Francesco Laporta matched the lowest round of his DP World Tour career to storm into a three-shot lead after round one of the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship.
The Italian carded an eagle and eight birdies in a bogey-free 62 to get to ten under at Yas Links, three shots clear of former World Number One Jon Rahm, Englishman Sam Bairstow and Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger.
In the battle to win the Race to Dubai, third-placed Rory McIlroy carded a 68, with leader Eugenio Chacarra signing for a 70 and second-placed Patrick Reed recording a 74.
The top 70 available players from the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World are teeing it up in this week’s first Play-Off event, with the top 50 then moving on to the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
Laporta entered the week ranked 51st but will be assured of a place in Duabi if he can maintain anything like the form he showed on day one over the weekend.
The 36-year-old has had a quietly impressive season, the highlight of which so far has been a runner-up finish at the Investec South African Open Championship.
That was the third second-place of his DP World career, a career which has seen him truly establish himself on Tour in recent years after coming through the Qualifying School and then twice graduating from the HotelPlannner Tour, winning the Road to Mallorca in 2019.
A Rolex Series win this week would elevate him to yet another level and he revealed after his opening round in the UAE that it had taken a lot of harrd work to get his game together in recent days.
“Everything was just going like a video game, like just hitting shots straight and making some putts and just giving myself opportunities,” he said. “I’m very happy about that.
“Actually, I was struggling a bit in the last few days. So I had a lot of time on the range yesterday and I spent a lot of time on the greens, just understanding how to work around the lines and the spin because the greens, like they’re pure, but they’re also quick. So now it works.”
Laporta took advantage of the par-five second and then holed a 30-footer on the fifth for another birdie.
He was ten feet further away at the par-five seventh but rolled in his eagle putt and followed that with a pair of gains to turn in 30.
He picked up another shot on a par five at the 11th and followed that with a brilliant tee shot on the par-three 13th, an approach to 12 feet at the next and another 40-foot putt on the 16th to storm clear of the field.
Staged by the DP World Tour and Abu Dhabi Sports Council, the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship gets under way tomorrow at Yas Links.
