Dubai: Two-time winner Rory McIlroy hopes his past experiences in Omega Dubai Desert Classic will stand him in good stead in a virtual shootout against China’s Li Haotong in Sunday’s last round of the tournament at Emirates Golf Club.
Li leads by a stroke at 20 under ahead of McIlroy after the latter endured a slower third round of 68 on Saturday.
However, this is only the second time Li, who followed up two 66s with a 64 on Saturday, has played this tournament having finished tied for 39 on his debut here last year.
McIlroy, meanwhile, has played here 10 times, winning in 2009 and 2015 with seven top 10 finishes at the Majlis Course.
“It would be great to put my name on that trophy for a third time,” said McIlroy. “This is one of my favourite tournaments of the year, a place I’ve always done well at, some good memories.
“Hopefully maybe that experience of winning a couple of times around here and being in contention quite a lot will help me out tomorrow.”
Of Saturday’s round of 68, which didn’t quite follow the promise of his earlier rounds of 65 and 64, he said: “Hopefully that’s the bad one out of the way. I didn’t get off to too bad a start, I just had a couple of loose ones.”
After starting with a birdie on two he then bogeyed four and eight before an eagle on 10 and birdies on 14, 16 and 18.
“I missed a short one on four and made bogey on eight. That wasn’t too good but to come back with a five under back nine was good. It was good to knock that birdie in at the last and stay within one of Li.”
Of Li he added: “If he continues to play like that, he’ll be tough to beat tomorrow, but I feel like if I play my game, I’ve got a good chance.
“I’ll need to play a bit better tomorrow to win,” he admitted. “But you know, it’s two weeks into the season and I’ve given myself a second chance to win a tournament,” he said in reference to this following last week’s tied for third in Abu Dhabi.
McIlroy has only just come off a long-term injury lay-off which saw him sit out the end of last season to give himself enough time to properly recover from a rib and back injury, which had ravaged his 2017 campaign.
“I feel great,” he said, despite having played 25 holes on Saturday. Fog on Friday had meant second round tee-offs were almost three hours late on day two meaning he had to come back in early on Saturday to complete the round before his third. “I’m even contemplating actually going to hit a few balls after this to try and iron out some kinks.”
