Good to be in thick of things at the start: McIlroy

Dubai - Garcia, who shot a five-under 67 to be tied 15th, was pleased with his round

It was almost like he had never gone. Rory McIlroy picked up from where he left off last week in Abu Dhabi, with a blemish-free first round on his return to the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Thursday.

A two-time winner of the Classic, the Northern Irishman had to skip the tournament last February because of a rib injury.

But on his return from a recent three-month injury lay-off, McIlroy carried on from Abu Dhabi with a strong showing to put himself in contention over the weekend.

The three-time Race to Dubai champion fired a bogey-free seven-under 65 at the Majlis Course of the Emirates Golf Club for a share of fifth.

It was a massive, massive improvement from the bogey-free three-under he had carded last time out in Abu Dhabi, his first competitive event since the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last October.

And the 28-year-old felt it was good to be in the thick of things right at the start.

"Yeah, definitely, picking up, especially on a benign day where you sort of needed to go quite low, it was nice to get off to a good start that way and sort of put yourself right in contention in the tournament straightaway," McIlory said on Thursday.

"That's honestly one of my goals this year. I feel like started off last year a little bit sort of 71, 70 instead of getting right into the thick of things from the start. So it's been nice to start the last couple weeks like that," he added.

McIlroy said that the ideal conditions in the morning helped him shoot a good score but did add that he could have gone even lower. Nonetheless, he was delighted with the returns.

"I don't think you could have got better conditions out there. The greens in the morning are perfect and there wasn't much wind for probably the first 12 or 13 holes. So, you needed to take advantage of it. Thankfully I was able to do that," he said.

"I sort of started the same way last week in Abu Dhabi. I think I only birdied one of the par 5s on the first day but I knew there's so many chances out here and just tried to keep hitting fairways, hit greens, gave myself chances. There are so many chances out here that I knew if I got into a rhythm that some would fall. I feel like I left a few out there but the end of the day, 65, you're not going to complain about that," added McIlroy, who has five top-10s here apart from the two wins.

McIlroy has continued to surprise himself with the first day here adding to Abu Dhabi, which meant he was ahead of schedule.

"I didn't expect to play as well as I did last week, and it's been nice to continue that into this week. Yeah, I'm ahead of schedule right now, but I don't mind that. That's nice. Just have to reassess everything and go from there," said McIlroy, who finished tied sixth, in his previous outing in Dubai, two years ago.

Meanwhile, defending champion Sergio Garcia, who shot a five-under 67 to be tied 15th, was pleased with his round.

"I'm happy with it," Garcia said of his round.

"The conditions were absolutely perfect. It is just a shame, maybe two or three chances on the back nine that could have gone a little bit better. Other than that, it was good. I felt like I played quite solid. I gave myself a lot of chances, a lot of good opportunities, some putts, made some, missed a couple, but overall it was a good round," added the Spaniard.

james@khaleejtimes.com