Tommy Fleetwood five back of surprise leader after 36 holes in Abu Dhabi
England's Tommy Fleetwood is five shots back of the lead after 36 holes at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links.
P. Waring | -19 |
T. Olesen | -14 |
T. Fleetwood | -14 |
N. Norgaard | -14 |
J. Veerman | -14 |
M. Wallace | -12 |
T. Hatton | -12 |
U. Coussaud | -12 |
L. Canter | -12 |
R. MacIntyre | -11 |
England's Tommy Fleetwood is five shots adrift of the lead after 36 holes at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Fleetwood carded a second round of 4-under 68 to reach 14-under at the halfway stage of the penultimate event of the DP World Tour season.
Tour veteran Paul Waring surged into the lead on Friday by carding a blistering, 11-under 61 to set a course record.
Waring made birdies at 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 18. He also eagled the par-4 6th.
Thorbjorn Olesen is tied with Fleetwood, along with Niklas Norgaard and Johanes Veerman.
Other notables in the top-10 include Tyrrell Hatton and former LIV Golf pro Laurie Canter, who is chasing a PGA Tour card.
Rory McIlroy was derailed by a triple-bogey at the par-3 17th and fell down the leaderboard.
"4-under is a pretty good round," Fleetwood told reporters at Yas Links.
"It was a bit hit-and-miss at times. Had a few chances that I would have holed yesterday having a really low round.
"Overall it was a pretty good round. I'm a bit tired.
"[I am] not used to playing 18 in the heat coming back early morning.
"So it's not really any excuse but I've got to get used to that again."
Fleetwood is using a new putter this week.
He hit back at some of his critics after round one here, suggesting he is good putter although it doesn't show at times.
"It's been great," Fleetwood said of his new flatstick.
"It's been great practising with something new and something that feels really, really good.
"Something that I feel like is mine, if you like, and having that input in the design and yesterday was an unbelievably opener for it.
"[It] couldn't have really gotten any better."
He added: "I'm grateful to all the guys that I work with and always trying to find something that can give you even just the slight edge, and so far, so good.
"I love putting with it and, it's just nice when you put something new in, obviously haven't played a tournament with yet.
"It's felt great in practise, and to ut it in competition and hit so many good putts, and even today, makeable putts I had, I felt like I hit good putts.
"You're not going to hole all of them. [It] just doesn't happen.
"But my pace has been really good. Hit a lot of good putts, so yeah, looking forward to the challenge over the weekend."
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