McIlroy & Lowry Take Early Lead in Dubai


It didn't take Rory McIlroy long to shake off the rust. The 25-year-old Northern Irishman fired a six-birdie, no-bogey 66 to share the first-round lead with Shane Lowry at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. The European Tour's season finale began Thursday at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

Lowry, a 27-year-old Irishman and a good friend of McIlroy, posted seven birdies and a bogey. The duo is a stroke ahead of England's Richie Ramsay and Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen.

Even though he hasn't played competitively in six weeks, McIlroy - ranked No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings and the Dubai winner in 2012 - has received several recent honors. He has been named the 2014 Player of the Year by both the PGA of America and the PGA Tour, and on Sunday was determined to be the Race to Dubai champion emblematic of the top European Tour player.

Some observers were concerned about McIlroy's focus coming into Dubai as the reason for his hiatus was a lawsuit he brought against his former agent earlier in the year. The case, expected to involve millions of dollars, will be heard in a Dublin court early next year.

But the four-time major winner was spot-on Thursday as evidenced by his mistake-free outing. "It was a great way to start," said McIlroy, a winner of two 2014 majors - the British Open and PGA Championship, along with the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

"You never expect to start like that, but I've been hitting the ball well for the last couple of weeks that I've been practicing and it was just a matter of trying to take that good range play onto the course, and I was able to do that today, which I'm really happy about.

"I feel like (the course) really suits my style of play. I can be aggressive with the driver, and that can set me up to hit shorter irons into greens and obviously give myself a lot of birdie opportunities like I did today. I didn't feel like I took as many of them as I could have, but it still added up to 6-under and I'm very happy with that."

Lowry was in good shape early in last week's Turkish Airlines Open after sstarting with rounds of 70 and 66. But over the weekend the two-time winner in Europe - including the 2009 Irish Open as an amateur - struggled with a 72 and 73 that left him 10 strokes behind winner Brooks Koepka.

"The whole day Sunday and the flight down here you're thinking about it," Lowry told the European Tour's website of his difficulties last weekend. "It's one of those things. But I gave myself a chance to win last week. If I can give myself a chance to win again this week, maybe I'll do it.

"I have been playing well for most of the year. I've been very consistent. I've been shooting some great scores, making a lot of birdies and I did that today again."

Trailing by two are Argentina's Emiliano Grillo and defending champion Henrik Stenson of Sweden, while three behind are Brits Ross Fisher, Danny Willett and Tommy Fleetwood, South African Louis Oosthuizen and Italy's Edoardo Molinari.

Tied for 12th with 70s are Joost Luiten, Lee Westwood, George Coetzee, Kristoffer Broberg, Jonas Blixt and Tyrell Hatton. Westwood won in Dubai in 2009.

Koepka got off to a terrible start owing mainly to food poisoning he got on the flight from Turkey to Dubai. The 24-year-old wasn't able to play a practice round in Dubai and lost 5½ pounds this week.

So - after firing a 7-under 65 last Sunday at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal in Turkey for his first career title - considering his condition it was fairly remarkable that the Floridian even teed it up Thursday. He managed to card a six-bogey 78 and enters Friday in last place in the 60-player field.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2014/tournamentid=2014092/leaderboard/index.html.