'I don't want the perception of people thinking like I got away with something' - McIlroy gets two-shot penalty in Abu Dhabi
Francesco Laporta. Picture: Getty Images
Rory McIlroy’s bid to catch Eugenio Chacarra in the Race to Dubai suffered an early blow when he was slapped with a two-shot penalty for inadvertently improving his lie at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Golf Championship.
The world number two birdied three of his last five holes and appeared set to sign for a four-under 68 at Yas Links, where Race to Dubai leader Chacarra shot 70.
Within minutes of finishing, McIlroy’s double-bogey six at the par-four 12th became a quadruple-bogey eight, turning his 68 into a 70 that left him tied for 33rd with the Spaniard, eight strokes behind tournament leader Francesco Laporta.
“They showed me a video from 12,” McIlroy explained after a day when second-ranked Reed double-bogeyed the 18th to shoot 74. “Hit my first chip shot from down on the bottom of the hill, then get up, came back down and rolled into a divot.
“And then as I went to sort of just get a feel for the lie, the close-up of the camera, you can see like a little piece of grass around the divot sort of lies down as I put my club down behind the ball, and it doesn't -- I guess the grass doesn't return back to its original position.
“And I doubt like -- obviously there's no intent. I play by the rules. I feel like this is never really -- I try to do everything that I can to never end up in these positions.
“But just by looking at the video, like it doesn't look -- it doesn't look very good. Obviously that wasn't my intent. I'm just trying to get a feel for the lie.
“The ball is in a sort of bottom of a sandy divot. I'm trying to feel like if I can get a 54-degree, like, onto the back of the ball, but in the process, this piece of grass has sort of laid down, and it doesn't -- you know, the technical -- I guess the technical term for the rule is if you press down on the piece.
“I don't feel like I pressed down. But at the same time, I don't want the perception of, like, people thinking like I got away with something either. So I'm happy to take a 2-shot penalty and move on and move into tomorrow.”
Laporta made an eagle and eight birdies in a 10-under 62 to lead by three strokes from Jon Rahm, Sam Bairstow and Bernd Wiesberger, projecting him to rise from 51st to sixth in the Race to. Dubai.
McIlroy, who started the week ranked third in the season-long race behind Chacarra and Patrick Reed, birdied the par-five second and seventh holes, then picked up another shot with a two-putt birdie four at the 11th.
He looked set to chase down the lead but after running up a double-bogey six at the 12th after his chip from right of the green ran back to his feet, he bounced back with three birdies in a row from the 14th.
In the end, the double-bogey became a quadruple bogey, but McIlroy was not too discouraged after his six-birdie round and pointed out that he has seven more rounds to catch Chacarra as he also has next week’s DP World Tour Championship.
“I felt like I played pretty well,” he said. “It was really like that bad swing on 12 where I missed the green right and made double, which is now a quad.
“But apart from that, I felt like I hit the ball pretty nicely. Yeah, I hit my irons nice, drove the ball well.
“So, yeah, it was a round where I felt like I could have been obviously a lot better, but there was enough encouraging signs in there to go out and hopefully shoot a good one tomorrow/
“Golf tournaments are long. There's a long way to go to the finish line, especially in situations like this where it's not just this week, it's next week as well,.
“They’re both their own individual tournaments, but you're almost trying to treat it like any other event, just trying to build on each and every day.
“And I felt like I could have got off to a better start today, but as I said, I felt like I saw enough encouraging signs in my game to go in and shoot a good one tomorrow and try to get myself back in the tournament.”
On the LPGA Tour, Lauren Walsh made a disappointing start, taking 33 putts and opening with a five-over 77 at the TOTO Japan Classic in Ibaraki.
A triple-bogey seven at the 18th, her ninth hole, did most of the damage, and she finished the day second last in the 78-strong field.
There's no cut but she's already a long way behind
Japan’s Miyu Yamashita who won in Malaysia last week and closed with back-to-back birdies to card a bogey-free six-under 66 to share the lead at Taiheiyo Club Minori Course with countrywomen Aki Iwai and Sayaka Takahashi.
They're one shot clear of Minami Hiruta, Pajaree Anannarukarn and Fuka Suga.
It was a better day for the Irish at the $2 million Aramco China Championship on the Ladies European Tour.
Elm Park’s Anna Foster birdied three of her last four holes on the World Cup Course at Mission Hills to open with a two-under-par 71.
She was tied for 32nd as England’s Annabell Fuller and Charlotte Heath and China’s Liqi Zeng signed for eight-under 65s to lead by a shot from Chinese amateur Yujie Liu.
Douglas’ Sara Byrne also shot in the red, carding a 72 that left her tied for 48th.
