The marquee group at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship lived up to their billing on day two as Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and birthday boy Tommy Fleetwood all put themselves in contention.
The trio were a combined 18 under par on day two at Abu Dhabi Golf Club, with world number one Johnson moving to eight under with a 64, McIlroy a shot better off following his 66, and defending champion Fleetwood on ten under after signing for a 68.
Fleetwood’s lip-out bogey on the 16th was the only one carded by the trio on day two, with all three players within four shots of halfway leader Thomas Pieters.
Race to Dubai champion Fleetwood turned 27 on Friday and admitted he could not have asked for better birthday company.
‘I wasn’t quite on it today, so it was a bit more of an effort for me. Dustin shot the most stress-free 64 you’ll ever see and Rory just shot the most stress-free 66 you’ll ever see.
‘Those two played great. I was very happy to get in today, sort of from the turn, I didn’t play that great and so I was kind of hanging on.’
‘I felt pretty good out there today,’ said Johnson. ‘I did everything really well. I mean, 64, it was a pretty easy 64. I hit it really well. I had a lot of great looks. I didn’t really hole any putts, really, until I made two nice putts on 17 and 18. But other than that, it was just really solid all day long.
Four-time Major winner McIlroy is playing his first event since October and has been pleased with his comeback.
‘I hit the ball very well. I drove it well. I hit most of my iron shots very well. I gave myself plenty of chances, and that’s what I’m going to have to do over the next couple of days, as well, if I want to try and win this tournament. 66 was good. There wasn’t that many fireworks apart from the putt on the last.
‘I’ve done quite a bit of work over the off-season and worked on my swing and a couple little tweaks here and there. They seem to have paid off already. A couple little swing thoughts that I still have but it’s nice to see that the work I put in on the range can translate onto the golf course, and that’s been a great thing to see for me over the last two days.
‘Today Dustin played awfully well, after the finish he had to come back out and play like that, he showed quite a lot of resilience. Tommy, as well. Tommy didn’t play quite as well as he did yesterday, but he still shot four under par. He’s right in the mix. We all played well. Everyone was hitting good shots. That’s all we were seeing and it is nice when you play in a group like that, you feed off one another.’
Credit: European Tour
