A relative surprise tops a star-studded leaderboard at the 2024 DP World Tour Championship through two rounds of action at the Earth Course at Jumeirah Estates. Antoine Rozner finds his name one clear of Rory McIlroy and Tyrrell Hatton and two clear of Joaquin Niemann after a second-round 65 catapulted him to 9 under for the tournament. Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood and Rasmus Højgaard are among others within a handful of the lead inside the top 10.
Unlike the triumvirate that chases him, Rozner looks for more than just another trophy; a victory would also secure one of the 10 PGA Tour cards up for grabs and push the Frenchman to No. 2 in the final Race to Dubai standings. Meanwhile, McIlroy appears well on his way to another season-long crown as he has opened up a seven-shot lead over his lone competitor, Thirston Lawrence, who sits in a tie for 34th.
“The confidence has been pretty high the last few months,” Rozner said. “Besides the last two weeks, Korea and Abu Dhabi, I was struggling to get everything together. But no, I just think the confidence clicked and everything is going the right way. We’re doing a really good job with my caddie as well. Yeah, it’s key and the margins are very small in this game. So sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t. Today was one of them.”
Rozner’s 65 came with ease, unlike the efforts from McIlroy and Hatton in the final pairing. Sharing the overnight lead, the Ryder Cup teammates got off to differing starts despite both ultimately carding rounds of 69. The Northern Irishman was the first to strike a blow as four birdies in his first seven holes pushed his tournament total to 9 under.
Hatton slipped out the gate and found himself over par through five holes and dropped as many as four strokes behind his playing partner. The Englishman began to string together strong golf shots and birdies from there as four circles were penned on his scorecard over the next 13 holes, which coincided with two birdies and two bogeys from McIlroy over that same stretch.
“A little disappointed that I didn’t kick on after such a great start, 4 under through seven,” McIlroy said. “I just started to miss a few fairways around the turn and not by much either but the rough is so thick, and you lose all control of your golf ball if you hit it in there. Three holes in a row I hit it off a fairway and made two bogeys, 8, 9 and 10. Steadied the ship a little bit but a couple of chances went by on 14 and 15.”
The cause of McIlroy’s immobility proved to be a left miss, which is nothing new for the Northern Irishman in 2024. Battling it since his season opener in these parts back in January, the 35-year-old will need to clean it up over the weekend if he is to win his fourth tournament of the year.
“I’m so comfortable around this place and I’ve had success before,” McIlroy said. “So I’m liking my chances going into the weekend.”
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