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By Kent Gray
With Shane Lowry rattling off 10 birdies in an historic 62, you’d have thought it difficult to muscle in on the highlights reel on the opening day of the $7 million Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. No one told demonstrative Spaniard Pablo Larrazábal it seems.

The 2014 champion book-ended a seven under 65 with three birdies in his first four holes and an hole-out eagle, chip-in birdie, up-and-down birdie finish to end the opening round just three shots off Lowry’s sizzling pace.

The highlight was an eagle two via an eight-iron from 173 yards and the penal rough on the inside of the dogleg on Abu Dhabi G.C.’s par-4 16th, although his chip-in from beyond the next green wasn’t to be sniffed at either.

But as with many a spectacular round, it was a gritty up-and-down, this time for a bogey on the 14th, that gave Larrazábal the impetus for his grandstand finish.

“On 14, we were between clubs. I hit a perfect 7 just short of the landing area we wanted to, and then I thin it from the bunker over the green. I up-and-down for bogey there. It was a great up-and-down.

“It’s a great way to finish, a nice up-and-down for birdie on the last, and happy days. But there’s a lot of golf to be played.”