Former champion Li Haotong continued his recent return to form as he carded a 67 to share the lead with Rasmus Højgaard, Andy Sullivan and Cameron Young after Day One of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
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The Chinese endured a slew of missed cuts while finishing 208th and 238th on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex in 2021 and 2023, either side of a 2022 campaign that saw him claim a third DP World Tour win in Germany.
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A top 20 last week hinted at another renaissance with a new swing and new equipment and he followed that with a five under par total over the Emirates Golf Club layout where he lifted the trophy in 2018.
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Dane Højgaard and England’s Sullivan each have four DP World Tour wins as they search for a first Rolex Series triumph, while World Number 25 Young is making his debut in this event.
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Rasmus’ twin brother Nicolai, fellow Danes Søren Kjeldsen and Thorbjørn Olesen, South African Louis de Jager, Spaniard Sebastian Garcia, England’s Richard Mansell and Pole Adrian Meronk were then all five back on a congested leaderboard in the United Arab Emirates.
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Play was suspended due to fading light with three groups remaining on course. They will restart at 07:45 local time with no change to round two tee times.
Player quotes
Li Haotong: I think I played just solid as last week. I’ve been working on a lot of stuff during the wintertime and see some result like this, kind of like slowly pay back now.
Especially after last week, good performance, and I can’t believe it’s six years (since his win here). It’s just had a lot of great memories and hopefully I can continue to do some magic here.
I think most of the time off the tee. And especially I saw that stroke last week finally become ingrained now. Finally happy to see that and hopefully I can maintain that and improve that.
Rasmus Højgaard: I think it was pretty good from how I played today. I think everyone could see I was a bit offline from the tee box today but I managed to scramble my way around and then obviously had eagle on 10 and the two birdies at the end. So I’m very happy with the round.
I’m just going to hit a few drives now. I hit a good drive there on 17 and a good three-wood down 18. I think I have a swing thought I might be able to use.
Out here it is very much a ball-striking golf course. If you hit it straight off the tee and you hit it on the greens, you can give yourself some good chances. There’s a couple of good short par fours and par fives which is easy to reach in two. So there’s birdie chances out there, but it’s easy to run into bogeys and worse.
I mean, there was a lot of good out there as well. It’s just a little feeling that I have off the tee that I need to try out now on the range, and then that might change for tomorrow. Yeah, I got away with a very good score today, so I’m very happy.
Andy Sullivan: Obviously first event of the year for me. So, you’re always a bit anxious. You never know quite how you’ve done in practice. Could be playing brilliantly, and then you never know until you put it into tournament rounds.
I felt like I grew into the round well. I didn’t feel like I started great, but then sort of got around the turn and felt like I was swinging it a lot better and felt like I could go at a few more flags and putter got hot. Massively satisfied.
All the time, not just in golf. Everything. It’s weird because you do, especially when you’re playing well, I played well at the back end of the year in South Africa, and you feel like you’re on a high. And then obviously four weeks off and you come back and you’re like, am I still playing as good; am I not.
But I’ve gone back with working with Jamie Gough and just got back to hitting my little fades and being good at what I’m doing. I’m never going to be a bomber, so it’s about control for me and try and do that again.
For me, I think if you want to shoot a score, you’ve got to be in the fairway. You can be as far up as you want but you’re still losing control. The greens are firm enough, and the pins are tucked, where you’re struggling to get out if you’re not in the fairway.
Cameron Young: I played really well. The front nine scoring was a little bit hard to come by. I think a little bit of wind and just a couple mediocre bounces but I feel like I played well all day.
Kind of that nine aside, even with the score, I played better than that. So I was really happy with the back nine, but happy just that I stayed patient throughout the front nine and kind of let it come to me late.
I think it kind of helped me just wait for those to come, knowing that even or one over through the front nine isn’t bad and you have a chance to shoot, you figure, two or three, and to make those birdies and eagle on the last was tremendous.
I think it’s out there. In the morning, the greens should be a hair softer. I wouldn’t expect a ton of wind but the ball won’t be going quite as far. So it will be different tomorrow. I don’t know if it will really be easier or harder. It’s hard to say. Just wetter rough and the ball not traveling quite like it does in the afternoon. I think it will be different. I think the golf course is still challenging, and while there are opportunities for scoring, you have to play some nice golf. So that’s how we’ll go tomorrow.
