ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Rory McIlroy was handed a two-shot penalty after his first round at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Thursday, with officials ruling he improved his lie on a hole where he made 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.
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Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks toward the 16th green during the first round of the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Eugenio Chacarra of Spain hits off the first tee during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Patrick Reed of the United States looks on after his second shot on the 11th hole during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks down the first fairway during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Francesco Laporta of Italy hits off the first tee during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland hits off the first tee during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
In actions that have dented his bid to win a record-tying eighth season-long Race to Dubai title, McIlroy was seen in video footage 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 the world No. 2, 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.”
In a statement, the European tour pointed to Rule 8.1b(4), which “permits a player to ground their club lightly right in front of or behind the ball.”
“However, a player is not allowed to press the club on the ground,” the statement said. “Having reviewed the footage, McIlroy was unable to say whether he had pressed the club on the ground or not. However, given his concern over perception of the footage, he was not comfortable proceeding without penalty. He therefore chose to apply a two-stroke penalty.”
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 on 70, while Patrick Reed shot 74.
All were far behind Laporta.
The two-week postseason 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.
“A few bad swings that I got away with,” Rahm said. “But overall, yeah, I shot really nice today.”
The two-time major winner was tied with Bernd Wiesberger and Sam Bairstow in second place on 7 under.
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 each year. It looks to be down to McIlroy, Reed and Chacarra, the current leader in the standings, 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 — 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 is seeking a fifth straight Race to Dubai title to move level on the all-time list on eight with Colin Montgomerie, who won the award when it was called the Order of Merit.
McIlroy is around 1,000 points behind Chacarra — a Spaniard playing his first full season on the European tour — and around 330 behind second-placed Reed, but the winner in Abu Dhabi this week will gain 1,500 points.
The season finishes in Dubai as usual next week, where 2,000 points are up for grabs for the winner.
See AP’s full golf coverage here
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks toward the 16th green during the first round of the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Eugenio Chacarra of Spain hits off the first tee during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Patrick Reed of the United States looks on after his second shot on the 11th hole during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks down the first fairway during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Francesco Laporta of Italy hits off the first tee during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland hits off the first tee during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Florida and Alabama plan to execute two men Thursday for killing older adults during home robberies, just hours after Indiana put a prisoner to death in the first of three lethal injections scheduled for the same day in the U.S.
It would be Florida’s 19th execution this year under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, matching a record set by the state in 2025, and the second time this year that three people would be put to death on the same day.
The death penalty has faced renewed scrutiny since the September failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee, although courts have rejected efforts to halt other executions after she survived two doses of pentobarbital.
In Indiana, Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. at the state prison in Michigan City, said Noelle Russell, spokesperson at the Department of Correction.
She said Weisheit’s final meal was barbecue ribs and he had no final words. He had acknowledged killing his girlfriend’s two children in a house fire in the Evansville area in 2010 but had hoped that Gov. Mike Braun would grant clemency and change his sentence to life in prison. Braun declined.
Florida has carried out more than half the 32 executions in the U.S. so far this year. DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has said he wants to bring justice to families who have waited decades for death sentences to be carried out.
Jesse Guardado confessed and quickly pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a 75-year-old woman inside her Walton County home in 2004 before stealing her jewelry box, $80 and other valuables to buy drugs. She had helped him get a job and housing.
A federal appeals court in 2024 said that Guardado, now 64, had received a “full and fair” hearing during the death penalty phase of his case.
In 1991, Michael Taylor, then 19, fatally beat two people, ages 83 and 79, with a metal bar during a robbery in their Gadsden, Alabama, home. Police arrested him with the victims’ Cadillac an hour away in Birmingham.
Death penalty opponents had urged Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to reduce Taylor’s sentence to life in prison, noting his age and immaturity at the time of the killings. She declined.
“If the state kills Michael, it is not the 19-year-old who made the worst mistake of his life who it kills. But the mature, well-respected, God-fearing man sitting in that cell today,” said Esther Brown of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty.
The state plans to execute Taylor, 54, by lethal injection after a judge declared a nitrogen gas method unconstitutional. His attorneys objected to the last-minute switch to lethal injection since he selected nitrogen gas as his method several years ago, but a judge ruled against Taylor.
In Indiana, lawyers failed to persuade Braun, a Republican, to allow Weisheit to undergo brain scans in an effort to reinforce their argument that he has a history of head injuries and mental health problems that should foreclose execution.
Weisheit’s last objection centered on the state’s planned use of lethal drugs purchased from a pharmacy that is facing a disciplinary hearing next week at the Indiana Pharmacy Board. The Indiana Supreme Court declined to intervene Wednesday night, though two of the five justices wanted a 10-day stay for more information about the drugs’ expiration and storage.
The execution provided “long-awaited justice for Alyssa Lynch and her brother Caleb, two innocent children whose lives were stolen in an act of unspeakable cruelty,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said.
Fischer reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Chandler from Montgomery, Alabama. Associated Press reporter Ed White contributed from Detroit.
The entrance to W.C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., is shown on Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler) Photo taken with a smartphone.
This photo provided by the Indiana Department of Correction shows Jeffrey Weisheit. The Indiana Parole Board is recommending that the death penalty remain in place for Weisheit who killed two children in a house fire.(Indiana Department of Correction via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, shows Michael Taylor. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)