Rory McIlroy was pleased not play his way out of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic after chiselling out a 70 that left him tied with LIV target Tom McKibbin and veteran Pádraig Harrington.
The rusty world number three made two birdies and two bogeys in the back nine before following a birdie four at the second with a chip in birdie at the seventh.
At two-under, the four time champion was five shots behind Portugal’s Ricardo Gouivea and Australian David Micheluzzi who shot 65s to head France’s Mike Lorenzo Vera and Scots Callum Hill and Ewen Ferguson by two shots.
“Yeah, pretty scrappy,” said McIlroy who is chasing a record fifth win at the Emirates Golf Club and his third in a row.
“Actually I felt I played probably better the first eight holes where I was one-over compared to the last 10 where I was one-under.
“Yeah, it was a bit scrappy. First competitive round of the year. First competitive round in a while.
“A little uncomfortable over some shots. Definitely not as comfortable as I was in practise and coming in here.
“But it’s nice to get a card in your hand. It sort of exposes the things that you need to work on.
“I got it around today. I got it around and got it in in a couple under, which is nice, and didn’t put myself out of the tournament, which is the main thing.”
McKibbin, who has been advised by McIlroy not to sign for Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team at LIV Golf, was four under and bogey free until he made a double bogey six at the 480-yard 14th.
The Holywood star followed birdies the 11th, 16th and 18th with another birdie at the first but found rough at the 14th and bunkered his third before taking three more to get down.
Harrington (53) also started on the back nine but after birdies at the 10th, 13th and 18th,he followed eight straight pars with a bogey at the ninth, where he he missed a two footer after a 60 foot lag putt from the fringe
McIlroy revealed he’d made some changes to his bag set up in the off season, especially with his wedges.
“I did a good job of scrambling today. I made a lot of key up-and-downs.,” he said. “Bonus of a chip-in on 7. But I don’t want to have to rely on my short game the rest of the week like I did today.
“I’ve been messing around a little bit in the off-season. I actually went with two degrees more loft with the lob wedge, so I went to a 61-degree lob-wedge instead of a 59, which definitely makes the short-sided shots a little bit easier, and it was nice to see that a little bit today.”