I’ve done it twice before and it’s always been a huge thrill and Dubai has been a very good place for me throughout my career.
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“To be there [so high up the Race to Dubai] after the first year of the European Tour is something I never expected, so I’m exceeding my expectations and just looking to keep climbing up”.
The 26-year-old Northern Irishman returns to the European Tour this week at the Turkish Airlines Open, and will play the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai and the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai after this. I thought I hit a beauty, but the wind caught the ball and it came up short and caught the water. I’ve dropped down the world rankings, so I want to earn as many points as I can to solidify my spot in the top 50 in the world. “It’s sort of been two steps forward and one step back a little bit since I’ve come back from injury”.
“Lying on the couch for a year, you don’t quite know what to expect”. “That was an important one to hole as it wouldn’t have been nice to have my first bogey in 36 holes at the last”, said McIlroy. I was giving myself a few chances.
“I gave myself plenty of chances yesterday but just holed nothing”, Fitzpatrick told Sky Sports 4.
“I looked at the leaderboard on the fourth hole and I was 10 shots back, so to go from 10 shots back to four shots back is not that bad”. That would make me feel better about the end of the year, from when I injured my ankle at the start of July.
“So I’ve got three opportunities coming up to try and get a win or two on the board and end this year on a positive, to at least go into next year with a bit of momentum”. I felt really comfortable out there and played nicely.
“I consciously didn’t think about it and took things a hole at a time”.
It was the Gourmet Golf Challenge that switched out Nike hats with chef hats for the two golfers. But, sitting joint 62nd on one over – three better than Marc Warren as he improved by ten shots with a 69 that was more like the Scottish No 1 – the Aberdonian declared of the low scoring by the likes of leader Van Zyl: “I feel as though I am getting lapped”.
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Former world No1 Lee Westwood could only add a 71 to his opening 64 to finish nine-under par alongside his Ryder Cup team-mate Graeme McDowell, who shot a flawless 65 in pursuit of only his second top-10 finish of the season.
