Rory McIlroy accepts 'it's tricky' as he targets Race to Dubai glory around Earth Course 'bit of a challenge'
Record-chasing Rory McIlroy is hoping that Tyrrell Hatton “gets out of the right side of bed” before the Ryder Cup team-mates go head-to-head in the third round of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
At the halfway stage in the DP World Tour’s $10 million season finale at Jumeirah Golf Estates, three-time winner McIlroy and two-time runner-up Hatton are locked together at the top of the leaderboard on five under.
After covering the first 11 holes in four under in the second circuit on the Greg Norman-designed Earth Course, McIlroy had moved into the outright lead after starting the day two off the pace following his opening 69.
Bidding to clinch an eighth Race to Dubai title and match Colin Montgomerie’s record, the Northern Irishman then faltered a bit as he dropped three shots in six holes.
On the back of adding a 69 to his first-day 70, Hatton suddenly found himself out in front on his own before McIlroy finished with a birdie for a 70 to join the Englishman at the top of the leaderboard.
“Yeah, it's great,” said McIlroy of the duo being out in the final group in Saturday’s third circuit. “Tyrrell's playing well. He obviously had a great week last week in Abu Dhabi (finishing second behind Jon Rahm in the first of two season-ending Play-Offs in the UAE).
“He's always up there at this time of the year and in these tournaments. So, yeah, I've always enjoyed playing with Tyrrell.
"As long as he gets out of the right side of bed, then we're good (smiling).”
McIlroy, who has jumped above Spaniard Eugenio Chacarra in the projected Race to Dubai rankings, is playing in this event for the 17th time and reckons it is proving the toughest test of the lot.
“I've always associated this place with 65s and 66s - and this week, that’s not the case,” declared the world No 2, with Joost Luiten’s 67 being the best score on the first day and a 68 from Jayden Schaper being the pick of the day-two efforts.
McIlroy was flying after picking up birdies at the third, seventh, eighth and 10th before he found horrible lies at both the side of the green at the 11th and in the left rough at the 12th, where the first of those bogeys came.
“Yeah, it's tricky,” he admitted. “That one on 11, you can't really chip it because you don't really know how it's going to come out. And then you can't putt it because it's lying down in the rough too much.
“Even where I left my ball on 17 (where another bogey went on the card after missing the island green on the left but staying dry), it was on the fairway, but there was this tuft of grass just behind the ball. And I just felt like I wouldn't be able to get a strike with a wedge.
"That's why I tried to putt it. The course isn't in the best shape.
"It's definitely been better in previous years. And that's obviously providing a bit of a challenge, especially around the greens.”