Rory McIlroy’s hard charge up the leaderboard at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship came to a screeching halt on Friday.
Seven under for the day as he stood on the tee of the par-3 17th, McIlroy hit what he thought was a crisp 5-iron that hit the downslope on the green and ran into the right greenside bunker. It appeared like a straightforward bunker shot, but McIlroy splashed out and was surprised at the lack of sand under the ball, his shot sailing past the flag and running through the green, over the back and into another bunker, this time with his ball settling near the back edge, on a downslope. He walked off with a triple-bogey 6.
Even with a bounce-back birdie on the last, McIlroy settled for another 67 and now finds himself nine shots off the lead at the halfway point in Abu Dhabi.
“I just have to go out tomorrow and try to get off to a fast start and get myself back into it,” he said.
Still, it’s been an encouraging performance for McIlroy, who is making his first start in a month and has been working hard on a few swing changes. Though he said he missed more shots to the right than in his opening round, and struggled at times in the left-to-right wind, McIlroy has seen progress through the first few days. It’s been difficult to balance, he said, trying to score well with making sure he sticks to his new swing keys that keep his clubface more closed on the takeaway.
“I think it’s been a good couple of days,” he said.
McIlroy will likely need a repeat of his Saturday performance earlier this year in Dubai, when he carded a 63 and rocketed up the leaderboard on his way to an eventual victory. With the soft conditions and low scoring this week, however, he knows it still may not be enough.
“It will be up to me,” he said.
