Tommy Fleetwood carded a course record-equalling ten under par 62 to take the first round lead at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, the first event of the DP World Tour Play-Offs and penultimate event of the 2024 Race to Dubai.
The Englishman, already a two-time winner of this tournament after claiming back-to-back victories in 2017 and 2018, carded eight birdies and an eagle on a low-scoring day at Yas Links to sit one stroke ahead of former Ryder Cup teammate Thorbjørn Olesen and America’s Johannes Veerman.
The 33-year-old, a seven-time DP World Tour winner, was four under after just three holes as he started birdie, eagle, birdie, and he made six further gains as he signed for his bogey-free round, rolling in a final birdie at the last to take the outright lead.
Fleetwood also has one eye on a second Race to Dubai title as he started the week in fifth place on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex. A strong performance in Abu Dhabi would give him an outside chance of catching current Rankings leader and reigning Number One Rory McIlroy at next week’s DP World Tour Championship.
Denmark’s Olesen is seeking a second Rolex Series victory this week to follow on from his 2018 Italian Open success. The Dane won his eighth DP World Tour title earlier this year in the UAE, triumphing at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship in January.
Veerman, who won his maiden title at the 2021 D+D REAL Czech Masters, earned his place in the first event of the DP World Tour Play-Offs after finishing T8, T14 and T14 in his last three starts. He carded eight birdies and an eagle as he joined Olesen on nine under par.
Four-time Rolex Series winner Tyrrell Hatton shares fourth on eight under with fellow Englishmen Laurie Canter and Paul Waring and Italy’s Francesco Laporta.
McIlroy carded a five under par 67 to sit in a share of 18th place. The Northern Irishman would win the Race to Dubai for a sixth time if he were to finish more than 2,000 Rankings points ahead of his nearest challenger after this event.
Player Quotes
Tommy Fleetwood: When you shoot a 62, obviously everything is going to have gone very, very well. Just happy to have got off to a great start.
I didn’t feel like I swung it perfectly early on and I actually felt like I started playing better as the round got to the back nine. I felt like I swung it really nicely on the back nine. One poor iron shot trying to drill it on 17.
Putted amazing. Felt like I read the greens so well. Beautiful pace control and hit a lot of good putts and started holing them. I worked even all the way through to the last hole, I just hit perfect putts.
The wind picked up a little bit, but overall it was fairly calm, and I think the course, fairways are playing fast. Greens are actually quite receptive and the greens are perfect.
You’ve got to this part of the year, and how many are in this field, 70? 70 best players on the DP World Tour, very good golf and we had nice conditions on a beautiful golf course. Just shows the standard of golf that’s out there.
Thorbjørn Olesen: I holed some long putts. Yeah, just putted well all the way around. Obviously played pretty well, but the putter was definitely on fire the whole day. With the conditions of the greens, if you putted really well, you can make a lot of putts. I’m very happy with that.
There’s not that much breeze out there, so it definitely feels hot. I think maybe I’m a bit more used to it now after being out here for a couple of years. So yeah, it is tricky.
Two of the biggest events we have all year besides the majors. A lot of points up for grabs these two weeks and yeah, it’s always nice if you can finish strong to a season. I’m excited. I like to play in the Middle East. I always enjoy coming here. Try to do my best and we’ll see what happens.
Johannes Veerman: It went just about as good as I would have hoped maybe even better. I got off to a really fast start. The conditions on this course are pure so you’re never going to have a bad lie. The putts roll true. It’s pretty self-evident in the scoring today but yeah, 9-under, might be my best opening round in a while. I’m sure maybe I’ve done it somewhere but it’s been a while.
You kind of try to stay out of your own way so it’s easy to start thinking about the holes ahead and the shots ahead and I’m doing this and this is what everyone else was doing, so you just control what you can control which is your posture, how you carry yourself.
I think everybody knows. It’s no secret, if you do well this week, there are things on line, like the majors next year and PGA TOUR cards, and you just embrace it and you just take it one day at a time.
Rory McIlroy: I know that if I have a really good week this week, it makes my job a lot easier next week. Honestly it’s nice to be paired with Thriston and Rasmus because you can sort of keep an eye on what they are doing, as well.
It’s been a really good year, very, very consistent. Started well with the win in Dubai and I’ve let a couple slip away as well. But I’ve had a great deal of consistency, and that’s the reason that I find myself in the place that I am. And I wanted to come here to the Middle East these two weeks and finish the season off the way I felt it deserves to be finished off.
It’s a place I’m very, very comfortable with. I have a lot of friends here. I lived in the region for four years. So it feels a bit like a second home to me. It’s always nice to get back, and very familiar with the surroundings, it seems to produce some good golf for me.
Round One Scores
62 T FLEETWOOD (ENG),
63 J VEERMAN (USA), T OLESEN (DEN),
64 L CANTER (ENG), F LAPORTA (ITA), T HATTON (ENG), P WARING (ENG),
65 M SIEM (GER), N NORGAARD (DEN), R MACINTYRE (SCO),
66 A FITZPATRICK (ENG), S S?DERBERG (SWE), J NIEMANN (CHI), M JORDAN (ENG), A OTAEGUI (ESP), B STONE (RSA), R H?JGAARD (DEN),
67 A GARCIA-HEREDIA (ESP), Y PAUL (GER), R LANGASQUE (FRA), A SADDIER (FRA), J LUITEN (NED), K NAKAJIMA (JPN), A HIDALGO (ESP), M WALLACE (ENG), R MCILROY (NIR), T LAWRENCE (RSA),
68 E FERGUSON (SCO), J SMITH (ENG), G MIGLIOZZI (ITA), S CROCKER (USA), U COUSSAUD (FRA), B WIESBERGER (AUT), T MCKIBBIN (NIR),
69 J SCHAPER (RSA), M BALDWIN (ENG), G GREEN (MAS), M LEE (AUS), J ROSE (ENG), N ELVIRA (ESP), S BAIRSTOW (ENG), A SULLIVAN (ENG), S LOWRY (IRL), D MICHELUZZI (AUS), D BROWN (ENG), A COCKERILL (CAN), F LACROIX (FRA),
70 C JARVIS (RSA), R HOSHINO (JPN), D VAN DRIEL (NED), M MANASSERO (ITA), D FRITTELLI (RSA), A DEL REY (ESP), J SVENSSON (SWE),
71 S SHARMA (IND), D RAVETTO (FRA), J CAMPILLO (ESP), C SYME (SCO), A MERONK (POL), A SCOTT (AUS), J WINTHER (DEN), J DEAN (ENG), N H?JGAARD (DEN),
72 R MANSELL (ENG), T DETRY (BEL), D BRADBURY (ENG),
73 A ROZNER (FRA), J GUERRIER (FRA), G FORREST (SCO),
76 C HILL (SCO),
