McIlroy back on track at Dubai Duty Free Irish Open

Dublin - Herbert is in good shape to improve on his current 131st place in the 2021 Race to Dubai and 91st in the OWGR

Herbert is in good shape to improve on his current 131st place in the 2021 Race to Dubai and 91st in the OWGR

Rory McIlroy is back in the hunt to win the Irish Dubai Duty Free Open after recording a second round score of 67 on Friday.

McIlroy is five under par at the halfway point as the Northern Ireland star followed his first round score of 72 with an impressive second day.

McIlroy felt he could have done even better after surging through his first 10 holes in five under before eight successive pars.

“I got off to a better start and once you do that, you make a couple of birdies early, you start to feel like you can make a few more,” McIlroy said.

“The greens were much better this morning than they were yesterday afternoon as well so it felt a little easier to hole putts and that’s really what I did.”

McIlroy initially had a poor record in the Irish Open and missed the cut for three years in succession.

He won at the K Club in 2016 and donating the prize money to his foundation, which was hosting the event.

“Everything was just a little bit better today and it just added up to a better score,” he added.

“It could have been a little better than what it was, playing the two par fives in even par on the front nine. I missed a couple of chances too, but it was better.”

Overnight leader Lucas Herbert opened up a two-shot lead at the halfway stage, carding 67 in the second round on Friday to go 13-under overall at the Mount Juliet Estate in Thomastown.

Having carded an eight-under-par 64 on Thursday to set the clubhouse target, the Australian was three behind in the second round when he found the water on the third hole for a double bogey.

But he sank eight birdies in all to lead England’s Andy Sullivan and Scotland’s Grant Forrest who were tied for second.

“It was a little frustrating but I also felt like I did pretty well to scrap 67 out of that,” Herbert said. “I holed some really nice putts and then missed some where I probably thought that was a good chance to make.

“The double (bogey) on three didn’t help as well, so for a round that hopefully is not one of the better ones of the week. I felt like I did really well to get a lot out of it and put myself into a very good position going into the weekend.”

Herbert is in good shape to improve on his current 131st place in the 2021 Race to Dubai and 91st in the OWGR. A win this week will take Herbert to a projected 18th place in the Race to Dubai which will confirm his place in the season ending $9 million DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, UAE, hosted on the Earth course, Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai, UAE, Thursday 18th – Sunday 21st November, 2021.

