{"id":247334,"date":"2025-11-06T13:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T13:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/247334\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T13:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T13:02:08","slug":"beers-on-me-rory-mcilroy-made-personal-history-with-career-first-at-abu-dhabi-hsbc-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/247334\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Beers on me!’ – Rory McIlroy made personal history with career first at Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy will hope omens from a historic tenth anniversary help him make more career history at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship this week.<\/p>\n

The Northern Irishman has returned to the site of his first professional hole-in-one as the Race to Dubai play-offs begin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"McIlroy<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

MciIroy is hoping to tighten his grip on the Race to Dubai titleCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The five-time Major winner has scratched the biggest itch of his career already by completing golf’s Grand Slam with victory at the Masters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A knighthood is set to follow his green jacket, leaving precious little left for McIlroy to achieve in his illustrious career.<\/p>\n

One that remains is a seventh Race To Dubai title<\/a>, which would see him move just one behind Colin Montgomerie’s all-time record.<\/p>\n

McIlroy can take a giant leap towards doing just that with victory at the penultimate DP World Tour<\/a> event of the year this week.<\/p>\n

read more on Rory McIlroy<\/p>\n

However, the 36-year-old has surprisingly never won in 11 appearances at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.<\/p>\n

That is despite finishing runner-up on four separate occasions and third across five different visits.<\/p>\n

McIlroy hits first hole-in-one<\/p>\n

The World No.2 lost out by a single stroke in 2012, 2014 and 2015, with the latter tournament remaining particularly memorable.<\/p>\n

McIlroy achieved his first competitive hole-in-one on the 15th hole during round two at the 2015 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.<\/p>\n

He secured his first ace with a 9-iron on the 177-yard hole, with his tee shot taking a favourable bounce from the left of the pin to drop in.<\/p>\n

\"McIlroy<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

McIlroy celebrating his first pro hole-in-one as Fowler looked onCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The then World Number One had responded in brilliant fashion to missing easy birdie putts at the previous two holes.<\/p>\n

As a result, McIlroy excitedly celebrated his ace with playing partners Rickie Fowler<\/a> and Matteo Manassero by throwing his arms in the air.<\/p>\n

McIlroy said: \u201cIt certainly made up for those misses. <\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it had a chance when I saw where it landed, and it took a nice hop to the right and dropped in. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy first ace as a pro, so obviously the beers are on me tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy incidentally also used a nine iron for his first hole-in-one aged nine, but has strangely struggled to replicate the feat as a pro.<\/p>\n

\"McIlroy<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

McIlroy is now hoping to win the tournament for the first time on the tenth anniversary of his first aceCredit: Getty \u2018Most excited I have ever been\u2019 – Rory McIlroy sent Asia crowds wild with remarkable momentHow many aces does McIlroy have as a pro?<\/p>\n

The six-time Ryder Cup<\/a> champion has only managed to record a hole-in-one three times during competitive rounds in his senior career.<\/p>\n

Following his ace in Abu Dhabi, McIlroy endured a seven-year drought before his second arrived at the 2022 Travelers Championship.<\/p>\n

His third and most recent also came on the PGA Tour<\/a>, having hit a hole-in-one during his victorious 2025 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am display.<\/p>\n

McIlroy returns to Yas Links GC in Abu Dhabi this week, eyeing glory again to tighten his grip on the Race to Dubai title. <\/p>\n

He will get his tournament underway alongside Tyrrell Hatton and Marco Penge at 5:23am UK time on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy will hope omens from a historic tenth anniversary help him make more career history at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[103440,5904,6670,103442,103441,2623,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-247334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-abu-dhabi-hsbc-championship","tag-golf","tag-golf-news","tag-mcilroy-abu-dhabi-hsbc-championship","tag-mcilroy-first-hole-in-one","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}