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Mike Lorenzo-Vera and caddie shake hands after the opening round. 

By Kent Gray
Engrave Rory McIlroy’s name on the DP World Tour Championship trophy for a third time and lock in Tommy Fleetwood for a second Race to Dubai title in three years.

There’s still an awful lot of golf to be played at Jumeirah Golf Estates and plenty of combatants fighting for other outcomes but at least the first of those two scenarios look likely after the big names fired on Earth Thursday.

Struggling with a lung infection picked up in South Africa last week, Mike Lorenzo-Vera owns the first round lead after a 63 that added credence to the age-old cliché that warns all to be wary of the sick golfer. The Frenchman’s nine-under-par circumnavigation of Earth could have been even better but for a bogey on the par-3 4th which took some of the gloss of a par-eagle-birdie start.

But the story of the opening day of this 11th European Tour season-decider at JGE belonged to McIlroy who sensationally capped a 64 with an eagle on 18 courtesy of a 291 yard three wood to five feet from a hanging lie. It was McIlroy’s 10th score of 66 or better on Earth and the way the Northern Irishman is driving his TaylorMade TP5, it will come as no surprise to see him add to his 2013 and 2015 wins come Sunday evening.

Lorenzo-Vera and the likes of Jon Rahm, the 2017 champion here who opened his week with a six-under 65 to sit solo-third overnight, aren’t about to concede the DPWTC to McIlroy just yet but will know that McIlroy’s opening salvo included a bogey on 12 and a couple of birdie putts that lipped out on the slippery greens.

Fleetwood, meanwhile, signed for a 67 to share 4th alongside English compatriot Tom Lewis, a shot better than Dubai–resident Rafa Cabrera Bello and Swede Marcus Kinhult.

While McIlroy ended strong, Fleetwood started fast, holing out for an eagle on the par-4 1st and then getting up and down from a front bunker on the second for birdie. The Englishman, one of four players still in the hunt to edge Bernd Wiesberger for the Race to Dubai title, was six under par through 10 holes but traded two bogeys and a birdie over the closing holes to lose some of his early momentum. Fleetwood couldn’t book-end his round a birdie but will take his pa on the 18th and run after his drive hit the rocks and bounced onto terra firma.

Wiesberger showed grit after spending plenty of the early part of his opening round in sand. Three times the Austrian fought back from one over the card, a birdie on 18 eventually seeing him settle for a two-under 70 and a share of 14th overnight. It helped holing bombs like this:

The beauty for Wiesberger is that he has time and plenty of Race to Dubai points on his side although he will be well aware of the fast starts from Rahm and Fleetwood, half of the quartet capable of eclipsing him to become European Tour No.1 for 2019.

The other half of the contending foursome have much work to do with Matthew Fitzpatrick in a share of 21st place after a one-under 71 and Open champion Shane Lowry struggling to an one-over 73.

Danny Willett’s title defence is off to a three-under start while honours are even in the two-horse race for the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie-of-the-Year after former MENA Tour winner Robert MacIntyre and reigning Oman Open champion Kurt Kitayama signed for 71s to sit alongside Fitzpatrick.