Rory McIlroy moved another step closer to sealing his sixth Race to Dubai crown, carding a five under par 67 to share the lead with Ryder Cup teammate Tyrrell Hatton after the opening round of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.

The four-time Major Champion drained a 48ft putt on the 17^th hole for his sixth birdie of the day, following earlier gains on the second, third, seventh, tenth and 14^th holes, with his sole bogey coming on the fifth hole.

McIlroy is chasing his third victory in the DP World Tour Championship having previously won the title at Jumeirah Golf Estates in 2012 and 2015, also clinching the Race to Dubai crown on both of those occasions.

He strengthened his chances of ending the week with two trophies once again by matching Hatton’s opening round effort in the final Rolex Series event of 2024, with South African Thriston Lawrence, the only player who can still deny him the Race to Dubai title, six shots off the pace in a share off 37^th position after a one over par opening 73.

Hatton has twice been a runner up in the DP World Tour Championship in 2016 and 2022 and also finished second in last week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, the first of the two events in the DP World Tour Play-Offs. He posted seven birdies, with bogeys on the third and 12^th holes, in his round of 67.

Last week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship winner, Paul Waring, continued his impressive form in the inaugural Play-Offs, signing for a four under par round of 68 to sit one shot back in his bid for back-to-back Rolex Series titles.

BMW PGA Championship winner Billy Horschel is a further shot back on three under par in a share of fourth place with seven other players, including four winners on the DP World Tour already this year: Keita Nakajima and Rikuya Hoshino of Japan, Englishman Matt Wallace and Denmark’s Niklas Nørgaard.

Player quotes

Rory McIlroy: I thought I did well. I hit the ball pretty well. I gave myself plenty of chances, plenty of looks. When I did put myself out of position, I was smart and either just trying to get it back in position or leave myself with a bit of room to work with if I was missing the greens.

Overall really solid round of golf. The course is playing a little bit more difficult than in previous years because of how thick the rough is. We are going to have to just keep an eye on that and get the ball in play as much as possible over these next three days.

I want to go on from here and win the golf tournament. I’ve opened up with a really good score but I need to go out and play similarly over these next three days, not just to try to win the tournament but also to try to get the job done in The Race to Dubai.

I’m under no illusions that that was probably Thriston’s worst day. If he goes out and has three good ones, I still need to go out there and play some very solid golf.

Tyrrell Hatton: To be honest I feel like the score was better than it felt. I felt I was tinkering over most tee shots and at times, I felt like my misses were bigger than perhaps they have been over the last month or so, month and a half.

But at the end of the day, to shoot 5-under, you have to, I guess, play fairly solid golf. And in my head, I don’t really know what that is. But here we are.

Paul Waring: Got off to a really good start. I think I was 4-under front nine. Obviously coming off of last week, being able to come straight out of the blocks and get going again, I was really, I’m going to say impressed with myself.

It was the first time for me dealing with a lot of media on Tuesday and Wednesday, something that I’m not used to and something that hopefully I’ll have to get used to, which is nice.

But again, it takes time and energy and that sort of thing. It’s my first time in a while dealing with so much that have stuff.

So to be able to separate that and get on the golf course Thursday afternoon and go again, I’m really happy I was able to reset and get back into that flow state.

Round one scores
67 T HATTON (ENG), R MCILROY (NIR),
68 P WARING (ENG),
69 K NAKAJIMA (JPN), A FITZPATRICK (ENG), A SCOTT (AUS), M WALLACE (ENG), R HOSHINO (JPN), N NORGAARD (DEN), B HORSCHEL (USA),
70 D VAN DRIEL (NED), M LEE (AUS), A MERONK (POL), S BAIRSTOW (ENG), N ELVIRA (ESP), J NIEMANN (CHI), A ROZNER (FRA), T OLESEN (DEN), M MANASSERO (ITA),
71 C SYME (SCO), J VEERMAN (USA), A OTAEGUI (ESP), S LOWRY (IRL), J CAMPILLO (ESP), R LANGASQUE (FRA), T MCKIBBIN (NIR), J SMITH (ENG), J SVENSSON (SWE), T FLEETWOOD (ENG), R HOJGAARD (DEN),
72 F LAPORTA (ITA), E FERGUSON (SCO), U COUSSAUD (FRA), F LACROIX (FRA), G MIGLIOZZI (ITA), R MACINTYRE (SCO),
73 A SULLIVAN (ENG), Y PAUL (GER), T LAWRENCE (RSA),
74 J ROSE (ENG), D BRADBURY (ENG), L CANTER (ENG), A HIDALGO (ESP),
75 D BROWN (ENG), M JORDAN (ENG),
76 J GUERRIER (FRA),
77 A COCKERILL (CAN), J DEAN (ENG), S SODERBERG (SWE),
78 D RAVETTO (FRA),