Everything you need to know from Friday's play at the penultimate Rolex Series event of the season.
A pair of Englishmen shared the lead at the midway point of the 2025 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship after one of them fired a memorable albatross and the other made a fast start.
Here is everything you need to know from Friday's play at the penultimate Rolex Series event of the season.
Fleetwood and Rai tied at the top
Tommy Fleetwood and his countryman Aaron Rai shared the lead on 14 under par at the halfway stage after wowing the crowds at Yas Links on day two. First-round co-leader Fleetwood made a lightning-quick start on Friday as he opened with a hat-trick of birdies before going on to sign for a 66. The two-time former winner and reigning FedEx Cup champion made a total of seven birdies, with his only bogey of the week so far coming on the 15th. Joining Fleetwood at the top was World Number 30 Rai, who fired a breathtaking albatross and five birdies in a flawless 64. The pair sit two shots clear of nearest challengers Andy Sullivan, Nicolai Højgaard and Richard Sterne, with 2019 winner Shane Lowry among those another stroke further back.
Rai's rare bird
The highlight of Rai's spectacular round came at the par-five second, where he holed his approach shot from 218 yards with a six iron to land an amazing albatross. He said: "I think we had about 185 yards to the front. The wind was a little bit down off the left and that green is so fast, and slopes front-to-back, that anything pitching a few yards onto the green always gets down to the bottom. I actually caught it a little bit clean off the face, the line was great. I think it probably pitched around the front edge and chased its way down there. We couldn't see it from back on the fairway, so it was a nice surprise."
Lowry makes unorthodox eagle
When Ryder Cup star Lowry hit his approach at the par-five 11th, you would never have known from his reaction that it was about to land 11 feet from the pin and set up an eagle...
Sullivan drains monster putt
Sullivan read his enormous birdie putt at the 17th to perfection, rolling in from 54 feet to send the crowd wild.
Elvira denied slam-dunk ace
Nacho Elvira experienced golf's fine margins as he was denied a slam-dunk hole-in-one by a matter of inches at the par-three 17th, with his ball landing next to the cup before running ten feet by. Speaking about the near-miss, he said: "It was very close. It landed to about six inches off the hole and I didn't even make a birdie. But it's golf."
