Dubai: Luke Donald birdied the last three holes of his second round at the Dubai World Championship yesterday to stay hot on the trail of the ailing Rory McIlroy.
With the Race to Dubai title decider still finely balanced, Donald must stay within the top nine of the leader board to ensure McIlroy can't deny him a record coup of winning both the US and European Tours' money lists.
But McIlroy's emphatic rise to second on the leaderboard at nine under par coming into the 17th yesterday was overshadowed at the end with two consecutive bogeys to dump him back to tied for third at seven under par 137 (66, 71).
Dengue fever
As if by cruel comparison, that final stretch was exactly where Donald made up ground on his sole Order of Merit contender through a hat-trick of birdies, upping his score to four under par 140 (72, 68).
Tied at 12th in the leader board, the Englishman stands better placed psychologically for a move into a top nine position over the last two days, while Northern Ireland's McIlroy, said to be suffering the ill-effects of Dengue fever, will be left to stew over his misses at the half-way stage.
Overnight leader on day two Alvaro Quiros, meanwhile, eagled at the 18th hole to equal the course record 64. At 12 under par 132 (68, 64) the Spaniard could well do Donald a favour by denying McIlroy that crucial Order of Merit-deciding win, rendering Donald's rise to the top nine unnecessary.
Pressure
Donald said: "Just in terms of mental approach for the next couple of days, that was huge. To take three birdies in a row will make lunch taste great, and hopefully make the next two days a little easier.
"There was certainly a lot of pressure there. I know what's at stake, and that's fine. I just have to handle it. I'm making a little bit too many unforced errors and I need to play the weekend like Luke Donald knows how to play — if I can go back to the kind of golf that got me here in the first place, then I should be fine."
McIlroy said: "I've got a bit of an uphill battle on my hands now to try and win the tournament. But it's still very possible. I'm only five shots back with 36 holes to go, which you can make up in nine holes. I've just got to stay very patient and bide my time and just try to play as good as I can."
Fatigued McIlroy added of his earlier well-publicised blood test result: "They said it could have been Dengue fever, which is obviously carried by mosquitoes.
"I think it's just the lasting effects of that and feeling a little run down and my immune system is a little low. It's taking my body a bit more time to recover than it usually would."
