Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship: Paul Waring storms into lead with course record 61 at Yas Links

Englishman opens up five-shot advantage after scorching round of golf in the capital

Paul Waring of England acknowledges the crowd on the 18th green on day two of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship 2024 at Yas Links Golf Course. Getty Images

Paul Waring of England tees off on the 18th hole. Getty Images

Paul Waring of England plays his second shot on the 18th hole. Getty Images

Paul Waring of England acknowledges the crowd on the 17th green. Getty Images

Tommy Fleetwood of England after missing a putt at the third. AP

A silhouette as Tommy Fleetwood of England gestures alongside his caddie. Getty Images

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays his second shot at the 17th hole. AP

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays his second shot at the 13th hole. AP

Shane Lowry of Ireland tees off on the fifth hole. Getty Images

Shane Lowry of Ireland plays his third shot on the first hole from a bunker. Getty Images

Bearing in mind he started the first Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship to be played in November struggling with the heat, it is fair to say Paul Waring has acclimatised.

It might be a few degrees warmer than the DP World Tour’s leading lights are used to when playing at Yas Links, what with the competition having moved from its traditionally cooller January timeslot.

But the weather has been nowhere near as hot as Waring’s golf on the first two days. After starting out with an 8-under-par 64 on Thursday, he scorched the course the following day, to the tune of an 11-under-par 61.

It broke the previous course record, the 62 which had been equalled on Thursday by Tommy Fleetwood, and is the lowest round he has shot in all of his 16-year career on the tour.

All of his play glittered, but he saved the very best for his approach to the 18th hole. He fired a fairway wood from 249 yards to kick-in range to finish with a birdie. “That was the best shot I've ever hit in my life, to be honest,” Waring said.

“The tee shot on 18 [which flirted with going into the shallows of the Gulf to the left of the fairway] was a little bit peculiar for me because I had been hitting it great all day.

“So even over that 3-wood I felt like I could hit a solid shot into the part of the green, and I just hit a little draw. It’s one of the best shots I’ve hit.”

The 39-year-old Englishman has just a single DP World Tour title to his name to date, which was the 2018 Nordea Masters in Sweden. He could scarcely be better placed to add another. Ahead of Saturday’s third round, he has a five-stroke lead on the field.

All of which is quite the feat for someone who started Round 1 feeling “ropey” and had to get some electrolytes into him in a rush. Even as he burned up the course on Day 2, he was taking special measures to cope with the heat, including using a cold, wet towel to cool his head.

His gameplan otherwise had been simple. “Honestly I'm just trying to keep going and keep making birdies,” Waring said.

“My caddie made the remark a few days ago, we played a little bit of golf at Trump over in Dubai and we played the Fire Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates as well and for those two rounds, I actually had 50 per cent birdies.

“We were having a bit of a laugh yesterday because I had nine birdies yesterday. So that was 50 percent. So he said today, ‘Right, every round, you've got 50 per cent birdies'. So that was our goal.

“I was just trying to keep going and try to keep making as many birdies as I could. I wasn't even conscious of the score today.”

With little wind at all to speak of so far, conditions have been so benign that Yas has been as good as defenceless against the 70 best available players on Tour. Waring is well aware that the job is a long way from being done.

“I've got a nice lead at the moment but even before I tee off tomorrow, someone might have caught me,” he said. “If we are rational about this, everyone is still going to fire a lot of birdies in there.

“So, if I'm going to be involved on Sunday afternoon, I've still got to keep going the way I am and I know that. I just have to keep making birdies, keep going, keep going, and we'll add them all up after Sunday afternoon.”

Fleetwood himself is evidence of the fact that backing up a low round is a tricky assignment. He followed his 62 on Thursday with a less spectacular 68 in his second round.

It leaves the Dubai-resident in a group of four players – Johannes Veerman, Niklas Norgaard and Thorbjorn Olesen being the others – tied for second place, five behind Waring.

“I had a few chances that I would have holed yesterday while having a really low round,” Fleetwood, the two-time Abu Dhabi champion, said.

“Overall it was a pretty good round. I’m a bit tired, not used to playing 18 in the heat and coming back early morning. It’s not really any excuse but I've got to get used to that again.

“There’s obviously low scores out there but at the same time, if you just stay patient and you don't know if 4-under is going to be the worst score of the week.

“It’s never going to be a bad round but there’s a lot of scores out there. I can't be displeased with where I'm at.”

Race to Dubai leader Rory McIlroy shot a 5-under par 67 to lie tied-14th and nine shots adrift of Waring.