Livescore
If Rory McIlroy’s is to emulate the history of the likes of Ernie Els and Sir Nick Faldo, he will have to repeat his own history here at the Desert Classic.
At the halfway stage of this event last year, McIlroy was 10 shots off the pace and prevailed; this time he is “only” nine back. If the world No 3 can produce a similarly stunning weekend charge then he would become the first player to win the same regular DP World Tour event three times in succession since Els at the Heineken Classic.
Before the Big Easy, Colin Montgomerie did the “threepeat” – as the Americans like to call it – at the BMW PGA Championship, while in 1993 Faldo achieved the feat at the Irish Open.
Ian Woosnam is the only other hat-trick hero – the Welshman going on his roll at the Monte Carlo Open – which makes it quite the select list to join. Of course, McIlroy is more than worthy of the company and on a Majlis layout where he has won four times before, he knows that is well capable. If he can putt, that is.
“I’d say the winning score isn’t going to be much above what the leader is right now, especially the way the course is going to play over the weekend,” he said, after a second-round 71 that took him three-under. “The greens will continue to get a little bit firmer, and will put such a premium on putting it in the fairway and hitting a lot of greens. If I can focus on that over the weekend, get a couple of putts to drop, I think I’ve still got a decent chance.”
With Jon Rahm missing the cut – the Spaniard fired a 77 featuring two double-bogeys – and the woefully out-of-sorts Viktor Hovland also making a premature exit, McIlroy will delight the sponsors if he can, at the very least, put his big name on the leaderboard. But there are 32 players ahead of the 35-year-old and with Tyrrell Hatton in a tie for third on eight-under after a 65, there is a lot of quality for McIlroy to circumnavigate.
And the pacesetter is no mug. Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson has won three times in the last three years and it is fair to say that the confident 28-year-old is no stranger to the Emirates Golf Club.
Ferguson lives in Dubai – in fact, his flat looks over the course – and the crowd greeted his fortuitous strike to the par-five 18th with a huge roar. The world No 141’s second shot was far too long, but it hit the grandstand and rebounded to within five feet of the pin to set up the unlikeliest of eagles for a 65 and a 12-under total. Local knowledge, indeed.
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