One year ago, Rory McIlroy faced a 10-shot deficit to Cameron Young at the midway point of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. He then carded a 9-under 63 on Saturday, which helped propel him to a victory the following day.
Rory McIlroy faces massive deficit in Dubai, can he come back and shock everyone again?
Although Rory McIlroy has not played well in his first tournament of 2025, he is certainly not out of it at the halfway point.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
Fast-forward to this year and McIlroy is in a similar situation. He carded a 2-under 70 on day one and a 1-under 71 on Friday, which has him at 3-under through 36 holes. Remarkably, McIlroy began the 2024 tournament with a 71-70 and sat at 3-under at the midway point. The only difference this time is that he trails Scotsman Ewen Ferguson by nine shots instead of 10 to Young.
“I think so, especially the way the golf course is going,” McIlroy said when asked if he could make a weekend charge.
“I’d say the winning score isn’t going to be much above what the leader is right now, especially the way the course is going to play over the weekend, and the especially this golf course has played over the weekend the last couple years.”
Jon Rahm, who missed the cut this week, compared this week’s rough at the Emirates Golf Club to that seen at major championships. That, coupled with the firm greens, has made this tournament quite a challenging setup for some of the best players on the DP World Tour.
“The greens will continue to get a little bit firmer and will put such a premium on putting it in the fairway and hitting a lot of greens,” McIlroy added.
“If I can focus on that over the weekend, get a couple of putts to drop, I think I’ve still got a decent chance.”
The putter has let McIlroy down immensely through 36 holes. He has lost 1.16 strokes to the field on the greens, good for 108th among the 125 players this week. He also made only 39 feet of putts on Friday, averaging only two feet per hole. That’s not a recipe for success.
“Misreads. They are really tricky,” McIlroy said of his putting.
“There’s a lot of grain, a lot of grain doing different ways, double breakers. Felt like I was hitting pretty good putts. Burned a lot of edges. So just have to keep trying to make committed strokes and make good reads, and hopefully, sooner or later, they are going to drop.”
All of those burned edges have left McIlroy feeling frustrated, and rightfully so. But at least he still can get back into the tournament on Saturday. The defending champion will start his day much earlier than the contenders, and if he can soar up the leaderboard, the leaders will feel the pressure of McIlroy’s presence — just as Young did a year ago.
So, yes, McIlroy can storm back on Saturday and put himself in a position to win on Sunday. But more putts will have to drop, and if they fail to do so, then he will have to wait until 2026 to capture his fifth Hero Dubai Desert Classic title.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
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