Rory McIlroy stuns with 62 to lead after his first round of 2024 at Dubai Invitational
After an eventful (and short) offseason, Rory McIlroy showed up Thursday in Dubai ready to do business. The four-time major champion shot a 62 at the Dubai Invitational to lead Yannik Paul by two, Thriston Lawrence by three and Tommy Fleetwood and Thorbjorn Olesen by four each.
McIlroy had nine birdies in his first official round of 2024 and went out in 32 on the back nine of the golf course. He shot 30 on the front nine to close out his 62 with six 3s and three 4s. Only one of his birdie putts on the front nine was outside of 8 feet.
After an eventful and short off season Rory mroy showed up Thursday in Dubai ready to do business the fortime major Champion shot a 62 at the Dubai Invitational to lead Yanik Paul by two thristan Lawrence by three and Tommy Fleetwood and thorbjorn allisen by four each mroy had nine birdies in his first
Official round of 20124 and went out in 32 on the back nine of the golf course he shot 30 on the front nine to close out his 62 with 63 seconds and 3 for seconds only one of his Birdie putts on the front nine was outside of 8 ft his
Game was incredible everywhere Thursday Rory gained nearly nine Strokes on the field overall but he had an especially great day with his irons where he did nearly half his damage golf as mroy often shows can be easy when you hit driver iron to 7 ft on half the holes
This round was an outlier only 31 players broke par only 19 broke 70 only three shot 65 or better and mroy shot 62 while only playing the par 5 seconds in one under for the round the 62 was not around he felt he had going into the
Week as the last time he played competitively was the week before Thanksgiving still it speaks to both his talent level and a golf course that apparently suits him quite well so far I didn’t expect that said the number to player in the world after his round it
Didn’t feel quite as good as that the first couple of days when I was here and hitting balls and playing the course but it was nice to get a card in the hand again and sort of feel the competitive juices flowing it was a really comfortable group yeah surprised myself
A little bit but hopefully more of the same over the next few days a win here would be the 17th European tour victory of mooy’s career and he is now a minus 175 favorite to win doing so would Mark the second year in a row he would open
The calendar year with a victory he will defend at the Dubai Desert Classic next week a few days ago he said this week was simply a ramp up for that defense next week this week is an easy warm-up for me he told Golf Digest I’m here as a
Favor to Abdullah al- nauda chairman of al- nauda group Investments and a non-executive director for the European tour group who is a great friend of mine I lived here for 4 years and I’ve played in what they call the dog fight here at the creek the rollup Skins game they
Have every Friday and Saturday I like Dubai I love coming back here and it represents a nice way for me to ease my way into a new season before I defend the Desert Classic next week I’m staying on site so oh I can roll out of my bed
Onto the range and the pudding green it’s an extra week of preparation although I obviously still want to play well mroy hasn’t had any trouble so far with that last part
