Tommy Fleetwood kept up his fine recent form with a six-under-par 66 to share the lead after two rounds of the Abu Dhabi Championship with fellow Englishman Aaron Rai.
World number 30 Rai, who holed his second shot on the par-five second from 218 yards to record a rare albatross, goes into the weekend alongside Fleetwood on 14 under par.
They are two shots clear of South Africa’s Richard Sterne, Andy Sullivan of England and Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard at Yas Links.
Shane Lowry, who was joint overnight leader with Fleetwood, is a shot further back after a 69, while Rory McIlroy’s second 68 in a row has him on eight under.
Fleetwood, who won this event in 2017 and 2018 opened with three successive birdies and despite bogeying the 15th to cost him the outright lead was in good spirits.
“It was a really good day. I got off to the perfect start. Birdie, birdie, birdie,” said Fleetwood who won the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship in September before helping Europe win the Ryder Cup in New York.
“That was good, especially when you’ve had a good round the day before. They always say it’s hard to follow up a good round with another good one, or a low one with another one.
“Starting well was really important. I just did a really good job. I hit a lot of good shots but a few times today I drove it into the rough and we read the lies really well.
“I felt like we did a great job of controlling the ball out of the rough, and that was really pleasing. I feel like I putted solid again. Six under was a very good score.”
The Abu Dhabi Championship is the first of two DP World Tour end-of-season play-off events with the top 70 players competing this week and the leading 50 advancing to next week’s finale in Dubai.
And with a total of 9,000 points to be shared among the field this week (1,500 to the winner) and 12,000 more next week (2,000 to the winner), the Harry Vardon Trophy is up for grabs.
McIlroy is in pole position to win the season-long title for a seventh time – one behind Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight.
The Northern Irishman leads the Race to Dubai standings by just under 500 points from Marco Penge, the Englishman who has won three times on tour this year.
Penge is one shot ahead of McIlroy in Abu Dhabi, having followed his opening 67 with a 68 to sit on nine under.
Tyrrell Hatton, who is a further 800 points behind Penge, also has a shot at the overall title, although he is on six under after two rounds.
Fleetwood is around 2,800 points adrift of McIlroy so to have any chance of overall victory would need to win both events and hope his Ryder Cup team-mate falters.
