Shane Lowry and Nacho Elvira negotiated windy conditions to climb to the top of the leaderboard as overnight leader Rory McIlroy struggled during the second round at the Dubai Invitational.
Lowry is looking for his first DP World Tour title since winning the 2022 BMW PGA Championship, and he showed his quality with his irons and nerveless putting to overhaul playing partner McIlroy.
The 38-year-old started the day three shots behind, but climbed to the summit with five birdies and two bogeys in his 68 – the joint lowest round of the day along with Elvira.
McIlroy could only muster two birdies and carded five bogeys as he signed for a three-over 74 to sit in a share of fifth at Dubai Creek Resort.
“Very happy. It was hard. It was tricky,” Lowry said. “If I play golf like that for the rest of the season in that frame of mind, I’ll be pretty good.
“The first tournament of the year you don’t know what to expect. So going out there in the last group now on Saturday is nice, and keep it going and we’ll see what happens.”
McIlroy needed a birdie at the third to regain his one-shot lead after Antoine Rozner – starting on the back nine – picked up shots at the 10th and 12th to climb up to five under.
The Northern Irishman briefly extended his advantage to two when Rozner double-bogeyed the 13th, but he dropped a shot at the sixth to halve the deficit.
The world No 2 slid a difficult par putt by at the ninth and he was joined by Thriston Lawrence, who had birdied the fourth and fifth, at four under.
Lowry, who bogeyed the ninth to slip back one, made it a three-way tie with a birdie putt at the 10th before Marcus Armitage joined the leading pack after his fourth gain of the day at the fourth.
However, Lawrence and McIlroy bogeyed the par-three 14th and Armitage followed suit at the ninth – his last – to slip back to three under, leaving Lowry at the top of the leaderboard on his own.
Lowry and McIlroy birdied the 16th before the latter found the water for the fourth time of the day at the 17th as he closed with successive bogeys to slip three behind his playing partner.
The Irishman parred his way home to join Elvira, who birdied four of his last six holes to set the clubhouse target of five under.
“I feel like off the tee I hit it really well,” the Spaniard said. “That’s something I struggled with in the past and we made a couple changes, and I think it’s paying off.”
Englishman Armitage is in a tie for third with David Puig at three under, while McIlroy joined Lawrence, Rozner and Angel Ayora one shot further back.
PA
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