Rory McIlroy made a powerful begin to the defence of his Race to Dubai title as a bogey-free 62 handed him a two-shot lead after day one of many inaugural Dubai Invitational.

The Northern Irishman was teeing it up for the primary time since being offered along with his fifth Harry Vardon Trophy on the DP World Tour Championship and he returned to the United Arab Emirates on the lookout for a sixth profession win in Dubai, the place the place he claimed his first practically 15 years in the past.

His 9 birdies at Dubai Creek Resort noticed him cleared the path from Germany’s Yannik Paul on seven below par, with South African Thriston Lawrence a shot additional again six below.

Tommy Fleetwood and Thorbjørn Olesen are 4 pictures off the lead on the occasion which sees 60 skilled gamers competing in a 72-hole strokeplay event, which is performed concurrently with a three-day workforce Professional-Am, with Sunday that includes professionals solely.

4-time Main winner McIlroy additionally tops the Workforce Leaderboard, posting a gap 13 below par 58 alongside teammate and event host Abdulla Al Naboodah. Germany’s Paul and his novice enjoying associate JJ Dudum are second on ten below par.

Talking after his spherical, McIlroy mentioned: “I didn’t anticipate that. It didn’t really feel fairly pretty much as good as that the primary couple of days after I was right here and hitting balls and enjoying the course. But it surely was good to get a card within the hand once more and form of really feel the aggressive juices flowing.  I believe a did an excellent job at this time of managing my misses and lacking on the appropriate facet.”