Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship: Rory McIlroy again hits late drama as Paul Waring holds narrow lead

Northern Irishman stumbles at finish for second day running at Yas Links heading into Sunday's final round

Paul Waring holds a one-shot lead going into the final round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links, on November 9, 2024 in Abu Dhabi. Getty Images

Paul Waring of England tees-off on the 15th hole on his way to a third round 73 that leaves him on 18 under for the tournament. Getty Images

Niklas Norgaard shot a third-round 69, leaving him at 17 under for the tournament, one shot off the lead going into the final day. Getty Images

Sebastian Soderberg plays a shot from a bunker on the first hole - the Swede finished with a third-round 68, leaving him 15 under, three shots off the lead. Getty Images

Tommy Fleetwood on his way to a third-round 71, leaving him tied third at 15 under, three shots off the lead. Getty Images

Shane Lowry fired a six-under par 66 leaving him tied for third place on 15 under. Getty Images

Thorbjorn Olesen hit a third-round 68 leaving him tied for third place. Getty Images

Robert MacIntyre tees-off on the 18th hole on his way to a 69, leaving at 14 under. Getty Images

Rory McIlroy after missing a putt on the 18th green on his way to a third-round 69. Getty Images

Rory McIlroy with his caddie, Harry Diamond, on the 18th hole. The Northern Irishman will go into the final round 13 under, five shots off the lead. Getty Images

Try as he might, Rory McIlroy just cannot do boring. Even if he has been some way short of his spectacular best so far at Yas Links this week, he has had the chance to put the Race to Dubai title to bed with a week still to run. Yet he can’t do it. He’s just too committed to the drama.

Still trying to get to grips with a couple of tweaks to his swing which he has been working on ahead of this trip back to the UAE, he has not burnt up the shoreline course on Yas.

He has, though, been within striking distance at times, until blowing up right at the end on each of the second and third days.

On Friday, it was a treble-bogey six that cost him at the perilous par-three 17th. Then, on Saturday, he blew out at the last hole.

He fired his tee shot into the Arabian Gulf, and ended up with a double-bogey seven. And that on a par-five which McIlroy targets as a scoring hole as a matter of course: he had birdies there the previous two days.

Had he played those holes in par, he would have a share of the lead at 18-under, with one round still to go in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Instead, he is five shots back, in a tie for 13th, ahead of the final day.

“Not ideal,” McIlroy said, with sanguine understatement, about the way he had finished the past two days.

“I cost myself a few shots there, obviously. The wind got up a little bit this afternoon, so the leaders weren’t getting away, which was nice and I was making a little bit of a charge.

“[Then] just one mistake, that drive on 18. With it playing so much into the wind, the third shot, the layup, was very difficult to try to take on the water. I had to lay up down the right and I still had 222 yards for my fourth.

“It was an untimely mistake just like yesterday on 17 and dug myself a little bit of a hole to get out of. But depending on what the leaders do, I can still go into tomorrow feeling like I have half a chance.”

Realistically, McIlroy would need the leaders to stall, and fire a very low score himself, to carry off the Falcon Trophy for the first time – a result that would confirm him as the order of merit winner.

The latter is certainly doable. Yas Links has been savaged this week – at least before a breeze started to blow on Saturday afternoon by the best available 70 players on tour, who are assembled here for the first leg of the new, two-tournament DP World Tour Play-offs.

There was Tommy Fleetwood’s course record-equalling 62 on Day 1, the record-breaking 61 a day later by Paul Waring, and then Thomas Detry also fired a 62 in Round 3.

McIlroy knows his putter will have to warm up if he is to approach those sort of numbers in the final round, but isn’t giving up hope.

“I just need to put it all together, play the way I’ve been playing and keep the big mistakes and big numbers off my card,” the world No 3 said. “If I can do that and post a score, you never know.”

Waring managed to retain the lead, even though he finally ran out of puff after his extraordinary charge over the first two days. He got to 20-under after two holes of his third round, but slowed thereafter, and was at 18-under by the close of play.

That gives him a one-stroke lead over Niklas Norgaard in second, while previous champions Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood are in a group of four players tied for third at 15-under.

“I’m a little bit disappointed as I felt like could I have really moved forward and put myself out of sight,” Waring said.

“In four rounds of golf, you’re always going to have an iffy run of holes, iffy round of golf, whatever you want to call it.

“At the beginning of the week you’d given me a one-shot lead going into tomorrow I'd snatch your hand off. I'm trying to remain positive that I'm still in the lead, and looking forward to getting out there tomorrow.”