Today's
Headlines:
- World Number One in danger of missing cut in Abu Dhabi; inconsistent round from Rory
- McIlroy concedes time needed to adjust to new equipment but happy with iron and wedge play
- Wild Woods somehow shoots a level par round of 72; Kaymer claims victory in the big three-ball of the day
- Donaldson and Rose share the lead with 67's
It is 3.30am GMT, it is pitch black outside and the lights are out in here. I am sat in bed with my laptop ready to watch golf online, madness? Not to me. Wherever, whenever and whatever, I am watching. Golf is like a drug to me, just like it is to a Football fan, which I am but nothing compares to golf for me. And on this freezing January morning I am up to watch what promises to be a special first day's play in the 2013 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship with Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and Martin Kaymer taking the attention on the opening morning of the European Tour's Middle East Swing. There was a small but knowledgeable gallery on hand to see the star group start their rounds at 7.40am local time, but the crowd was expected to swell as the morning went on.
The first hole of any round is important, it can set the tone for the round. All three of the leading stars made par at the par five tenth to open their seasons in quiet but steady fashion. Players of all levels are nervous starting out and perhaps even more so when using new clubs in competition for the very first time, and that did show with McIlroy missing the fairway on his first two holes. Despite finding the fairway bunker at the eleventh hole McIlroy made par and was matched by Woods, but Martin Kaymer edged ahead with a nice birdie to move to 1-under after two holes. For Woods and McIlroy it was a quiet start with them really just finding their pace on the greens and their confidence with the longer shots. There is plenty of sand around the National Course at Abu Dhabi Golf Club and Rory McIlroy had found most of it over his first few holes, pushing his tee shot at the short twelfth into the greenside bunker.
Early
in the day the course was playing difficult with the lead at 1-under
and only three of the first 23 players on the course starting under
par for the first few holes. OK this is the middle east but it could
quite easily be Palm Springs or Florida, the greens are fast and
smooth and the fairways are narrow and flanked by thick, juicy rough.
Despite a three-win season and a full year working with a new swing
Tiger Woods still doesn't look confident in what he is doing and to
be honest his swing looks ugly. Following pars at the twelfth for all
three Woods missed the fairway terribly at the short par four
thirteenth, in contrast to McIlroy who split the fairway with a
stunning drive. Woods was left with no option but to tap his second
shot into the sandy waste area after his drive came up against a
nasty looking bush, and this led to a bogey for Tiger. Following his
super tee shot Rory found a 20 foot putt to record his first birdie
to move into a share of the early lead.
McIlroy's
early progress was illustrated with misses to the right on several
occasions, but this is not something that can be purely attributed to
an equipment change as his miss does tend to be to the right. His
worst miss to the right came at the par three fifteenth hole, costing
the Ulsterman a double-bogey on a hole which Martin Kaymer birdied
following a stunning tee shot to less than a foot and Woods matched
the German with a fabulous 25-footer. Kaymer then made his third
birdie of the round to move to 2-under on the par four sixteenth,
stealing the limelight from Woods (PAR) and McIlroy (+1) through the
first seven holes.
Throughout
the front nine it was clear that the relationship between Woods and
McIlroy is genuine, chatting when walking down the fairway and it
just totally different to the rivalry and relationship Tiger Woods
and Phil Mickelson have “enjoyed” in the last 17 years. Two
birdies in three holes (6 and 8) moved Tiger under par and two
strokes clear of the world number one. The birdie blast clearly gave
the 14-time Major champion confidence as he unleashed his drive down
the fairway at the par five eighteenth hole, out-driving his younger
counterparts by a considerable distance.
And it was noticeable that
with the new VR_S Covert driver McIlroy was shorter than Tiger
throughout the front nine holes. McIlroy played first on the 18th
from the fairway and produced a terrible low hook into trouble, the
PGA Champion was almost incredulous at hitting such a poor shot and I
am sure there will be critics already sharpening their pencils to
write about the equipment change, but that was just a very bad swing.
In contrast Woods played a fine 3-wood from the fairway into the
heart of the green to set up a two-putt birdie to complete nine holes
in 34 strokes.
