DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Rory McIlroy was already an overwhelming favorite to win the European tour’s season-long Race to Dubai title.
He made his chances even better on Thursday.
McIlroy shot 5-under 67 and was tied for the lead with Tyrrell Hatton after the first round of the season-ending World Tour Championship.
A top-10 finish will guarantee McIlroy wins the year-long points race — formerly known as the Order of Merit — for the sixth time, tying with the late Seve Ballesteros and moving two behind Colin Montgomerie’s record haul.
Thriston Lawrence, the South African who is second in the Race to Dubai standings behind McIlroy, is the only player who can catch the Northern Irishman and opened with a 73, leaving him six strokes behind his rival already.
“I am under no illusions that that was probably Thriston’s worst day,” McIlroy said.
Lawrence has to win — nothing less is good enough — and then needs McIlroy to finish tied for 11th or lower.
Paul Waring, the winner in Abu Dhabi last week in the first event of the end-of-season playoffs, was alone in third place after a 68 and American golfer Billy Horschel was in a seven-way tie for fourth place, one stroke further back.
The No. 3-ranked McIlroy made six birdies, the highlight coming on the par-3 17th when he rolled in a 50-footer to join Hatton in the lead.
The par-5 last hole offered a good chance for McIlroy to take the outright lead, especially after he split the fairway with his drive. He leaked his approach right, failed to find the green with his third shot and narrowly missed his birdie attempt.
McIlroy was playing alongside Lawrence in the final group and said he was thinking of more than what the South African was doing.
“I want to go on from here and win the golf tournament,” McIlroy said. “I have opened with a really good score but I need to go out and play similarly over these next three days.”
Hatton, who plays on the LIV Golf circuit, finished two shots back in second place last week after a closing 64 and carried that form to Dubai, even though he didn't feel too comfortable around the Earth Course.
“To be honest, I feel like the score was better than it felt,” the No. 18-ranked Hatton said. “I felt I was tinkering over most tee shots and at times, I felt like my misses were bigger than perhaps they have been over the last month or so.”
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