Pádraig Harrington sits in a tie for 26th after shooting a four-under-par first round of 68 at the Dubai Championship to lie five shots back of the leader Joachim Hansen, the Dane who signed for a flawless 63.
After starting from the 10th hole, a bogey at the par-three 11th was followed by an impressive run of four birdies on the next five holes as Harrington picked up shots at 12, 14, 15 and 16. He finished his opening nine with another birdie on the par-five 18th, to turn in four-under 32. Nine straight pars over the front nine of the course saw Harrington finish the day on the same mark
Jonathan Caldwell sits three shots further back after shooting a one-under 71. The Bangor man struggled a touch with consistency as five birdies on his round were nearly matched by four bogeys.
Hansen set the pace on nine under par, two shots ahead of defending champion Antoine Rozner, South Africa’s Dean Burmester and the English pair of Andy Sullivan and Paul Waring.
Tommy Fleetwood, who is bidding to become the fourth member of Europe’s Ryder Cup team after Matt Fitzpatrick, Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland to win a tournament since the record defeat at Whistling Straits, was part of a five-way tie for sixth place.
Fleetwood carded eight birdies and two bogeys in a six-under-par 66 as 85 of the 114-man field broke par on the Fire Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
“I drove it well,” Fleetwood said. “I did a lot of very good things. There were a couple of sloppy things out there that you would rather not do, but overall off the tee I felt pretty confident.
“It’s scoreable and you can see by the scores, but you’ve still got to go out there and do it. You’ve got to hit the shots and hole some putts so I’m happy with the start.
“I started off like a rocket, four under through six, and bar the odd sloppy, disappointing mistake I just threw a good round together like a few people did.”
Rozner shot 25 under par to win his maiden European Tour title here last year and a similar winning total looks like it will be necessary to make a successful defence.
“I just think every shot suits my eye here, but you’ve still got to play well, and my last few rounds – including last year – and my practice round this week, I’ve been playing really solid out here,” said Rozner, who won the Qatar Masters earlier this year.
“Obviously the par fives are important; apart from number five you have an iron for [second shots on] all of the par fives, there are couple of short par fours and I think I’m moving the ball well around the course so I’m looking forward to the next few days.
“I know I’ve played well here in the past so that gives me a bit of confidence, but at the end you just start over. I’ve played well these last few weeks, my ball striking has been good and on this course that’s key.”
Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher marked his 600th European Tour appearance with a round of 70 and said: “I felt it today on the first tee.
“It was nice to play with Pádraig [Harrington] because we both got a card together back in 1995 after the Walker Cup so it was great to reminisce with him. It’s great to reach 600 as it means you’ve stood the test of time.
“I think if I have four more seasons I would get to 700. That is definitely the target. Once you get to 600 you say why not, keep on going.”
Leaderboard
British and Irish unless stated, par 72
63 Joachim B Hansen (Den)
65 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Paul Waring, Antoine Rozner (Fra), Andy Sullivan
66 Tommy Fleetwood, Callum Shinkwin, Zander Lombard (Rsa), Francesco Laporta (Ita), Darren Fichardt (Rsa)
67 Niklas Lemke (Swe), Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Thorbjoern Olesen (Den), Kristoffer Broberg (Swe), Sam Horsfield, Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Jason Scrivener (Aus), Thomas Detry (Bel), Kalle Samooja (Fin), Alvaro Quiros (Esp), Sean Crocker (USA), Julien Guerrier (Fra), David Coupland
68 Paul Casey, Mikko Korhonen (Fin), Scott Hend (Aus), Marcus Armitage, Robert MacIntyre, Ross McGowan, Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Pádraig Harrington, Ahmed Skaik UAE, Ashley Chesters, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger), James Morrison
69 Martin Kaymer (Ger), Sebastian Soederberg (Swe), Tom Lewis, Alexander Bjoerk (Swe), Alexander Levy (Fra), Grant Forrest, Daniel Gavins, Ignacio Elvira (Esp), John Catlin (USA), Daniel van Tonder (Rsa), Romain Langasque (Fra), Jordan Smith, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn), Scott Jamieson, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Haydn Porteous (Rsa), Robin Roussel (Fra), Matthew Jordan, Ricardo Santos (Por), Oliver Farr, Alejandro Canizares (Esp)
70 Rafael Cabrera (Esp), Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Victor Perez (Fra), Stephen Gallacher, Justin Harding (Rsa), Lucas Bjerregaard (Den), Joost Luiten (Ned), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), David Law, Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin), Jack Senior, Sebastian Garcia (Esp), Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra)
71 Chris Wood, Jorge Campillo (Esp), Sami Valimaki (Fin), Jonathan Caldwell, Richie Ramsay, Oliver Wilson, Nino Bertasio (Ita), David Drysdale, David Horsey, Joel Stalter (Fra)
72 Steven Brown, Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Matt Wallace, Jeff Winther (Den), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Gavin Green (Mal), Justin Walters (Rsa), Oliver Fisher, David Howell, Adrian Meronk (Pol), Dale Whitnell, Pedro Figueiredo (Por), Carlos Pigem (Esp)
73 Eddie Pepperell, Julian Suri (USA), Ross Fisher, Marc Warren, Garrick Porteous
74 Johannes Veerman (USA), Rikard Karlberg (Swe)
75 Adrian Otaegui (Esp), Connor Syme, Lars van Meijel (Ned), Benjamin Poke (Den)
76 Richard McEvoy, Aaron Cockerill (Can), Clement Sordet (Fra)
77 Chris Paisley
79 Renato Paratore (Ita)
