Tommy Fleetwood’s mission here on Sunday is to strengthen his reputation as a UAE specialist and, at the very least, ensure that Rory McIlroy working towards his sixth Order of Merit next week.
“It would be nice to have a bit of danger before the final event and not have it already decided,” Fleetwood said. “Rory McIlroy is boring, isn’t he?”
Of course, Fleetwood was laughing when he made this ridiculous description of his close friend and Ryder Cup partner.
McIlroy is as boring as golf is easy. However, it’s not just the Northern Irishman’s smooth moves that make him so watchable, but also his propensity to throw himself into a mini-disaster.
Here at the HSBC Championship, that vulnerability was on display towards the end of his final two rounds. On Friday, he was seven under playing the 17th and looming in contention before making a triple bogey on the par-three. And on Saturday, he closed to three of the lead at the 18th tee when he put his drive into the water on the par five.
“No, no, no!” » shouted McIlroy as he flew off the clubface. Alas, it was a case of “wet, wet, wet,” as his ball ricocheted off the rocks. The resulting double bogey took him to 13 under, six behind leader Paul Waring, who followed his second-round 61 with a 73 to drop to 18 under.
After five shots in advance, there is only one left, Niklas Norgaard (69th) being the closest pursuer of the English companion.
Norgaard, the underdeveloped 32-year-old Dane who is attracting increasing attention as a Ryder Cup possibility, could himself pose a challenge to McIlroy, should he win and the world No. 3 ended up quite far down the field. . However, McIlroy’s eyes will particularly be on Fleetwood, who was the Race to Dubai champion in 2017.
Fleetwood insists he has not looked at the permutations and will only do so if he collects the silverware and the £1.2million check on Sunday.
Yet, if he wins and McIlroy doesn’t progress from his current position of tied 13th, then the world number 10 would be 1,200 points closer and with 2,000 points on offer to the winner of the Earth Course next Sunday, it would all be suddenly played. caught.
The comfort of Fleetwood
“I’ll take your word for it and it’s not even wise to rule out Rory winning here,” Fleetwood said, after a 71 took him to 15 under and in a group sharing third place, including also Shane Lowry (66). “But yeah, having a chance to compete in the DP World Tour Championship would be great.
“You know, there were several years there, from 2017 to 2019, where every time I went to the final with the opportunity. I can’t do anything but go for it win-win and see where it takes me. But it will be hard enough to win this one.
He can draw inspiration from his victory at the Dubai Invitational in January – where a certain golfer named Rory came second – and, of course, from his two victories in this tournament held earlier this year and hosted at Abu Dhabi Golf Club, 16 km from the city.
“I guess I have a comfort factor here in the UAE,” Fleetwood said. “We live in Dubai now and I can go home tonight and sleep in my own bed. It’s always nice.
