Tiger Woods and Luke Donald were out-shone today by Rory McIlroy who shot a five under par opening round of 67 at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
The US Open Champion is sharing the lead with Robert Karlsson, while Woods shot a bogey-free round of 70 and World Number One Donald a 71.
German Martin Kaymer shot a surprising 77 , he has been the winner at this event the last two years and three of the last four.
He was playing with Lee Westwood (72) and Sergio Garcia, whose 71 included the first hole-in-one of his career on the European Tour.
McIlroy’s wasn’t at the top of his game, but like Karlsson he scrambled excellently in his first tournament since recovering from suspected Dengue fever.