Dubai: As his resurgent score of six under par 66 yesterday suggests — with seven birdies in the last ten holes — Rory McIlroy prefers the back nine of the Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club to the front.
Arguably one of his favourite courses, given he earned his first European Tour win here in 2009 and with it being used as a training base throughout the winter months, McIlroy should know it well.
But, as a host of other players showed yesterday, not least overnight leader Rafael Cabrera-Bello and Martin Kaymer, the back nine is where the putts start to drop, which should make for an interesting end to the final round on Sunday.
The Ulsterman said: "The back nine is a much more score-able nine. You have the three par fives and you've got a couple of short par fours.
"On the front nine you have a pretty tough stretch. The course doesn't really give you anything there. You've got the second and the third holes which you might be thinking are birdie holes, but apart from that you're looking at the back nine and you're thinking, well, ten is a reachable par five and 11 is only a short to mid iron.
Opportunities
"Twelve is a tough hole, but then you've got 13, 14 that are birdie holes, and 17 and 18. So there's definitely more opportunities on the back nine to pick up a few shots."
McIlroy, who bogeyed the seventh yesterday, otherwise parring one to eight, with birdies on nine, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 and 18, added: "My round started on the ninth hole. I had two great shots into nine and made my first birdie.
"I had a good putt for par on five but apart from that I hadn't held anything, so made a good putt on nine for birdie and that sort of started the ball rolling."
Of Cabrera-Bello's 63, McIlroy said: "It's the first day, you shouldn't really be thinking about what score is being posted on the leaderboard, but of course you see nine under on the board early and you're sort of thinking you have to get off to a fast start — not to fall too far behind early.
"You just have to stay patient and know that, if you hit some shots, your opportunities will come. But six under par is a great start and three shots in 54 holes that isn't much. Even if I had shot two or three under today, that still would have been a decent start, but six under is nice."
