Richard Bland of England plays his second shot on the first hole during the completion of his first round on Day Two the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the Majlis Course at The Emirates Golf Club on January 27, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

LIV Golf rebels Richard Bland and Ian Poulter clinched a share of the lead, but Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed are just two shots off the pace and set for a possible weekend showdown as the Hero Dubai Desert Classic heads for a Monday finish.

Poulter chipped in at the ninth to open with a seven-under 65 for a share of the first-round lead with Swedish amateur Ludvig Aberg, one better than a four-man group that included Reed and McIlroy, who produced a dramatic birdie-eagle-birdie finish when he returned to the course early today, holing out from 116 yards sandy wasteland for a two at the eighth.

Nobody managed more than seven holes of their second rounds as officials announced a Monday finish.
But McIlroy, who was labelled "an immature little child" by Reed after turning his back on the Texan in the Tee-Gate controversy on the range earlier this week, could not resist poking fun at the 54-hole LIV Golf format when the Monday finish was announced.

"We can go on until Tuesday next week if we have to," McIlroy told reporters. "I'm a fan of 72-hole golf, as you know."

Rory starts the day with a hole-out eagle 🤩 #HeroDDC | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/SyPuvjrOIT
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) January 27, 2023

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In the end, Bland (49) opened his second round with three birdies and was eight-under through four holes and tied for the lead with Poulter (47), who picked up a shot at the third before play was suspended for the day.

They were a shot clear of Spain's Angel Hidalgo with McIlroy and Reed tied for fourth alongside South Africa's Louis De Jager, setting up the possibility of a head-to-head this weekend.

McIlroy admitted he didn't play well, but he wasn't complaining.

"I'm usually the master of turning into a 66 into a 70, but that was the other way around," he told the Mail. "The score glosses over the golf that I played. There's no way I should be six under. I need to refine my long game, but this puts me in a great position."

Shane Lowry struggled on the greens, but he still managed to card an opening 70 before playing five holes of his second round in one-under.

The 2019 Open champion was tied 22nd on three-under, just five shots off the lead, but Tom McKibbin and Pádraig Harrington are in the bottom half of the field.

While McKibbin is tied for 106th, he's within striking distance of the projected one-under-par cut after opening with a 74 on Thursday.

But Harrington dropped another shot over the final six holes of his first round, following a birdie at the fifth on his return to the course with two closing bogey to sign for a nine-over 81.

The Dubliner (51) was propping up the field, ranked last for approach play and fourth last for putting.

It was a struggle at times for McIlroy on day one, but he was inspired on his return to the course for the last three holes of his weather-delayed opening round today when play finally resumed after another two-hour rain delay.

After knocking in a four-footer for a two at the seventh on his return to the course to get to three-under, he holed out from the desert wasteland from 116 yards for an eagle two at the eighth, then ripped a 160-yard approach from deep rough to just three feet at the ninth to set up a closing birdie.

He came home in 29 to take the early lead following a two-hour rain delay in the morning and was joined on six-under by Reed, who put Tee-Gate behind him and eagled the 18th.

"Honestly, not very good," said McIlroy, who was one-over after six holes but had just 20 putts (including none on the eighth) to turn a potential 70 into a 66.

"I struggled out there most of yesterday. I thought I did well to be under par by the end of the day. I fought back after some very sloppy rusty golf over the first sort of 14 holes. And then yeah, today I came out and I don't really know if anything clicked because I don't think I hit enough shots to know.

"But it was definitely needed. Like I would have been happy with anything around 70 the way I played, and then to come in and shoot 66 is quite the bonus."

As for his spectacular eagle two, which had him and caddie Harry Diamond beaming, he added: "Yeah, you know, I wouldn't say I'm the best fairway bunker player in the world. The desert is a little nicer, it's a little more packed down, so you get some better lies.

"All I was thinking about was catching it clean. My tendency out of those lies is to hit it a little bit heavy. As soon as I struck it, I knew it came out really nicely and it was right down the pin.

"Again, anything inside of 20 feet, I would have been happy with, so that was certainly a bonus."

McIlroy could win and still lose his world number one ranking to a red-hot Jon Rahm, who played his last four holes in five-under to card a second-round 67 on the North Course in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines to move up to within eight shots behind leader Sam Ryder at halfway.

"Yeah, I mean, I can't control what anyone else does," McIlroy said. "Rahmbo has got off to an unbelievable -- it is an unbelievable start of the year but building off what he did at the back end of last year as well.

"I'm not really paying attention to the World Rankings or anything. I'm just trying to get off to a good start to my year, trying to work on some things in my game and concentrate opponent myself.

"I still have some work to do as I said. I didn't play well at all yesterday, so a little bit of rest and some practice over the next 24 hours before I go out and play again tomorrow."

Reed had just two holes of the first round to complete and followed a par at the 17th with an eagle three from 15 feet at the 18th for his 66.

"I'm obviously really happy with the way I played," said Reed, who was ignored by McIlroy on the range earlier in the week and then flicked a tee in his direction, leading to an exchange of barbs that ended with the Texan branding McIlroy "an immature little child".

"I felt like last week wasn't really a reflection of all the hard work I've been doing in the off-season," Reed said of his missed cut in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. "It was more getting rusty on playing tournament golf.

"So to come out this week and feel like I was able to put everything together and to have my mind right on game planning and course management was definitely a plus.

"I've never seen this place before, and coming in and seeing it for the first time and knowing and kind of realising that it's more of a positional golf course rather than just hit it wherever, and I feel like I had full control of the golf ball and made a couple putts.”

Officials confirmed round two will be completed on Saturday with round three scheduled for Sunday and the final round for Monday.