Rory McIlroy lured into drive contest with Tiger Woods in the opening round at Abu Dhabi Championship
Followed vehemently all throughout the day, the Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald pairing attracted hordes of crowd in the opening round of the latest Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
The young Irishman surged to the top of the leaderboard at the end of the day, sharing the lead with Swede Robert Karlsson at five-under, 67.
Playing alongside Woods, McIlroy’s childhood hero, was an overwhelming experience for the young gun who admitted later that he was lured into long driving contests on a few occasions.
McIlroy said, “It did cross my mind a couples of time. He took it way left on the (dogleg left) 16th. I was like, I’m not sure if I can take it down that line. When you see a guy out in front of you hitting it out there, you want to try and keep up with him”.
It turned out that experience triumphed over flare when McIlroy leaned more to the right, falling a few yards behind that of Woods.
The duo is attracting most of the spectators who visited the course on the opening day. This the first time Woods is playing in Abu Dhabi and has done it against a mammoth appearance fee estimated to be somewhere around $2 to $3-million.
The former world number one finished for a sloppy round of two-under, 70, although he successfully managed to avoid any bogeys through the 18-hole stretch.
He was still one shot better than the current world number one Luke Donald.
Woods lauded McIlroy’s strong performance on the first day and said that although the Ulsterman did not drive well but his short game was commendable.
Woods said, “He didn’t drive it very good today, but he hit a lot of quality irons when he was in position to do it and his short game is great”.
Woods further added, “The putts that he made, they didn’t lip in, they poured in”.
The second round is warming up at the sunny Middle Eastern turf as some of the top-ranked players in the world are battling to grab halfway lead.
Sponsors are expecting record spectator turn out and the event is also broadcasted live to more than a dozen TV channels across the world.
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