Northern Ireland’s McIlroy started the stronger, picking up four birdies on the opening six holes in his first tournament since winning November’s DP World Tour Championship, but Spieth’s two late birdies kept the U.S. Masters champion in touch with the leaders.
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“It was very impressive and minus one or two short putts, which is mainly just rust, it felt like he was on his A-game”. However, under a new policy which starts this week, players on watch have 40 seconds (bumped to 50 seconds if they’re first to play) to play a shot.
The two are all but set to face off at this week’s Abu Dhabi Golf Championship as organizers could draw the two together for the first two rounds in a bid to maximize the tournament’s publicity.
“I think it needs to be more about where you are in relation to the games in front and behind”.
He finished his first nine in 34 shots after picking up another birdie at the par five 18th but gave it straight back with the only blemish of his round at the 405-yard first hole.
McIlroy said he was just happy with the way he played, especially his driving.
“It’s been great. It was a nice break over Christmas and new year”, said the 26-year-old McIlroy.
“So it would be foolish of me to think that that’s all that my competition was, because I think it would be an injustice to every other player that’s in the field”.
Asked if there was anything different in his thought process now that he is already a major champion, Spieth said, “I want my name to go down in history for as many things as it can”.
“This is the way I’ve been hitting it in practice. I know if I do that, hopefully there s a lot of wins to come”.
Rory McIlroy revealed he survived a Jordan Spieth onslaught even before the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship began, and was hoping for a similar result on Sunday evening after 72 holes of showdown with the hottest player in golf.
The 12-time European Tour winner’s morning consisted of eight birdies but also a five-hole stretch where two bogeys were carded.
“I got a bad time on my putt on the eighth when they took us off the clock on that green and the guys behind us hadn’t even reached the fairway on a par-5”, said a perplexed Spieth. “You’ve got people out there like Einstein, George Washington – they just stood out and capitalized on their differences and showed the world a little different side”.
Unheralded American amateur Bryson Dechambeau shot an 8-under 64 to take the first-round lead.
“It was pretty good. I need to play the par 5s better”, said the American who received a “monitoring penalty” on the eighth hole for slow play.
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“I’m an intern, as an amateur playing professional events”, he said. “I m getting used to and getting more comfortable each event”. In the quest to ideal a repeatable single plane motion, the 22-year-old has cut all of his irons to the same length, equivalent to that of a standard seven iron.
