Joost Luiten shot a 5-under 67 in Thursday’s opening round in Dubai to take a one-shot lead at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
The 40-year-old Dutchman was the last man to earn a place in the 50-man field and said he attacked the course at Jumeirah Golf Estates’ Earth Course with go-for-broke approach, finishing with seven birdies and two bogeys.
“I said to my caddie, I said, ‘Bro, we can only go up this week, you know? We’re last man in, we’ve got nothing to lose, so let’s go for it,'” Luiten said following his round. “And it worked out so far.”
Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olesen is in solo second place after finishing a round of 68 with a birdie at his final hole. Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy headlines a group of five players at 3-under as he chases his record-tying eighth Race to Dubai title.
Luiten made the turn at 5-under 31 before posting back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 11 and 12. He bounced back with birdies at the 13th and 18th and navigated the windy conditions for his lowest round at the course since 2016.
“Like 12, 15, 16, 17, 18 are just tricky holes into the wind,” he said. “So, you know, you’ve got to hit some good shots there and keep it in the fairway. I made two little mistakes, and then all of a sudden you’ve got two bogeys. But that’s this golf course.”
McIlroy had five birdies and two bogeys in his round of 69. The World No. 2 is tied with France’s Victor Perez, Germany’s Freddy Schott and Italians Gregorio De Leo and Francesco Laporta.
“It was tricky,” McIlroy said. “Windier than it usually is. And then I think with the golf course setup this week, with the more punishing rough, especially off the tee, some of the crosswinds off tees, I felt like I did well to hit most of the fairways, but once you start missing fairways here, you really make it difficult for yourself.
“So, yeah, anything in the 60s today I felt was a good score. And sort of held it together nicely when I needed to. It was nice to finish with a birdie at the last, and obviously in a pretty good position going into the next few days.”
McIlroy needs to finish solo fourth or better to have a shot at overtaking Race to Dubai leader Eugenio Chacarra of Spain and matching Scotsman Colin Montgomerie’s record eight Order of Merit titles. Chacarra is tied for 23rd at even par.
This is the second tournament in the DP World Tour’s two-week playoffs. McIlroy finished third last week at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship, four shots behind winner Jon Rahm of Spain.