ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- Rory McIlroy was handed a two-shot penalty after finishing his first round at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Thursday, with officials ruling he improved his lie on a hole where he shot double-bogey to spoil his card.
McIlroy's score of 6 at the par-4 12th hole turned into an even uglier 8 and left him posting a 2-under 70 to be eight shots off the lead, held by Francesco Laporta after his bogey-free round of 62.
In actions that have dented his bid to win a record-tying eighth seasonlong Race to Dubai title, McIlroy was seen pressing his club on grass behind his ball that had rolled back down the hill and into a divot after he duffed an attempted chip onto the green on No. 12.
"There's no intent. I play by the rules," said McIlroy, who spent time in the scorer's hut after his round discussing the incident with officials. "I try to do everything that I can to never end up in these positions."
McIlroy acknowledged video footage of the incident "doesn't look very good."
"I'm just trying to get a feel for the lie," he said. "The ball is in a sort of bottom of a sandy divot.
"I guess the technical term for the rule is if you press down on the piece [of grass]. I don't feel like I pressed down. But at the same time, I don't want the perception of, like, people thinking like I got away with something either. So I'm happy to take a 2-shot penalty and move on and move into tomorrow."
McIlroy initially fared the best of the three Race to Dubai contenders in a low-scoring first round. Now he was tied with Eugenio Chacarra at 70, while Patrick Reed shot 74.
All were far behind Laporta.
The two-week playoffs on the European tour began with the 224th-ranked Laporta shooting 10 under to take a three-stroke lead over three players, including fellow Spaniard Jon Rahm, at Yas Links.
"Everything was just going like a video game," said Laporta, who missed a 6-foot birdie putt at No. 18 for a 61 that would have tied the course record.
Rahm, one of the many players who are leaving financially stricken LIV Golf, hadn't competed for seven weeks and was playing Yas Links for the first time.
It didn't show.
He also was bogey-free, making seven birdies, thanks mainly to strong iron play and a dose of luck. The two-time major winner was tied with Bernd Wiesberger and Sam Bairstow in second place at 7 under.
"A few bad swings that I got away with," Rahm said. "But overall, yeah, I shot really nice today."
Matthew Jordan and Adrian Meronk, a recent winner at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, were a further stroke behind after 66s.
The big subplot in this next-to-last event of the 2026 season is the fight for the Race to Dubai title, which crowns the No. 1 player on the European tour. It looks to be down to McIlroy, Reed and Chacarra, the current leader in the standings during his first full season on the tour, and all three are playing in the same group for the first two rounds.
McIlroy rebounded from that double -- or quadruple, as it now is -- at No. 12 by making three straight birdies from No. 14.
"It was a round where I felt like I could have been obviously a lot better," McIlroy said, "but there was enough encouraging signs in there to go out and hopefully shoot a good one tomorrow."
Chacarra, who was playing with McIlroy for the first time, was 1 over at the turn after making three bogeys but recovered with four birdies on his back nine.
Reed had a frustrating day, making 15 pars and a closing double-bogey 7 in a 74 that saw him tied for 56th in the 70-man field.
McIlroy, the world No. 2, is seeking a fifth straight Race to Dubai title and eighth overall to tie the all-time record with Colin Montgomerie, who won the award when it was called the Order of Merit.
He is around 1,000 points behind Chacarra and around 330 behind second-place Reed, but the winner in Abu Dhabi this week will gain 1,500 points.
The season finishes in Dubai next week, where 2,000 points are up for grabs for the winner.