Fleetwood has gained twice within the United Arab Emirates down the highway in Abu Dhabi however is searching for a primary win in Dubai and seventh on the DP World Tour after claiming his first 54-hole lead on the European circuit for ten years.
The 32-year-old completed 2023 with a runner-up end on the DP World Tour Championship and after flying in from the PGA TOUR season-opener in Hawaii, he takes a lead into the ultimate spherical of a DP World Tour occasion for the primary time since 2014.
“I felt I performed very effectively, obtained off to the proper begin and obtained momentum early on, which I did not have yesterday,” stated Fleetwood, after birdies on the tenth, twelfth, thirteenth and 14th noticed him hold simply in entrance of McIlroy, who birdied the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and sixteenth.
“After which, yeah, that little patch via the center of the again 9, the place you simply begin seeing putts entering into. It is humorous whenever you get a day like that and also you’re simply taking a look at them and also you simply really feel like you possibly can come shut.
“You realize, in the present day they went my means. Yeah, only a little bit of confidence whenever you begin holing some and simply get in that rhythm and that move.”
Dane Thorbjørn Olesen sits alone in third on 12 beneath after a 66, one away from South African duo Thriston Lawrence and Zander Lombard and England’s Jordan Smith.
Holywood’s Tom McKibbin carded a four-under 67 to maneuver as much as fifteenth on six-under.
In the meantime, West Waterford’s Seamus Energy made a clutch birdie on the seventeenth and carded a four-under 66 to make the lower on the mark on the Sony Open at Waialae Nation Membership.
Energy started the day tied for 108th on two-over par, however he birdied the eighth, ninth and tenth to to get into the crimson, then made a two from seven ft on the 174-yard seventeenth earlier than closing with a par-five.
He made the four-under-par lower on the mark and shares sixty fifth place, simply 5 pictures behind Carl Yuan (65), Austin Eckroat (66) and Ben An (64) who lead by one stroke on nine-under from a ten-man chasing pack that includes Ben Griffin (62), Stewart Cink, Cam Davis, Keith Mitchell, Taylor Montgomery, Kurt Kitayama, Chris Kirk, Grayson Murray, Stephan Jaeger and Matthieu Pavon.