Scores

13 Lucas Herbert (Australia) 64 67 -11 Grant Forrest (Scotland) 66 67

Andy Sullivan (England) 67 66 -10 Dale Whitnell (England) 67 67

-9 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (South Africa) 67 68

Richard Bland (England) 69 66

Adrian Otaegui (Spain) 69 66

Johannes Veerman (USA) 65 70

-8 Marcus Armitage (England) 68 68

Adri Arnaus (Spain) 67 69

Julien Guerrier (France) 68 68

Gregory Havret (France) 67 69

Min Woo Lee (Australia) 68 68

Richie Ramsay (Scotland) 67 69

Antoine Rozner (France) 68 68

Jason Scrivener (Australia) 67 69

-7 Steven Brown (England) 68 69

John Catlin (USA) 69 68

Sean Crocker (USA) 67 70

Andrew Johnston (England) 67 70

Martin Kaymer (Germany) 67 70

Francesco Laporta (Italy) 68 69

-6 Wil Besseling (Netherlands) 69 69

Alexander (Sweden) 72 66

Aaron Cockerill (Canada) 68 70

Oliver Farr (Wales) 72 66

David Howell (England) 71 67

Matthew Jordan (England) 69 69

Rikard Karlberg (Sweden) 71 67

Maximilian Kieffer (Germany) 71 67

James Morrison (England) 70 68

Jordan L Smith (England) 69 69

Jeff Winther (Denmark) 70 68

-5 Gaganjeet Bhullar (India) 71 68

Tommy Fleetwood (England) 67 72

Justin Harding (South Africa) 69 70

Benjamin Hebert (France) 70 69

Takumi Kanaya (Japan) 71 68

David Law (Scotland) 73 66

Shane Lowry (Republic of Ireland) 70 69

Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) 72 67

Chris Paisley (England) 68 71

Thomas Pieters (Belgium) 70 69

-4 Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Thailand) 68 72

Nicolas Colsaerts (Belgium) 67 73

Raphaël Jacquelin (France) 70 70

Sihwan Kim (Korea Republic) 72 68

Zander Lombard (South Africa) 69 71

Vincent Norman (Sweden) 68 72

Garrick Porteous (England) 70 70

Aaron Rai (England) 69 71

Jack Senior (England) 72 68

Cormac Sharvin (Northern Ireland) 73 67

Connor Syme (Scotland) 69 71

Darius Van Driel (Netherlands) 72 68

Justin Walters (South Africa) 69 71

Fabrizio Zanotti (Paraguay) 68 72

-3 Maverick Antcliff (Australia) 69 72

David Coupland (England) 73 68

Darren Fichardt (South Africa) 73 68

Rasmus Hojgaard (Denmark) 70 71

Scott Jamieson (Scotland) 68 73

Kurt Kitayama (USA) 69 72

Pablo Larrazábal (Spain) 69 72

Alexander Levy (France) 68 73

Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland) 74 67

Shubhankar Sharma (India) 74 67

Toby Tree (England) 72 69

Marc Warren (Scotland) 71 70

-2 Nino Bertasio (Italy) 74 68

Dean Burmester (South Africa) 73 69

George Coetzee (South Africa) 71 71

Thomas Detry (Belgium) 67 75

Joachim B. Hansen (Denmark) 69 73

Jazz Janewattananond (Thailand) 72 70

Mikko Korhonen (Finland) 69 73

Richard McEvoy (England) 69 73

Edoardo Molinari (Italy) 69 73

Colm Moriarty (Republic of Ireland) 68 74

Thorbjørn Olesen (Denmark) 67 75

Robert Rock (England) 68 74

Adrien Saddier (France) 70 72

Kalle Samooja (Finland) 68 74

Danie Van Tonder (South Africa) 73 69

Chris Wood (England) 70 72

-1 Jorge Campillo (Spain) 72 71

Alejandro Cañizares (Spain) 73 70

Ross Fisher (England) 70 73

Calum Hill (Scotland) 72 71

Masahiro Kawamura (Japan) 68 75

Niall Kearney (Republic of Ireland) 71 72

Marcus Kinhult (Sweden) 68 75

Romain Langasque (France) 71 72

Ross McGowan (England) 72 71

Gavin Moynihan (Republic of Ireland) 75 68

Wade Ormsby (Australia) 71 72

Oliver Wilson (England) 73 70

0 Laurie Canter (England) 72 72

Oliver Fisher (England) 75 69

Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (Spain) 67 77

Søren Kjeldsen (Denmark) 72 72

Niklas Lemke (Sweden) 70 74

Mike Lorenzo-Vera (France) 70 74

Renato Paratore (Italy) 71 73

Eddie Pepperell (England) 74 70

Benjamin Poke (Denmark) 71 73

Tapio Pulkkanen (Finland) 69 75

Robin Roussel (France) 74 70

Julian Suri (USA) 72 72

Paul Waring (England) 73 71

1 Jonathan Caldwell (Northern Ireland) 76 69

Ashley Chesters (England) 76 69

Jamie Donaldson (Wales) 69 76

Paul Dunne (Republic of Ireland) 72 73

Nacho Elvira (Spain) 70 75

Pedro Figueiredo (Portugal) 71 74

Matthieu Pavon (France) 71 74

Carlos Pigem (Spain) 73 72

Mark Power (Republic of Ireland) 73 72

Sebastian Soderberg (Sweden) 71 74

2 Stephen Gallacher (Scotland) 73 73

David Horsey (England) 74 72

Joakim Lagergren (Sweden) 70 76

Joost Luiten (Netherlands) 74 72

Adrian Meronk (Poland) 73 73

Robin Sciot-Siegrist (France) 73 73

Joël Stalter (France) 72 74

Sami Valimaki (Finland) 75 71

3 David Drysdale (Scotland) 71 76

Padraig Harrington (Republic of Ireland) 76 71

Shaun Norris (South Africa) 70 77

Alvaro Quiros (Spain) 72 75

Ricardo Santos (Portugal) 75 72

Lars Van Meijel (Netherlands) 76 71

4 Thomas Aiken (South Africa) 75 73

Lucas Bjerregaard (Denmark) 74 74

Lorenzo Gagli (Italy) 74 74

Callum Shinkwin (England) 77 71

5 Peter Hanson (Sweden) 72 77

Rowan LESTER (Republic of Ireland) 73 76

Jake McLeod (Australia) 77 72

Haydn Porteous (South Africa) 72 77

Brandon Stone (South Africa) 78 71

Graeme Storm (England) 77 72

6 Wilco Nienaber (South Africa) 78 72

8 Robin Dawson (Iceland) 82 70

Ryan Fox (New Zealand) 76 76

Gavin Green (Malaysia) 75 77

HaoTong Li (China PR) 76 76

9 Scott Hend (Australia) 75 78

Simon Thornton (Republic of Ireland) 77 76

11 Neil O’Briain (Republic of Ireland) 78 77

12 Andrea Pavan (Italy) 78 78

Caolan RAFFERTY (Republic of Ireland) 78 78

31 Sam Horsfield (England) 75