{"id":88627,"date":"2026-11-07T05:28:31","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T05:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/88627\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T05:28:31","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T05:28:31","slug":"mcilroy-makes-11-birdies-in-abu-dhabi-and-trails-leaders-rahm-hatton-and-laporta-by-1-shot-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/88627\/","title":{"rendered":"McIlroy makes 11 birdies in Abu Dhabi and trails leaders Rahm, Hatton and Laporta by 1 shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABU DHABI \u2013 Rory McIlroy<\/a> rebounded from his first-round penalty controversy by making 11 birdies and shooting 9-under 63 at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Friday, leaving him one stroke off the lead.<\/p>\n

Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton and Francesco Laporta were all 12-under overall to share the lead after two rounds at Yas Links.<\/p>\n

McIlroy had said even if he were three shots behind it’s still “a much better position than I thought I would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, McIlroy was handed a two-shot penalty<\/a> after his first round when officials ruled he had improved his lie on a hole where he made double-bogey. He posted a 2-under 70 to be eight shots back of first-round leader Laporta of Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I left the course, I made peace with it. I didn\u2019t dwell on it,\u201d McIlroy said Friday. \u201cI\u2019d much rather be two shots worse off than be called a cheat. At least I went out today (and) it wasn\u2019t playing on my mind. I had a clear conscience and I could just go and play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Northern Irishman’s second round started with a bogey but he made three birdies through the next six holes before five straight birdies from No. 9.<\/p>\n

McIlroy’s second bogey \u2014 on the 14th \u2014 was followed by three birdies on the final four holes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did everything well again. I drove the ball well. I hit my irons well. I putted a little bit better,\u201d he said. \u201cI saw a few more putts go in, which is something that I haven’t been seeing for the last couple months.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he worked on his putting last week with Brad Faxon.<\/p>\n

Hatton made eight birdies in his round of 65 but missed a par putt on the 16th<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously there’s been a couple of mistakes, but overall compared to where I’ve been at over the last month and a half, it’s nice to put a couple of decent scores together again,\u201d the Englishman said.<\/p>\n

Alongside McIlroy one shot back were Englishmen Matthew Jordan and Sam Bairstow, as well as Poland’s Adrian Meronk, a recent winner<\/a> at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.<\/p>\n

The two-week postseason playoffs<\/a> on the European tour began with the 224th-ranked Laporta shooting 10 under to take a three-stroke lead over three players. Laporta managed just a 70 on Friday.<\/p>\n

The subplot in this next-to-last event of the 2026 season is the fight for the Race to Dubai title<\/a>, which crowns the No. 1 player on the European tour each year.<\/p>\n

It looks to be down to McIlroy, Patrick Reed (71) and Eugenio Chacarra (71), the current leader in the standings.<\/p>\n

McIlroy is seeking a fifth straight Race to Dubai title to move level on the all-time list on eight with Colin Montgomerie, who won the award when it was called the Order of Merit.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\nSee AP\u2019s full golf coverage here<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABU DHABI \u2013 Rory McIlroy rebounded from his first-round penalty controversy by making 11 birdies and shooting 9-under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[13781,4398,670,7219,13331,528,2431,1193,399,12021,56,604],"class_list":["post-88627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jon-rahm","tag-adrian-meronk","tag-brad-faxon","tag-colin-montgomerie","tag-eugenio-chacarra","tag-francesco-laporta","tag-jon-rahm","tag-matthew-jordan","tag-patrick-reed","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sam-bairstow","tag-sports","tag-tyrrell-hatton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}