DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Nicolai Hojgaard moved into position to win the season-ending World Tour Championship for a second time by taking a three-stroke lead on Friday, though a slew of Europe\u2019s Ryder Cup stars were well placed to pounce.<\/p>\n
The chasing pack included Rory McIlroy, whose brilliant short game salvaged a 69 in the second round that kept him on track to capture a fourth straight year-long Race to Dubai title for being Europe\u2019s No. 1 player.<\/p>\n
McIlroy was tied for second place in a five-man group that included Justin Rose (67) and Shane Lowry (67). Fellow Ryder Cuppers Robert MacIntrye (67) and Tommy Fleetwood (71) were a further stroke back and Tyrrell Hatton (67) one more shot adrift.<\/p>\n
They were all looking up at the 70th-ranked Hojgaard, who didn\u2019t make the Ryder Cup team this time \u2014 that honor fell to his twin brother, Rasmus \u2014 but is showing a reminder of his ability at the Earth Course this week.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old Dane shot 65, the low round of the day, to back up his opening 67 and was 12 under for the week. Hojgaard won the tournament in 2023, didn\u2019t qualify for it last year, but is dominating a star-studded field on his return.<\/p>\n
His only other 36-hole lead on the European tour was at the World Tour Championship two years ago. That remains his last win, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of my favorite tournaments to play,\u201d Hojgaard said. \u201dIt\u2019s great to be back in a bit of form.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt suits my eye. It plays into my strengths, which is mid-irons. It\u2019s just a really good fit for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy stays patient<\/p>\n
McIlroy mixed six birdies with three bogeys on a day when he was poor by his standards off the tee but his wedge play was magical.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I showed my scoring skills today, and battled well and stayed patient, and got the ball up and down when I needed to,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cAnd overall, to shoot 69, I\u2019m pretty pleased considering some of the spots that I found myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside McIlroy, Lowry and Rose in a tie for second was Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (67) and Daniel Hillier (68). <\/p>\n
Only Marco Penge and Hatton \u2014 second and third in the Race to Dubai standings, respectively \u2014 can overhaul McIlroy this week. Penge (70) appears out of it in 44th place, 12 shots off the lead, so only Hatton can realistically stop the Northern Irishman.<\/p>\n
Hatton, who is five behind Hojgaard, needs to win and for McIlroy to finish worse than tied for eighth with one other.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou start every tournament week trying to win the tournament,\u201d said Hatton, who plays on the breakaway LIV Golf circuit. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of no different. I know I need results to go my way if that was to happen. I\u2019m not really thinking about it too much. Just trying to play better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fleetwood\u2019s streak<\/p>\n
Fleetwood started the second round in second place, one stroke behind Michael Kim, and had a frustrating day with the putter. He made one eagle \u2014 at the par-5 No. 2 \u2014 along with 16 pars and one bogey.<\/p>\n
That dropped shot ended a remarkable run of 69 holes without a bogey, stretching back to the 15th hole of the second round in Abu Dhabi last week when he lost in a playoff to Aaron Rai.<\/p>\n
Kim shot 76, having opened with a 64.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/p>\n
The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Nicolai Hojgaard moved into position to win the season-ending World Tour Championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-282633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}