A deluge in the desert?
You might figure the last place you’d see monsoon-like rain would be in the desert but a major overnight and early morning storm wreaked havoc Thursday at the Dubai Desert Classic, leaving only 12 players who managed to finish the first 18 holes.
The deluge created a six-hour delay for first round starting times and the afternoon wave never got started. Now it becomes a game of catch-up.
When play resumed for the morning wave early Friday, Rory McIlroy shook off a slow start with a sensational finish over his final three holes — the seventh, eighth and ninth. The world’s No. 1 hit his tee shot on the par three seventh to three feet and made that. Then at the par four eighth, his tee shot found a fairway bunker and from 107 yards, Rory jarred his approach for an eagle-two. At nine he hit his second inside five feet and made that for a closing birdie and a six-under par 66.
Making his 2023 season debut, he called that finish a “bonus” after being stuck in neutral on Thursday.
“I struggled out there most of yesterday,” McIlroy said after his fast finish. “I thought I did well to be under par by the end of the day. I fought back after some very sloppy, rusty golf over the first sort of 14 holes. And then today I came out and I don’t really know if anything clicked, because I don’t think I hit enough shots to know, but it was definitely needed. I would have been happy with anything around 70 the way I played, and then to come in and shoot 66 is quite the bonus.”
As for the eagle at eight, his 17th hole of the round: “I wouldn’t say I’m the best fairway bunker player in the world. The desert is a little nicer, it’s a little more packed down, so you get some better lies. All I was thinking about was catching it clean. My tendency out of those lies is to hit it a little bit heavy. As soon as I struck it, I knew it came out really nicely and it was right down the pin. Anything inside of 20 feet I would have been happy with, so that was certainly a bonus.”
Later Friday morning, Swedish amateur Ludvig Aberg (No. 1 amateur in the world) finished off a brilliant effort and posted a seven-under par 65 to take the official first round lead.
South African Louis DeJager had it to eight-under with two holes to play in his round but took a double-bogey sixth at the par four eighth, his 17th hole of the day and he dropped back to six-under par.
Who will end up atop the leader-board is a question that will have to wait until the afternoon wave from Thursday gets to go out on Friday.
Basically the tournament is now a day behind schedule.
Dubai Desert Classic Scoreboard:
