Rory McIlroy holds a two-shot lead at the halfway stage of the Dubai Invitational despite carding a quadruple bogey during his second round on Friday.
McIlroy has been in sparkling form at Dubai Creek, and has only dropped shots on one hole through two rounds of the DP World Tour season opener.
That one hole though, the par-3 eighth, cost him four shots as he found the water twice on the 214-yard short hole.
After a brilliant opening 62, the four-time Major champion had to battle much harder in windy conditions to sign for a one-under second round of 70, to finish on 10 under and retain a two-shot lead.
"I think if I look at the other 17 holes that I played, I played very, very well again," said the Northern Irishman.
"Played not too dissimilarly to the way I played yesterday. I maybe holed a couple more putts yesterday. But the conditions were getting a little trickier. Wind was up."
The quad was the only blemish, albeit a pretty sizable one, of 36 holes that saw McIlroy make 14 birdies and 21 pars.
McIlroy was happy with how he managed to respond after such a bad hole - with his one mistake of the tournament so far costing him four strokes.
Just the 343 yards for @McIlroyRory 🚀#DubaiInvitational pic.twitter.com/3sAfXSIQjYJanuary 12, 2024
"Couple of miscues on the 8th hole," he added. "I felt like I did well just to get my head back into it and play some solid golf on the way in, and everyone seemed to find it a little more difficult today than yesterday. So, it’s nice to go into the weekend still with the lead.
"10 was big. I had a chance to bounce back on nine that I missed but 10 was big. The two shots into 13 were big, too.
"And to make two relatively easy birdies, and then I give myself chances most of the back nine, which was nice, and I was able to convert a couple before that tough finishing stretch there on 17 and 18."
Yannik Paul and Jeff Winther are tied second after shooting 70 and 66 respectively, while Tommy Fleetwood is in a group on seven under after following up his opening 66 with a 69.
Ken Weyand, who has made headlines for his score when getting an invite for the no-cut event, followed up his opening 87 with an 82 to sit on 27-over-par, 37 strokes behind McIlroy and 17 off the second-last player in the field.
