Tyrrell Hatton carded a 7-under-par 65 on Friday to join Jon Rahm and Francesco Laporta atop the leaderboard at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship in the United Arab Emirates.
The trio holds a one-shot lead over a four-golfer group that includes Rory McIlroy. The Northern Irishman bounced back from the two-shot penalty he was assessed in the first round to record 11 birdies during his 9-under 63 at Yas Links GC.
“The course is very gettable today, there’s not a lot of wind. A lot of opportunities,” McIlroy said after his round. “I would say I’ll be at least two or three behind going into tomorrow. But it’s still in a much better position than I thought I would be.”
The Abu Dhabi tournament begins the DP World Tour’s two-event playoffs, with McIlroy seeking a record-tying eighth Race to Dubai title. He is third in the standings behind Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra and American Patrick Reed.
McIlroy, the world’s No. 2 golfer, overcame a bogey on his first hole before going on a birdie binge which included five in a row, starting on the ninth hole.
He said he did his best to move past his first-round penalty.
“Before I left the course, I made peace with it. I didn’t dwell on it,” McIlroy said Friday. “I’d much rather be two shots worse off than be called a cheat. At least I went out today and it wasn’t playing on my mind. I had a clear conscience, and I could just go and play.”
England’s Hatton played well in his own right, following up his 67 on Thursday with eight birdies against one bogey (on the par-4 16th) on Friday.
“Yeah, really happy how I’ve played,” he said. “Obviously, there’s been a couple of mistakes. But overall, compared to where I’ve been at over the last month and a half, it’s nice to put a couple of decent scores together again.”
Rahm shot a 67 on Friday. The Spaniard is playing in his first competitive tournament in seven weeks and his first-ever event at Yas Links.
“Pretty good play. Only thing to take back would be just a couple of bad tee shots right now, feeling fairly comfortable otherwise,” Rahm said. “Just there’s been a couple of swings off the tee that were unexpected. But hopefully I can fix that, but otherwise the play has been lovely.”
Italy’s Laporta (70) struggled a bit but remains one stroke ahead of Poland’s Adrian Meronk (67), Englishmen Matthew Jordan (67) and Sam Bairstow (68) and McIlroy.