Justin Rose and Jamie Donaldson fired -5 rounds of 67 to share the lead after an intriguing first day at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
Donaldson and Rose outshone Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Rory carded a +3 75 with his new Nike equipment and Tiger started his season with a real mixed bag of E 72.
Rose puncuated his round with a holed bunker shot while Donaldson also chipped in from the sand, as they established a one stroke advantage over Dane Thorbjørn Olesen and Spaniard Pablo Larrazábal.
“I think if I'm completely honest, I didn't have it completely under control today with the long game.it didn't feel perfect" said Rose, now the world's #5.“I think this that's the most important thing to realise; it's the nature of the golf course this week. It's set up very, very difficult, the fairways are narrow. Clearly with a lot of crosswinds, the fairways are hard to hit and the rough is punishing.
Donaldson's maiden triumph at Royal Portrush six months ago in his 255th European Tour start helped to propel him into the sport's top 50 and the biggest reward for that is that he will make his Masters Tournament debut in April.
Tiger's 72 include 3 bogey's and a birdie 38 on the front nine and 3 birdies and a bogey 34 on the back, while Rory had 2 doubles and a bogey in his card of +3 75.
click here for live scoring http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2013/tournamentid=2013005/leaderboard/index.html?showLeaderboard=Y
BryanA (notes from europeantour.com)
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