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By Kent Gray
For most, golf’s clichéd ‘moving day’ is reserved for Saturdays. Tyrrell Hatton clearly couldn’t wait that long.

After an opening 76, the Englishman was in serious danger of missing the cut at the 32nd OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic in what would have been a sobering hangover from his heroics in Abu Dhabi last week.

But with the help of an afternoon nap after Thursday morning’s disappointment and a good 7½ hours overnight to further top up his understandably flat batteries, the new world No.5 brought that other oft-used golf cliché into play on the Majlis Friday.

Indeed, what a difference a day – and a little overnight sleep – can make. Sparked by an opening birdie and a chip-in eagle on the par-5 3rd, Hatton produced a brilliant 64 to roar from 115th place starting the second round to a share of 23rd, just six strokes shy of leader Thomas Detry, by the end of Friday.

READ MORE: Saturday’s OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic Daily News is FREE here

There were chip-ins from rough and hole-outs from the sand, unlikely putts holed from off the green and relative tiddlers missed with a scowl or a scoff depending on Hatton’s ever-changing and always expressive mood. The Englishman would be a terrible poker play but that’s okay because he’s quite good at golf, arguably the best on the planet right now.

At eight-under for his round through 13 holes, Hatton even eyed Ernie Els’ course record 61, an 11-under loop in the first round of the three-time champion’s maiden Dallah triumph in 1994. A plugged waste area lie found off the 14th tee put pay to that but Hatton quickly rebounded from a second bogey with a birdie on the 16th that drew a glowing assessment from Ewen Murray up in the TV booth. “It is such a great privilege to watch a top player playing as well as this.” When Hatton knocked his pitch from the rough on the short par-4 17th close, Murray was at it again. “This is some player the European Tour has unearthed here,” Murray said. It mattered not that Hatton missed the putt, nor that he also had to settle for par on the 18th. He’d already done more than enough to get back into the conversation,

“Yeah, it was nice to be 8-under through 13, got quite fortunate with especially the birdie on 13. Just a bit of a bonus that one going in,” Hatton said of his putt from the fringe via a fluffed chip from the rough on the par-5.

“And then 14 was pretty tough to take. It was a poor tee shot. You don’t kind of expect to be plugged with a 3-wood but it is what it is, and a little bit disappointed I didn’t birdie 17 or 18, but I can’t really complain with 64.

RELATED: Hatton hums as Detry eases to bogey-free OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic lead

“Yeah, looking back I’m pretty happy with that round of golf to be honest. Going out today the goal was to try to make the cut after yesterday’s disappointing start. So I’m really happy that I’m going to be here for the weekend. Hoping that I can push on now and see where we go.”

It will be some feat if he can come back from an opening 76 to win although it’s not as if that sort of epic comeback would be unprecedented. Finn Sami Välimäki is the last player to win after being T-100th or worse following the opening round, as recently as last year’s Oman Open en-route to Sir Henry Cotton Rookie-of-Year honours.

“I think tomorrow is probably going to be an advantage going out a little earlier. The greens will be smoother. Having said that, I holed quite a few putts today,” Hatton said before reliving his Friday adventures on the greens.

“To be honest I think it’s one of those days where you’re better off putting from 15, 20 feet rather than being in amongst the five, six feet range and closer, because at least then you can kind of give it a little bit of a roll and it’s got some momentum.”

Momentum. There’s another fitting golf cliché. Roll on moving day indeed.