{"id":955188,"date":"2026-11-06T21:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T21:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/955188\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T21:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T21:48:13","slug":"adam-scott-makes-his-move-to-close-in-on-abu-dhabi-leaders-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/955188\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Scott makes his move to close in on Abu Dhabi leaders \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s Adam Scott has moved to within three shots of the leaders at the Abu Dhabi Championship after powering around the Yas Links course for a second-round 67.<\/p>\n

He had started the day\u2019s play on Friday six shots off the lead in equal 13th after carding an opening 68. But better was to come.<\/p>\n

The Sydneysider\u2019s 67 lifted him to joint 10th on a crowded leaderboard and left him handily positioned to make further inroads over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It was also a good day for Rory McIlroy, who put first-round controversy behind him to soar into contention.<\/p>\n

Every shot of Rory\u2019s two closing birdies en route to a 63 (-9) \ud83d\udd25 #AbuDhabiChamps | #RolexSeries https:\/\/t.co\/0hnolIMyw3<\/p>\n

\u2014 DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

McIlroy took a two-stroke penalty for improving his lie at the 12th hole on Thursday despite insisting that had not been his intention, leaving him eight shots off the lead at Yas Link.<\/p>\n

But an 11-birdie round of 63 on Friday moved him up to 11 under par, one shot behind three-way leaders Tyrrell Hatton, Jon Rahm and Francesco Laporta.<\/p>\n

McIlroy said on Sky Sports: \u201cI\u2019d much rather be two shots worse off than be called a cheat. I made peace with it and at least I went out today and I had a clear conscience and I could just go and play.<\/p>\n

How it stands heading into the weekend at Yas Links \ud83d\udcca #AbuDhabiChamps | #RolexSeries https:\/\/t.co\/q5AUN8RdUH<\/p>\n

\u2014 DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI had to take an unplayable at the first and made a bogey, it wasn\u2019t like I got off to the greatest of starts today, but then obviously I got it going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played well enough (on Thursday) to feel like I could play my way back into the tournament and I went out today and played a good round of golf and did get myself back into it. I\u2019ve given myself a great chance and that\u2019s all I can ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overnight leader Laporta, of Italy, and Rahm both birdied the final hole to join Hatton on 12 under.<\/p>\n

The Englishman had the best round of the trio with a seven-under 65, heralding a timely return to form after a difficult few weeks.<\/p>\n

\"RoryRory McIlroy plays a shot at the seventh during his second-round fightback in Abu Dhabi. (AP PHOTO<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201cReally happy how I played,\u201d said Hatton. \u201cObviously there\u2019s been a couple of mistakes but overall, compared to where I\u2019ve been at over the last month and a half, it\u2019s nice to put a couple of decent scores together again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahm narrowly missed an eagle putt on 18 and signed for a 67 while Laporta recovered from a double bogey at the 14th to post a two-under-par 70.<\/p>\n

McIlroy is one of four players on 11 under along with English duo Matthew Jordan and Sam Bairstow and Pole Adrian Meronk.<\/p>\n

Tommy Fleetwood birdied five holes in a row on the front nine but only one on the back nine in a 66 that moved him up to a tie for 12th place, four shots off the lead.<\/p>\n

With PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s Adam Scott has moved to within three shots of the leaders at the Abu Dhabi Championship after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":955189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[5487,64,63,118461,755,12241,405163,85],"class_list":["post-955188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-adam-scott","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dp-world-tour","tag-golf","tag-middle-east","tag-overseas-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/955189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}