Abu Dhabi: Ryder Cup star Thomas Pieters, taking full advantage of less windy conditions, fired a superb 65 for a one-shot lead on day two of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Friday.
The Belgian, one of the members of the victorious EurAsia Cup team, showed his class as he holed out from a bunker in his final hole and carded seven birdies to surge to 12-under par.
Spain’s Jorge Campillo, who is yet to win a European Tour title in his 194th event, was a shot behind.
Overnight joint leader and defending champion Tommy Fleetwood, celebrating his 27th birthday, was two shots behind tied with Pieters’ playing partner Ross Fisher of England and Frenchman Alex Levy.
With the crowds out in force and rooting for four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy and World No 1 Dustin Johnson, the duo were also on the charge.
McIlroy made giant strides and finished the day tied at nine-under after a final hole eagle left the fans ecstatic.
Johnson, who had a fairly quiet even-par round one, was also on the march on Friday, carding eight birdies — four each on either side of the turn to finish 8-under par.
Pieters, 25, who finished second in this event in 2016 and fourth in 2015, starting from the back nine made three birdies and then two back-to-back at the beginning of the front nine before finishing with another two at the end.
“The conditions were perfect, no wind. It’s nice out there. So you need to take advantage of the conditions,” said the Ryder Cup star.
“I’ve done well here in the past and it suits me. We hit driver wherever we can and the rest of it, you know, it’s good ball-striking and going at a couple flags with wedges when you have them that you need to do that.
“It was nice to hole one on the last after two terrible shots. But the rest of it was decent today. Ball-striking was good,” Pieters said, adding that he managed to hit the middle of the greens most times.
“If I had a wedge, I went at the flag and I think I got up and down or made birdie with a wedge in my hand three or four times. It wasn’t really that fancy today but a very good round.”
Campillo speaking about his day’s showing said, “It was perfect. No wind. The greens are perfect, and every time I look up, everyone is making a putt. The rough is a little lower than normal. I mean, it’s perfect to shoot low. You still have to do it but it’s a great day to play golf.”
Fisher was of the view that his outing was pretty much the same as round one and if he had to put a finger on where he improved, it was his tee shots.
“I felt like I drove it better today,” he said. “I always put it in the right spots. Yeah, just felt pretty solid out there. Didn’t really miss many shots. You know, a little bit of a sloppy bogey playing the sixth there, just tried to be a bit too fancy with the second shot and unfortunately I had a stone underneath the bunker so I couldn’t really hit it close.”
Levy too was delighted with his showing saying, “I think I played solid and I holed some putts, so that helped. Yesterday, I played good golf but I struggled a little bit on the green with the pace and the break. Today, I putted really well. That was the difference.”
Two-time winner here in Abu Dhabi, Paul Casey, Austrian Bernd Wiesberger, Australian Sam Brazel and England’s Andy Sullivan are all tied with McIlroy on nine-under par. Overnight joint-leader Hideto Tanihara couldn’t build on his first round a level-par 72 left him on six-under par.
