Scotland’s Marc Warren is just quietly enjoying his renaissance and not thinking too much about being just off the lead at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at the halfway stage.
The Scot won the first post-lockdown European Tour event in Austria last July to end a desperate spell that saw him nearly lose his playing rights.
Since then he’s restored his reputation as one of the circuit’s best ball-strikers, and a second round 66 on a marathon day shot him up the leaderboard.
England’s Tyrrell Hatton had a commanding lead on 12-under as Rory McIlroy slipped up before darkness brought an end to play.
The field were trying to make up the three hours lost to fog on the opening day. Hatton, thanks to a four-hole birdie streak just before the turn, led by five and was playing the 14th when play halted.
Romain Langasque, the Frenchman who won the Amateur Championship at Carnoustie in 2015, played on after the hooter to finish the 16th but dropped a shot there. He fell back into a share of second with McIlroy, Australia’s Jason Scrivener and Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand.
The scores in Abu Dhabi 📈#ADGolfChamps #RolexSeries
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 22, 2021
Long day ‘maybe a good thing’
Warren had to play 20 holes on Friday but that was just fine by him.
“Maybe it was a good thing,” said the 39-year-old, a four-time Tour winner. “I definitely played better as the day went on.
“I struggled off the tee early on, just couldn’t seem to get loosened up and missed quite a few fairways.
“Anytime I was trying to apply power to longer shots it felt like I was forcing it. Fortunately my iron play was good so I was still hitting a lot of greens.”
After finishing off his first round at level par, he bogeyed his opening hole but birdies at the third and sixth set him up for the homeward stretch.
Brilliant back nine
Birdies followed at the tenth, the short 12th and at the 13th where he drained a 30 footer.
“It was a good tee shot at the 12th but the 13th was a bonus,” he added. “I was just trying to get it close to the hole and it fell in.”
The final embellishment was an eagle three at the last, for a back half of 31.
“Just hit two really good shots on 18 to about 10-12 foot and rolled the putt in. That was a nice way to finish,” he said.
The pleasure is just playing as well as he knows he can. During that nightmare two years he was even contemplating another career at several points.
Onwards and upwards
“Really, I’m just enjoying playing well again,” he said. “Since winning in Austria I feel my form has been pretty consistent. I struggled a little bit with injury and was only three-quarters fit for the first UK Swing.
“But after that, I finished the year pretty well with a nice top 10 in Dubai then a solid performance in the DP World Tour Championship. Now I’ve started the new year with a couple of nice rounds here.
“It was a long couple of years to go through and hopefully I have put that behind me. I am looking forwards and upwards now.”
Hatton’s surge
Hatton is troubling the hole from everywhere…#ADGolfChamps #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/00nR7oY550
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 22, 2021
A shot behind McIlroy to start the day, Hatton, the ninth ranked player in the world, eagled the second hole – his third eagle in 20 holes of play.
McIlroy looked to continue his form of Thursday with two early birdies, but it stopped apruptly with a bogey at the fourth followed immediately by a double, and Hatton snatched control with birdies at 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Rory dropped further shots at the 10th and 14th leaving him five behind.
“I’m obviously in a great position at the moment,” said Hatton after play ended. “It was certainly tough out there, so I’m really happy to be 5-under.
“Holed some nice putts toward the end of my round, nice to hold them and keep a bit of momentum going.
“Tomorrow’s not going to be too bad I think, because we’ve got five holes left to play. It’s going to be a bit of a long wait potentially if I finish nicely before I go out for round three.
“But it will be fine. I’ll just try and stay loose and see how we go.”
Gallacher still in touch
Stephen Gallacher was four-under playing 12 – one-under for the day – when the hooter went. Scott Jamieson, Robert MacIntyre and Grant Forrest had also still to finish but looked good for four days’ play, all at two-under.
With the cut set to fall at level par, Perthshire’s Calum Hill made a timely rally during his second round. The Gleneagles Hotel player was four-under for his last 12 holes to reach one-under for the tournament.
