DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Rory McIlroy recovered from a quadruple bogey to shoot a 1-under 70 on Friday and maintain the lead midway through the Dubai Invitational.
The second-ranked Northern Irishman holed a nearly 30-foot putt for birdie on the par-3 16th and moved two strokes to 10-under 132 overall at Dubai Creek Resort. Advantage ends the second round.
Jeff Winther (66) bogeyed the 18th hole to tie for second on the European Tour with Yannik Paul (70).
McIlroy surprised himself with a first-round 62 and had back-to-back birdies on the third and fourth holes on Friday.
Then comes the par-3 eighth hole.
McIlroy dropped his tee shot into the water, hitting almost the same spot on the landing zone. He hit his fifth shot on the green, but needed two putts.
He then birdied the 10th, 13th and 16th holes.
“Yeah, I think if I look at the other 17 holes I played, I played really, really well again. Hit some good iron shots,” McIlroy said.
“The way I played wasn’t too different from the way I played yesterday. I probably made a few more putts yesterday. But things got a little trickier. The wind picked up. The greens were solid and there were some mistakes on the eighth hole. .”
Jordan Smith (67), Xander Lombard (68), Tommy Fleetwood (69), Torbjorn Olsen (69) and Triston Lawrence (70) were all behind Three strokes ahead.
McIlroy sees the Dubai Invitational as a modest way to ease into 2024. The Dubai Invitational is a casual, no-elimination tournament for 60 players. He used to live in Dubai, where he often traveled at the beginning of the year to fine-tune his game.