Hands
on hips, stood behind the hospitality pavilion McIlroy cut a
frustrated figure as the front nine just didn't go as he had hoped or
anyone had anticipated. Following a drop the world number one played
a fine recovery shot to rescue a par five and complete nine holes in
a 1-over-par 37, three behind Woods and Kaymer. The
back nine began in quite astonishing fashion for Woods and Kaymer
following their fine front nines. Tiger hit an horrendous snap hook
with his driver, catching the ground before contact with the ball and
it barely made it past the ladies tee some 50 yards ahead of the
championship tee. The German followed his American counterpart with
an equally awful shot 30 yards offline onto the rocks and into the
water down the right, costing him a bogey, and Woods matched Kaymer
with a bogey five. In contrast McIlroy played two lovely shots to set
up a par which he probably felt should have been a birdie.
Having
missed an opportunity to make birdie at the first hole McIlroy
birdied the par five second to move back to level par and match Woods
who made a second successive bogey. But disaster struck at the third
as a wild hook hit a tree and went out of bounds, resulting in a
second double-bogey of the day and falling six behind the early
leader Pablo Larrazabal (-4). It really wasn't very pretty at all
from the world's top two players. Again on the sixth hole both Kaymer
and Woods produced quite shocking tee shots to the right and left of
the hole respectively, to find either ball was a miracle in itself,
and to be honest the display given by all three of the leading
protagonists this morning was nowhere near the standard expected of
Major champions and world number one's.
Despite
a truly horrific display of driving Tiger somehow remained at level
par until he birdied the eighth hole to somehow go to his final hole
of the day at 1-under-par. For McIlroy nothing seemed to go right and
following a poor drive on the par five eighth he then found the
fairway bunker with his second shot, leading to another bogey and he
went to the last hole at 3-over-par and a massive 8 shots behind the
leading score at the time and in more than a little danger of missing
the cut in Abu Dhabi. Both
Woods and McIlroy found the fairway at the last but Kaymer continued
the exhibition of how not to drive the ball by finding the water and
astonishingly for these three players they only hit a
total of 13 fairways between them.
Woods
completed a pretty awful performance with a bogey at the ninth,
somehow he posted level par but his driving was as bad as it has ever
been, Kaymer also made a bogey but came out on top of the world's top
two at 1-under and some 4 shots clear of McIlroy who missed another
chance of birdie at the last hole. Former
HSBC Champions winner David Howell shot a round of 69, encouraging
signs of a return to form following a 2012 season when he narrowly
missed out on a place in the season-ending DP World Tour
Championship. Another former HSBC winner Michael Campbell ended the
2012 season on a high with a top 20 finish in Hong Kong and the 2005
HSBC World Match Play Champion began his season with a morning 69.
2012 Irish Open Jamie Donaldson took the lead after the morning
session with a fine five-under-par round of 67 which featured six
birdies and one bogey. Donaldson is looking to follow Robert Rock by
making the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship his second European Tour
title.
The
afternoon was predicted to be at least a shot harder because of the
traditional wind increasing in strength from around 11.30am, but that
certainly didn't stop the third highest ranked player in the field
from making a charge at Donaldson's lead. The world number five
Justin Rose began with a bogey at the par four first hole but bounced
back with six birdies in the next nine holes, before finishing with
eight straight pars to tie Jamie Donaldson as the first round leader.
But
inevitably all of the talk centred around Rory McIlroy and those Nike
clubs.
The
world number one said that he felt he hit his irons well but wasn't
feeling confident off the tee, McIlroy sighted being a bit rusty
after the off-season and said that it was the case of adjusting to
the new equipment and the fact he didn't swing as well as he had
hoped. The media though have already begun to discuss the new
equipment and unless he comes back with a decent round tomorrow the
debate will intensify. So
Friday is a huge day for Rory McIlroy, he first needs to ensure he
makes the cut and then he needs to produce a performance that will
convince the media, the fans and most importantly himself that he is
on the right track with the new equipment. But I think it is fair to
say that one or two rounds, or even one or two tournaments will not
provide a conclusive answer.
The
wider tournament promises much for the days ahead with five shots
covering the top 51 players going into the second day in the desert.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.