Laporta's 62 leads Abu Dhabi by three; McIlroy penalised

Francesco Laporta shot a bogey-free 62 at Yas Links on Thursday to lead the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship by three on ten under par. He had a six-footer on the 18th for a 61 and a share of the course record, and missed it. The 62 equals the lowest round of his DP World Tour career.

He went out in 30, including a birdie at the par-5 2nd, a 30-foot putt for another at the 5th and an eagle from about ten feet at the par-5 7th. Four more birdies came on the way home, starting at the par-5 11th. “Everything was just going like a video game, like just hitting shots straight and making some putts,” he said. He said he had struggled in the days before and had spent the time on the putting greens, which he called “pure” but “quick”.

Laporta, 36, came into the week 57th in the Race to Dubai, and he needs to be inside the top 50 on Sunday night to play in Dubai next week. He is 224th in the world and has never won on the DP World Tour; his runner-up finish at the South African Open this season was the third of his career. He has led this event at halfway once before, in 2020, when it was played at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

Pos	Player	To par	R1
1	Francesco Laporta	−10	62
T2	Jon Rahm	−7	65
T2	Sam Bairstow	−7	65
T2	Bernd Wiesberger	−7	65
T5	Matthew Jordan	−6	66
T5	Adrian Meronk	−6	66
T7	Aaron Rai	−5	67
T7	Tyrrell Hatton	−5	67
T7	Yuto Katsuragawa	−5	67
T7	Wenyi Ding	−5	67
T7	Shaun Norris	−5	67
T7	Kristoffer Reitan	−5	67

The DP World Tour’s highlights of the first round:

McIlroy’s 8 at the 12th

Rory McIlroy duffed a chip at the par-4 12th and the ball rolled back down the slope into a divot. Video showed him pressing his club on the grass behind it, according to AP. Rule 8.1b(4) allows a player to ground the club lightly but not to press it down. According to the DP World Tour, McIlroy told officials after the round that he could not say whether he had pressed the grass, and he took a two-shot penalty. His 6 became an 8.

“There’s obviously no intent – I play by the rules and I try and do everything I can to never end up in these positions,” he told Sky Sports.

He birdied three holes in a row from the 14th and shot 70, eight behind and level with Eugenio Chacarra, the Race to Dubai leader, who was one over at the turn and made four birdies coming home. McIlroy, looking for a fifth Race to Dubai title in a row, started the week about 1,000 points behind Chacarra, and the winner here gets 1,500. Patrick Reed, second in the rankings, made 15 pars and finished with a double-bogey 7 for a 74, which leaves him tied 56th of 70.

Rahm bogey-free on his first visit

Jon Rahm had not played in a tournament for almost two months and had never seen Yas Links before this week. He shot a bogey-free 65 and picked up three shots on the four par 5s, the first after a 5-iron into the 2nd. “The highlight today was my iron game,” he said. Like Tyrrell Hatton, who shot 67, he started the week outside the top 50 who go to Dubai.

Sam Bairstow, the last player into the field, hit the first shot of the tournament at 07:19 local time and was also bogey-free. Bernd Wiesberger had eight birdies and a bogey. Aaron Rai, the defending champion, shot 67, and Tommy Fleetwood, beaten by Rai in a playoff here last year, 70.

Round two: times and TV

Round two is on Friday and there is no cut. Sky Sports Golf is live from 07:00 GMT, as is Golf Channel in the US (02:00 ET). Abu Dhabi is four hours ahead of GMT.

Sources

• DP World Tour: Francesco Laporta dominates day one in Abu Dhabi
• PGA TOUR (AP): Rory McIlroy gets two-shot penalty after first round in Abu Dhabi
• Sky Sports: Rory McIlroy handed two-shot penalty as Francesco Laporta sets early pace
• Golf Digest Middle East: Laporta storms into three-shot lead
• Golf Today: Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship 2026 R1 leaderboard
• Yahoo Sports: Jon Rahm sits T-2 after bogey-free opening round
• DP World Tour: Laporta leaps into Abu Dhabi lead (2020)
• Golf Channel: 2026 Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship, how to watch
• DP World Tour on YouTube: Round 1 Highlights, 2026 Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship