DeChambeau leads; Rory edges Spieth

Rory McIlroy began 2016 with a masterful display of driving to set up a 6-under 66 at the Abu Dhabi Championship, upstaging top-ranked playing partner Jordan Spieth in the first round on Thursday.

“I didn’t drive the ball well, which is really the key out here, so to shoot four-under with the way I felt with my driver is spectacular”, he said.

Dyson’s stellar play left him in tied-12th place and only a shot off world number one Jordan Spieth and fellow Yorkshire sensation Matthew Fitzpatrick. Should the American repeat that heinous crime over the next three days he will be fined €2,600.

The 22-year-old American, playing with four-time major victor Rory McIlroy and compatriot Rickie Fowler, was warned after taking too long to putt on his eighth green despite the following trio lagging far behind his group. If I can I’ll try and wash it away [have it rescinded] after the round.

“I don t know if it s about making a statement, but I just want to play well”. “I have missed the cut here the last two years so it was nice to get a good round in early”.

“I understand that, if we are being timed and I take too long I get a bad time”. I understand the rule. “And I said that doesn’t make sense, let’s make them on the same lie angle and same length”. It had no effect on the round. “It’s a bit of a grey area”. John Paramor was very respectful though.

Asked if there was anything different in his thought process now that he is already a major champion, Spieth said: “I think there’s two ways of going forward with that”.

The pair were part of the featured morning group alongside Rickie Fowler, but it was the Northern Irishman who came out on top with an opening 66 to get within two of the lead.

That’s one way of putting it. DeChambeau comes to the Arabian Peninsula as the U.S. amateur champion and plans to enter the paid ranks after the Masters.

“The guys behind us hadn’t even reached the fairway, on a par 5”, said Spieth, who acknowledged that he had taken extra time to line up a putt.

“Our new policy will help identify the slow players and will allow our faster players, who have never had a problem, to feel less pressured by the rules officials”.

“We will now be with the players, rather than informing them that they are out of position and leaving them to do it [catch up] by themselves”. We were not delaying anyone behind us and keeping well up with the group in front, so if we are in position I don’t see the need to say anything.

Ah, but there was according to Paramor.

Encouraged to implement the new monitoring policy by the players themselves, the European Tour should be applauded for wading into the war against slow play, but this, I’m afraid, wasn’t a good example of how it can be implemented successfully.

An eighth gain of the day at the eighth temporarily moved Stenson two shots clear, before the Swede, who had feared he would struggle to walk all 18 holes after undergoing knee surgery last month, finished his opening-round 65 with a blemish at the last.