Paul Waring carded a course-record 61 at Yas Links to open up a five-shot lead at the halfway stage of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Related: Tommy Fleetwood’s brilliance an early show of intent at Yas Links
The Englishman recorded the lowest score of his DP World Tour career to get to 19 under and set the the record for lowest 36 hole score to par in Tour history, opening up a comfortable lead over first round leader Tommy Fleetwood, American Johannes Veerman and Danish pair Thorbjørn Olesen and Niklas Norgaard.
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Waring had eight birdies over his first 17 holes, also holing his approach for eagle at the sixth, but saved the shot of the day for the 18th.
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After a wayward drive became embedded he was given a free drop but could still only chop his second back onto the fairway. From 250 yards he hit a perfect fairway wood which fed down to four feet from the pin to leave a routine birdie putt.
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Veerman added a 67 to his first round 63 to get to 14 under from the first group of the day with Norgaard joining him after firing seven birdies in his bogey-free 65. Fleetwood joined the leaders with his 68 before Waring surged ahead. Olesen then added his second eagle of the day at the last to join the chasing pack.
Frenchman Ugo Coussaud and English trio Laurie Canter, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Wallace are two shots further back at 12 under par.
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Meanwhile, Race to Dubai leader Rory McIlroy pulled one back on the last after a triple bogey on 17 to get to 10 under.
Player Quotes
Paul Waring: Well that was the best shot I’ve ever hit in my life to be honest (3-wood at 18). Had left myself 262, 265, something like that to the last.
The tee shot on 18 was a little bit peculiar for me because I had been hitting it great all day. So even over that 3-wood I felt like could I hit a solid shot into the part of the green and just hit a little draw. One of the best shots I’ve hit.
Obviously feel great. Swinging it great. Putter is behaving. That’s I’d say a weak spot for me now and again but I’ve done a lot of work on it, and since moving over to Dubai, I’m very used to these style of greens, as well, so I feel like I can read the greens well.
The thing is, though, I’ve got a nice lead at the moment but even before I tee off tomorrow, someone might have caught me. While I’m in the lead at the moment, and if we are rational about this, everyone is still going to fire a lot of birdies in there.
So if I’m going to be involved on Sunday afternoon, I’ve still got to keep going the way I am and I know that. That’s a nice thing for me to know that, I just have to keep making birdies, keep going, keep going, and we’ll add them all up after Sunday afternoon.
Tommy Fleetwood: It was pretty good. You know, there are obviously low scores out there but at the same time, if you just stay patient you don’t know if 4-under is going to be the worst score of the week. It’s never going to be a bad round but there’s a lot of scores out there. Overall I can’t be displeased with where I’m at.
This is an amazing time of year. Two great events to finish. I think I’ve been both end of the spectrum, really, over the years. I’ve been playing at this time of year and playing really poorly, and you kind of getting through the end of the year but I’ve also been playing great and been really excited about the opportunities that are right there at the end of the year.
I’m in a good spot. I’ll just rest up now, focus on tomorrow and hopefully we can have another good one and then go out and see where we sit on Sunday. But I love this time of year and it’s nice to be up there again.
Thorbjørn Olesen: Got a couple of bad breaks which I probably deserved, you know. It was nice to birdie 16 and get the eagle on 18. Very nice way to finish.
It’s two of the biggest weeks of the year I think. Great tournaments. It’s always nice to play in the Middle East, and these two are massive. So everybody wants to finish strong here. Yeah, it’s exciting.
I think there was a couple of tricky pins actually, but obviously the conditions are still fairly soft and the greens are so pure. You’re going to see a lot of putts made. But as soon as this course, if it gets a little bit windy, it’s a different story. It can be tricky.
