrrell Hatton shares the lead followed at 4-under by playing partner and fellow Englishman Paul Waring who won last week at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
“To be honest, I feel like the score was better than it felt,” said Hatton. “I felt I was tinkering over most tee shots and at times, I felt like my misses were bigger than perhaps they have been over the last month or so, month and a half.
“But at the end of the day, to shoot five under, you have to, I guess, play fairly solid golf. And in my head, I don’t really know what that is.”
Seven players are tied in fourth place at 3-under including Englishmen Alex Fitzpatrick and Matt Wallace who made an unfortunate double bogey at the par-3 17th.
Thriston Lawrence made four bogeys and five bogeys for a 73 and currently lies in T37.
