{"id":554075,"date":"2025-11-07T01:16:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T01:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/554075\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T01:16:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T01:16:16","slug":"rory-mcilroy-leaves-commentator-stunned-with-worst-shot-ever-at-abu-dhabi-hsbc-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/554075\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy leaves commentator stunned with ‘worst shot ever’ at Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Dougherty knows Rory McIlroy pretty well. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Sky Sports Golf host<\/a> has called the shots on McIlroy’s career for a UK audience for the last decade. <\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/a><\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

It was a mixed round for McIlroy on ThursdayCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Before that, the two golfers played alongside each other as Dougherty’s professional career was coming to an end and McIlroy’s was beginning. <\/p>\n

But just when you think you have seen everything in the game of golf, it finds a way to surprise you. <\/p>\n

Dougherty was commentating on McIlroy’s first round at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship<\/a> on Thursday when he witnessed something new. <\/p>\n

A completely mishit skull of a chip shot. Like one of us. <\/p>\n

READ MORE ON RORY MCILROY<\/p>\n

The five-time major winner was looking for a birdie at the 18th when he knifed one across the green and into the opposite bunker. <\/p>\n

A stunned Dougherty said: “Was that a mishit? <\/p>\n

“No spin at all. I don’t think I’ve seen him hit one as bad as that before.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy would get up-and-down to save his par, carding an opening four-under 68 to stay within four shots of the lead. <\/p>\n

Rory’s new toy<\/p>\n

McIlroy is leading the Race to Dubai<\/a> as the season reaches its climax at the first of two play-off events in the Middle East. <\/p>\n

The reigning Masters champion is experimenting with a new driver – the TaylorMade Qi4D.<\/p>\n

And he appears to like it. <\/p>\n

McIlroy went semi-viral on Thursday morning for driving the green at the 394-yard 10th hole in Abu Dhabi. <\/p>\n

Reflecting on his round, the Northern Irishman said: “It was OK. I feel like I gave myself a lot of chances on the back nine, but was under-reading them.<\/p>\n

“Not to birdie the last after where I was off the tee was a little disappointing. <\/p>\n

“But hopefully that’s the bad round out of the way. There’s three more rounds to try and go a bit lower.”<\/p>\n

He added: “The driver was good. There’s a new driver in the bag this week. Felt like that work well. <\/p>\n

“I hit some good iron shots, controlled my irons well into the wind when the wind got up at the end there. <\/p>\n

“But I just needed to hole more putts. That was the difference between where I am and being closer to the lead.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Dougherty knows Rory McIlroy pretty well. The Sky Sports Golf host has called the shots on McIlroy’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[177203,2826,4287,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-554075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-abu-dhabi-hsbc-championship","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-rory-mcilroy","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115505777642899419","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}