Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship 2016: Bryson DeChambeau announces his arrival in style

The York-born ace recorded his best round of the year, a three-under-par 69 as he established a place just outside the top ten in the money-laden European Tour tournament. Spieth admits a deliberate approach but believed he was perfectly entitled to be so, with no group waiting to play from the 8th fairway.

McIlroy stopped a run of pars by sinking a 15-foot birdie putt at the eighth and narrowly missed out on another at the last, as Spieth carded two birdies over his final four holes to close a four-under 68.

“If he keeps striking like that, I’m going to have to make it up somewhere else”.

“I got a bad time on my putt on the eighth when they took us off the clock on that green and the guys behind us hadn’t even reached the fairway on a par five”.

“Rory and Rickie [FOWLER]were very surprised”.

The European Tour has confirmed tournament officials will consult with local promoters to ensure players wearing shorts will not cause offence and if there are any objections then shorts will not be allowed on that given week.

The airline and Abu Dhabi Sports Council (ADSC) have signed an agreement to extend the long-standing partnership with the annual European Tour event, which tees off at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Thursday. Two monitoring penalties will result in a fine of €2000 (NZ$3320). Pelley asked the Tour’s referee staff – led by John Paramor – to come up with new ways to tackle the play and this week a “monotoring” system has been introduced which is running concurrently to the usual method of identifying and punishing culprits. Under the new code, which the tour unveiled at a players’ meeting on Tuesday, a competitor must take a shot within 40 seconds (the first to play in a group receives an additional 10 seconds) or incur the wrist-slapping penalty.

“It was quite incredible”, DeChambeau said of his round, which contained seven birdies, an eagle and one bogey. Sometimes we need to apply some common sense, especially when we are not out of position.

However, the putter took some time to warm up as he dropped two shots on his first nine – on the 13th and 17th holes – both because of three-putts.

Scott, victor of the US Masters in 2013, hinted in November he may opt not to compete in favour of time off. Spieth said the decision “didn’t make any sense to me” and was a “bit odd”. Spieth, who was warned about slow play late in his round, said “it was the Rory that I have seen win majors”.

Spieth added;: “I understand that if you are being timed and you are taking longer than the allotted time, you get a bad time”.

“I was excited to get going, especially playing in a group like that, first round of the year”.