USGolfProTips

• Two-shot penalty costs McIlroy share of lead in Abu Dhabi
• Luke Donald was right to highlight error, says McIlroy

The education of Rory McIlroy continues apace, although his inexorable march towards superstardom took an unexpected and damaging detour on Friday into the netherworld governed by the rules of golf.

Experience says that no one emerges happy from that mysterious place and so it proved in the case of the world No3, who was penalised two shots during the second round of the Abu Dhabi Championship for the heinous crime of brushing away some sand that lay between his ball and the flag on the 9th green. If the sand had been on the green, he would have been fine. It was not and therefore he was not – although it took his playing partner Luke Donald to point out this uncomfortable fact.

“I felt pretty bad about it but as soon as I saw him doing it I knew I had to say something,” the world No1 said. “It’s a pretty basic rule, to be honest, and, if I hadn’t said something, there are plenty of people who would.”

Donald is right about that. The world is full of armchair rules officials these days, television remote in one hand and telephone in the other, primed to call in at the merest suggestion that something might be up. At this same event last year Padraig Harrington was disqualified after a viewer phoned to complain he moved his ball a fraction while addressing a putt.

Harrington accepted his fate with equanimity and so did McIlroy. “My ball was maybe six feet off the green and there was a lot of sand between it and the hole. I just brushed the sand away and as soon as I did it Luke said, ‘You can’t brush sand off the fringe.’ I knew straight away he was right. I wasn’t thinking clearly and just made a very stupid mental mistake.”

McIlroy’s par four was immediately converted into a double-bogey six. That pushed him down the leaderboard. To his credit he clawed his way back, with a birdie at the par-five 10th after a towering three-wood to the heart of the green. He followed that with a bogey at the next, then two birdies and a string of pars for a level-par round of 72 and a 36-hole score of 139, five under par.

As rounds of golf go, it was more Alton Towers than Augusta National. Still he was not complaining. “I am not sure I have ever had that many up and down in a round of golf before. It is pretty interesting stuff,” McIlroy said.

And fairly effective. With 36 holes to go, McIlroy finds himself in a tie for fourth, two shots behind the leader, Thorbjorn Olesen, who added a five-under-par 67 to his opening day 70. The 22-year-old Dane is no mug – he finished 48th in the Race to Dubai last year – but he might not care to look at the leaderboard overnight lest he sleep a little less easily.

There are 30 players within five shots of the lead and plenty of them have better pedigrees. McIlroy is one and so is Donald, who has looked a little out of sorts, especially with a driver in his hand, but when the numbers were totalled up he finished on one under par.

This was hard to believe but Donald has developed the happy knack of getting the most out of not very much. “All I need is a good round on Saturday and I’ll be right in it,” he said.

The presence of Tiger Woods, tied with McIlroy and five other players, looks particularly ominous. The former world No1 has played beautifully over the two days. His ball striking has come back, his course management is as good as it ever was and, on Friday at least, his putting bore at least a resemblance to what it once was. In short he looks primed.

“There are 36 holes to go and there is a lot of guys who have got a chance to win. I just need to do my job,” Woods said after his 69. He could scarcely say anything else but there is spring in the great man’s step, a palpable aura of expectation. He fancies it, as the driving-range Johnnies might say, although in this he is not alone.

The third round will see the American paired with McIlroy for a third successive day. It is just a hunch but do not be surprised if they are slugging this one out on Sunday afternoon. It has that kind of feel.