McIlroy avoids Reed in draw and admits game needs work
Thomas Pieters of Belgium tees off on the 8th hole during the Hero Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club. Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy narrowly avoided being drawn with Patrick Reed and headed straight for the range to iron out the kinks in his long game after a second-round 70 left him two shots off the pace in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
The Holywood star is tied for seventh with Reed on eight-under-par but he avoided an on-course clash with the man who labelled him "an immature little child" for blanking him on the range earlier this week.
LIV Golf's Richard Bland and Belgian Thomas Pieters 67s for the second day running to share the lead on 10-under-par with American world amateur number two Michael Thorbjornsen (21), who carded a brilliant 64.
The leaders are a shot ahead of Spain's Adri Arnaus, Sweden's Marcus Kinhult and Scotland's Connor Syme with McIlroy and Reed in a seven-man group alongside Ian Poulter, Bernd Wiesberger, Matt Wallace, Angel Hidalgo, Lucas Herbert and rookie Dan Bradbury, who shot a sensational 63.
McIlroy felt he was lucky to shoot 66 in round one and his rustiness showed in round two as he hit just two fairways.
"More of the same, really," said the world number one, who birdied the par-five second and strung together eight pars before being forced to take a drop after pulling his tee shot into a bush at the 10th, leading to a bogey six.
"I think I only hit two fairways today. So once you -- when you can't hit fairways around here, and the rough is quite thick, it's very hard to have any control of your ball and get it close into par 4s. Yeah, just a little rusty. Yeah, need to go do a little work."
He got back into the thick of the action with an eagle three from 33 feet at the 13th but lipped out for a birdie at the 15th and had to make an 11-footer for par at the 16th before missing a brace of 15-footers for birdies on the last two greens.
"I chipped and putted it well, and I sort of, you know, got myself around the golf course okay," added McIlroy, who will go out with Wiesberger and Bradbury in tomorrow's third round as Reed plays in the group ahead with Wallace and Julien Brun.
"Being able to post a couple of decent scores and at least have a chance going into the last two days. But definitely more negatives than positives and need to go and figure it out on the range."
The tournament is set for a Monday finish after eight hours of play were lost due to heavy rain on Thursday and Friday and McIlroy has no complaints.
"I'm glad that they went to a Monday," said the Co Down man, who could lose his world number one ranking to Jon Rahm should the Spaniard win the Farmers Insurance Open tonight and his third successive event.
"It's good that all the field get an opportunity to play 72 holes. I think it's a good thing. It's such a big event. I think now the discrepancy between these big events on tour and then the lesser ones, that fourth day could mean a lot to someone in terms of changing the course of their year or the course of their career.
"Obviously happy we are playing 72, and it's not as if people have to go that far. Most of the guys are going to Ras Al-Khaimah, a few guys are going to Saudi, so we're not having to go anywhere else.
"Everyone can sort of still get to their destinations on Monday night. Thankfully for me, there's two more rounds."
McIlroy was still looking at the positives, especially his short game and clutch putting.
"I've scrambled well this week," he said. "I really needed to scramble well on Thursday and then again today in some spots.
"So I think it's nice when you're not feeling on your game you have a short game to sort of bail you out, and I think that's the reason why I'm still not too far away from the lead.
Shane Lowry went from the fringes of contention to missing the cut when he ran up a quadruple bogey seven at the par-three seventh, his 16th.
Despite not putting his best, the Clara man mixed birdies at the 10th, 14th and 17th with a lone bogey at the 12th to get to four-under.
But three putts from 75 feet at the fifth left him near the cut line before disaster struck at the water-protected 186-yard par three.
He came up short and finished on the edge of the penalty area but failed to make the green with his first three pitches, then flew across the putting surface with his fifth shot and did well to make an eight-footer for a morale-crushing seven.
After two closing pars, he signed for a three-over 75 that left him three shots outside the cut line on one-over, costing him precious Ryder Cup qualifying points.
Tom McKibbin shot a 71 to finish alongside Lowry, while Pádraig Harrington produced a sensational comeback from his opening 81, improving by 16 strokes as he made eight birdies in a seven-under 65 to finish on two-over.
Thorbjornsen, who finished fourth in PGA Tour's Travelers Championship last year, was thrilled to be tied for the lead.
"It feels good," he said. "Didn't have the best round yesterday and then date before, felt like I missed a lot of putts out there. Thought I had a pretty good game plan but just stuck to it today. I actually made some putts."
Pieters produced fireworks late in his second round as he shot seven birdies on the back nine to share the lead at the halfway stage of the 2023 Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
The Belgian suffered the disappointment of missing the cut at last week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship as his title defence fell flat, but the 31-year-old has responded brilliantly at Emirates Golf Club signing for a 67 on Saturday.
The six-time DP World Tour winner led after the weather-affected first day before finishing his second round with a flourish on day three to sit alongside amateur Michael Thorbjornsen and Richard Bland on ten under par.
Pieters had started the day on five under but carded three bogeys and just one birdie on the front nine to appear in danger of missing the cut for the second week in succession. He turned things around on the back nine in the afternoon, as birdies at the tenth, 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 18th earned him a share of the lead.
Englishman Bland, who had made three birdies in the first four holes of his second round before play was suspended due to fading light on Friday, carded three more birdies and a solitary bogey in his remaining 14 holes on Saturday morning to sign for a second straight 67.
Swede Marcus Kinhult, Scotland's Connor Syme and Spaniard Adri Arnaus sat one shot off the lead on nine under, with World Number One Rory McIlroy among those another stroke back.
Round three will tee off at 07:10 local time on Sunday, with round four scheduled for Monday.
Player quotes
Thomas Pieters: “Yeah, the front nine I was a bit scruffy. I made two bogeys with a wedge coming off nine. I was not in a good head space, and then I shoot 31 on the back, I don't know how, but my putting seemed to work, and you know, I've still got some work to do on the range because my driving is pretty poor.
“Like I said the putting has kind of bailed me out. I can definitely see them rolling in from 15 feet which is a nice feeling, but I've got to get a bit more stress free off the tee.
“There's no stress levels. I was just really angry after nine. It wasn't really stress. I was just trying to get back into my round. But it's nice to see your name up at the top.”
Michael Thorbjornsen (AM): “It feels good. Didn't have the best round yesterday and then day before, felt like I missed a lot of putts out there. Thought I had a pretty good game plan but just stuck to it today. I actually made some putts.
“I enjoy playing professional golf a lot and I'm still an amateur but just the golf courses that we play, the crowd out there, it's what I'm dreaming of ever since I was five or six years old. It just feels good to be out there.
“I mean, always you want to beat your fellow ams. But I definitely feel like Ludvig (Aberg) and I push each other. In college we played a lot of golf recently together the past year, and I'm happy to see he's doing well and I hope he's happy to see I'm doing well and we're pushing each other.”
Richard Bland: “Yeah, a lot easier. The ball wasn't going too far this morning. So that was kind of one of the sort of things you just had to kind of be wary of as it warmed up, ball was travelling a little further, so yeah, I got caught out a couple of times early. Hit like what I thought was a good shot and came up, it was 20 yards' difference what it should do.
“Just not doing an awful lot wrong. Every part of my game is in pretty good shape. Yeah, the only dropped shot was at 6 this morning where I kind of second hole of the day and misjudged the temperature and chipped to three feet and missed. So other than that, it's been pretty stress-free which is kind of nice.”
