Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry share a five-way tie for the lead at the Abu Dhabi Championship after both former champions fired impressive 8-under 64s in Thursday’s opening round.
The Ryder Cup stars find themselves atop the leaderboard alongside Frenchman Adrien Saddier, New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori, and South African Richard Sterne—the only player in the current field who also competed when the tournament debuted in 2006.
Fleetwood, who claimed back-to-back titles here in 2017 and 2018, delivered a flawless performance with eight birdies and no bogeys. Lowry, the 2019 champion, went one better with nine birdies against a single dropped shot.
“It’s Thursday. You can obviously play your way out of it, you can’t win it, but 8 under is a really nice way to start,” Fleetwood said.
Saddier made a serious push for the outright lead in the afternoon wave, rattling off nine birdies through his first 16 holes before stumbling with a bogey on the 17th.
Sterne’s round featured two eagles but also included two bogeys, while Kobori put together a clean card with an eagle and six birdies in his flawless opening effort.
Seven players sit just one shot back after posting 7-under 65s: Alex Noren, Andy Sullivan, Nicolai von Dellingshausen, Nicolai Højgaard, Keita Nakajima, Michael Kim and Nacho Elvira.
The shot of the day belonged to Ludvig Åberg, who made a hole-in-one at the par-3 eighth. His tee shot landed just a couple feet from the pin before disappearing into the cup.
Despite that highlight, Åberg finished four strokes behind the leaders at 4-under, the same score posted by his Ryder Cup teammate Rory McIlroy.
