by The reigning champion Rory McILroy had to settle for a first round of 70 “disjointed” during the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
In search of a third consecutive victory at the Emirates Golf Club, McILroy succeeded four Birdies and two Bogeys to find himself five strokes shared by the American amateur David Ford, the Portuguese Ricardo Gouveia and the Australian David Micheluzzi.
“Yeah, rather disjointed”, such was the assessment of McILroy from his round.
“In fact, I felt like I was probably played better the first eight holes where I was one above the last 10 where I was three sous.
“First competitive round of the year. First competition round for a while. A little uncomfortable on certain shots. Certainly not as comfortable as I was in training and coming here.
“But it’s good to have a card in hand. This somehow exposes the things you need to work on. I had it today in a few money, which is good, and I did not put myself out of the tournament, which is the main one.
“I did a good job in scrambling today. I did a lot of ups and downs. Bonus of a chip-in in seven. But I don’t want to have to count on my game runs the rest of the week as I did today.
Ford, who plans to become a professional in May, seemed ready to take the lead when he traveled his first 11 holes in seven under the par, but compared his last seven holes to match the 65 displayed by Micheluzzi and Gouveia.
“It was great,” said the 22 -year -old left -hander.
“I managed a few putts which I did not know they were going to succeed, I managed a lot of good iron shots.
“I loved the place where the skittles were installed today. I felt like many of them suited me.
The Frenchman Mike Lorenzo-Vera marked his return after an absence of six months due to mental health problems with a first 67 just two strokes of the advance.
“I was crying on the first tee,” the 39 -year -old man told journalists.
“I managed to hit an absolute dart in the middle of the fairway. Big error, I relaxed and I managed to hit the worst iron 2 of all time, so I had to save one by. It was good.
“I had a lot of support since I returned. Lots of messages and many people were very nice to me. It feels good.
“I felt that I could play golf correctly because I felt rested and, in fact, the state of mind was very important.
“The state of mind this week and for the next three weeks is simply to go there and enjoy the golf, which has not been easy for the past two or three years. In fact, I really enjoyed this day.
Jon Rahm, double major champion, who made his debut in the event, obtained a first 69.
