From the beach and onto the course for Rory

Dubai - World No. 2 shot a four-under for the day to card an overall one-under in the DP World Tour Championship

Rory McIlroy is an early riser anyway but he woke up earlier than usual on Friday morning and was at the first tee of the Earth Course at 8am to set the ball rolling on his second round. It has been quite a while since he teed off so early, but circumstances of Thursday led the Northern Irishman to it.
The world No. 2, didn't quite play like one, on the opening day of the DP World Tour Championship on Thursday, and thought that he was still on holiday and out on the beach. Perhaps, that quite explains his excursion to the water hazard on the 16th and eventually a round of three over.
But the 27-year-old seemed to have woken up from the slumber with a decent second round at the Jumeirah Golf Estates on Friday.
The current Race to Dubai champion shot a four-under for the day to card an overall one-under. Although two bogeys did dot his front nine, his striking and putting were spot on as he notched six birdies on the day.
McIlroy was pleased with the turn around and hoped to improve over the course of the weekend.
"I held a few more putts today (Friday)," McIlroy said after his round.
"Mentally yesterday (Thursday), I was still on holiday I think. I just wasn't really with it. I wasn't at the races. I was just mentally very flat. I'd say I was in holiday mode. Honestly, I probably felt too fresh yesterday (Thursday). I had two weeks off, and thought I was still on the beach. I had not quite switched on to what I needed to do and it was one of those things. It was just a bad day but I sort of turned it around and hopefully I can improve again over the weekend," he added.
McIlroy is still off the pace from the lead pack but hoped he can make a bit more ground going into Saturday and Sunday.
"I guess if I'm within sort of eight or nine shots going into the weekend, I still feel like I have a decent chance. But it all depends on what the others do. If I'm too far back, then I don't think I'll be able to make up that much ground. But if I can keep improving each and every day, then I might not be too far away at the end of the week," said McIlroy.
To be there at the end, he would need sparkling rounds of 62s over the two days and McIlroy said that he would absolutely love to have such scores.
"Yeah, I'd take that. I'd take that and stand here on Sunday and probably have the trophy, I'd say," he smiled and said.
For now though, McIlroy is hoping to be tucked in bed for a couple more hours on Saturday morning.
james@khaleejtimes.com