Dubai:

Spaniard Rafa Cabrera-Bello is hoping his lucky liaison with Dubai will continue over the next two days of the DP World Tour Championship.

The 30-year-old was the star performer on Day 2 with an amazing streak that saw the Spaniard hit five successive birdies on the opening five holes.

The resident of Las Palmas, who had opened with a one over 73 on Thursday, added a couple more birdies on the par-4 eighth and 10th holes — offset by successive bogeys on the 11th and 12th holes — for a 64 to nudge himself well in contention along with the likes of Rory McIlroy and defending champion Henrik Stenson, among others.

Winner of the Dubai Desert Classic in 2012, this is the second time that Cabrera-Bello has struck such devastating form. The first instance was at the Austrian Open in September when he recorded a third round 66 to move up the leaderboard and followed this up with a record-equalling 11-under-par final round of 60 to claim victory by a shot ahead of Benn Barham.

His performance equalled the record for any round on the European Tour, and was only the third time a player had carded a final round 60 to win a tour event. And then two years back, Cabrera-Bello claimed the biggest win of his career when he won the Dubai Desert Classic against a field containing three of the world’s top four players. “I have always enjoyed playing in this part of the world. Dubai, particularly, is a special place for me where I have won before, not on this course but not far from here. So always, just being in this city brings good memories and that obviously gets you in the right mood,” he said.

Despite the glut of birdies here, the Spaniard remained unfazed as he targeted similar form over the last two days over the Earth course. “Take it just one shot at a time and just try to keep the good feelings until the next shot,” he said.

“I know that when I play good, I can play really good. I just don’t get to play as good as I think I can as often as I would like, but today it happened, so I’m just going to enjoy it and prepare for tomorrow,” Cabrera-Bello added.