Rory McIlroy has never been shy about telling a golf course exactly what he thinks of it. Ask Bay Hill, where he called the 2022 weekend “crazy golf.” Ask TPC Sawgrass, where a 37-putt round in 2016 left him calling some greens “borderline unfair.” Now a venue he has treated like a second home for 17 years has joined that list. The Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates has given McIlroy three DP World Tour Championship trophies, but after a second-round 70 on Friday, the world No. 2 did not hold back on how the layout is playing this week. 

“No, I mean, if anything, I started to get frustrated with the golf course. It just, you know, as it dries out, lies and fairways aren’t very good, and greens start to get bumpy. And I started to get maybe a little bit frustrated with the course on the way in. But I think it’s just the nature of it. It’s a tough test. I think, as well, I’ve been coming to this golf course for 17 years, and this is the toughest I think it’s ever played. So in my mind it’s sort of like, well, you should be going out and shooting 66 or 65, and the course just isn’t set up that way this week. And you just have to show a little bit more patience out there,” he said.

The round started like a man heading for a runaway lead. McIlroy picked up four birdies through the 10th to move clear of the field, and the Earth Course looked like it belonged to him again.

Then came the 12th. His tee shot found the rough, and he dropped his first shot of the day. More bogeys followed at the 16th and 17th before a birdie at the last dragged him back to five under, level with Ryder Cup teammate Tyrrell Hatton.

The two lies around the 11th and 12th greens seem to have stuck with him most. “You can’t really chip it because you don’t really know how it’s going to come out. And then you can’t putt it because it’s lying down in the rough too much,” he told The Scotsman.

Why the Earth Course Looks Different This Year

Rory McIlroy is not alone in this. English professional golfer Tyrrell Hatton, who has played here 12 times, backed up the view with his own numbers.

“Normally scoring is fairly good round here. Anywhere between 16 and 20 under is normally the mark. I mean, if scoring stays the same as it is, then what, 12 under, 13 under will win. It kind of shows how different it is playing this year.”

There is an awkward backdrop too. Yas Links was in pristine shape for last week’s Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship, which Jon Rahm won. Players arrived in Dubai a week later and found a course that, by McIlroy’s own account, has been better in previous years. Wind on the first two days made it worse. In golf terms, “lies” are simply how the ball sits on the grass, and when they are poor around the greens, even a good approach shot can turn into a bogey.

Has Rory McIlroy Been Here Before?

Many times. Earlier this year, he called the greens at Riviera “soft” and “fast” at the same time, a strange mix. At the PGA Championship at Aronimink in May, he closed his opening round with four straight bogeys, and players criticised the hole locations the next day.

Others have been through it as well. Hatton raged at the greens at Southern Hills during the 2022 PGA Championship. Phil Mickelson was so annoyed by the Shinnecock Hills greens at the 2018 U.S. Open that he hit his own moving ball. Shane Lowry said, “I think it has been set up pretty poorly” at this year’s PGA Championship.

The pattern is hard to miss. When a course tightens up, McIlroy speaks up. The difference this week is that the venue is one where he usually scores low, which makes any slip feel bigger.

The complaints should not hide how well he is placed. Rory McIlroy has won the Race to Dubai seven times, including four in a row, and an eighth would match Colin Montgomerie’s record. Monty won seven straight between 1993 and 1999 and added another in 2005.

Eugenio Chacarra came into the week leading the standings and sits outside the top ten on one under, though he can still pass McIlroy with a big weekend. Patrick Reed, third in the points before this week, is 49th in a 50-man field and almost certainly out of it.

For McIlroy, the plan is simple. “But if I go and I win the first trophy on Sunday, then the second trophy should take care of itself.” That line also hints at his mindset. He is chasing the tournament first and the season-long title second.

Saturday sets up a tasty pairing, with McIlroy and Hatton going out together in the final group. Hatton, banned from the PGA Tour until August after his time with the now-collapsed LIV Golf League, will not earn a PGA Tour card even with a win, but he has made clear his focus is the DP World Tour.

This could signal a grind rather than a shootout. If 12 or 13 under is the winning number, as Hatton suggests, patience will matter more than power. That may suit McIlroy, who admitted he needs to show “a little bit more patience” out there.

Montgomerie has already promised to be in Dubai to hand McIlroy a ninth trophy if he ever gets there. First, Rory McIlroy has to get through the Earth Course’s awkward lies and keep his temper while he does it.