Sullivan leads as fog disrupts play in Abu Dhabi

Early-morning fog at Abu Dhabi Golf Club reduced visibility to less than 50 yards and delayed the scheduled start of the second day's play by two hours and 45 minutes.

Published : Jan 22, 2016 21:43 IST , Abu Dhabi

Andy Sullivan teeing off at the 18th hole in the second round.
Andy Sullivan teeing off at the 18th hole in the second round.
lightbox-info

Andy Sullivan teeing off at the 18th hole in the second round.

Andy Sullivan continued to display impressive form as he snatched the clubhouse lead at the weather-disrupted second round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on Friday.

Early-morning fog at Abu Dhabi Golf Club reduced visibility to less than 50 yards and delayed the scheduled start of the second day's play by two hours and 45 minutes.

The delay meant that the afternoon session players could not complete their rounds, and that included the feature group of world number one Jordan Spieth, number three Rory McIlroy and number six Rickie Fowler.

Overnight leader, American amateur Bryson DeChambeau, will also have to come out early Saturday morning to complete his round.

The 29-year-old Sullivan added a second consecutive five-under par 67 to move to 10-under par 134 for the tournament, three shots better than Dutchman Joost Luiten (68) and Spaniard Rafael Cabrera-Bello (67).

It was an eventful round for Sullivan, who started on the 10th tee with three birdies on the trot, and finished in a similar fashion. In between, he made another birdie on the first hole and two bogeys.

"Got off to a great start out there straightaway, putter was getting hot early doors and sort of lost my way in the middle there," said Sullivan, who was playing with the European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke.

"I started losing the ball left a little bit and was really happy with the fight back at the end. It puts me at the top of the leaderboard, which is great."

When play was finally suspended for the day, DeChambeau had just made a bogey on the ninth hole to be one-under par for the day and one shot behind leader Sullivan at nine-under par.

The group of Spieth, McIlroy and Fowler had finished playing 13 holes when the hooter went off. Spieth had dropped a shot by then to be on three-under par after making back-to-back bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes.

McIlroy could not make a single birdie and a bogey on ninth had dropped him to five-under par, while three birdies had lifted Fowler to the same score as the Northern Irishman.

The second round will now be completed starting 7.40 a.m. UAE time on Saturday morning and the third round will commence after that.

Sign in to unlock all user benefits
  • Get notified on top games and events
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign up / manage to our newsletters with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early bird access to discounts & offers to our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide to our community guidelines for posting your comment