Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, world number two, has taken the lead in the Dubai Invitational, a DP World Tour tournament, two strokes ahead of Germany's Yannik Paul and Denmark's Jeff Winther. McIlroy overcame a quadruple bogey on the 7th hole at the Dubai Creek Resort and with five birdies managed to finish under par (70) and finish in the lead with a total of 132 shots, which, however, gave to ruin the spectacular first round he completed (62).
Rory McIlory, results
"I think if I look at the other 17 holes that I played, I played very, very well again. I played not much different than I played yesterday. I maybe holed a couple more putts yesterday, but the conditions were getting a little more complicated.
The wind was strong, the greens were firm and I made a couple of mistakes," he said. Paul also scored a 70 and Winther closed Friday with a 66 to fight for victory and be ahead of a group made up of his compatriot Thorbjorn Olesen, the English Tommy Fleetwood and Jordan Smith and the South Africans Thriston Lawrence and Zander Lombard, all with -7.
Adrián Otaegui is the best classified in the Spanish army, although he lost positions with another 70, after making three birdies and committing two bogeys, which leaves him tied for tenth place with 137 strokes. Jorge Campillo is twentieth when repeating a card with 70 hits, Pablo Larrazábal thirty-third with 142, Nacho Elvira thirty-eighth with 144 and Adri Arnaus forty-sixth with 145.
Rory McIlroy, born May 4, 1989 in Holywood (Northern Ireland), is a Northern Irish professional golfer. Young, he quickly stood out for his talents in golf, first as an amateur where he won the Junior Ryder Cup in 2004, played in the Walker Cup in 2007, represented Ireland at the Eisenhower Trophy in 2006 and won five tournaments including the European Amateur Championship in 2006 (as well as the European Amateur Team Championship in 2007), he turned professional in September 2007 at the age of 18.
He won his first victory on the European PGA Tour at the Dubai Desert Classic in February 2009 then his first victory on the American circuit the following year at the Quail Hollow Championship. After two third places in major tournaments, in 2009 at the PGA Championship and in 2010 at the Masters, he won his first grand slam title during the 2011 edition of the American Open.