Greg Allen's Dubai Blog
In many ways this championship has a curious end-of-term feel to it and in truth Dubai has not yet really embraced the grand concept of the European Tour's vision in bringing their season finale here, but this opening round was compelling and promising.
Just look at the quality of the leaderboard. with the names of Allenby , Westwood, Villegas, Harrington. and McIlroy all in the top five.
Then there was the back nine 'duel' between McIlroy and Westwood in a first round that McIlroy likened to a final day, such was the tension that existed between them in their quest to be Europe's Number One come Sunday evening.
Westwood appeared to play the better golf by a considerable margin but only outscored his playing partner by two strokes (66-68).
But McIlroy showed an almost Tiger-like resource of fixing his swing in mid-round before putting his way out of trouble and back into the tournament with a four birdie back nine of 32.
It is rare that McIlroy's bails out his long game with his putting but that was certainly the case today and such rounds are possibly a more accurate pointer towards his future as a potential World No 1, than many of the beautifully fluid 63s and 64s that often appear easy to him.
Today he grinded from start to finish and he turned a potential 72 or 73 into a 68 by sheer inspiration, willpower and a refusal to be dominated by the increasingly confident Westwood, who has recently risen up the rankings to number five in the world.
The tension between them on the course today was understandable. They come from the same management stable, ISM and Westwood, while still only in his mid-thirties, is an established star trying to fend off the new wunderkind.
It may be only a matter of time before the McIlroy wave envelops Europe and America but for now, he is relatively unproven and Westwood knows that this weekend could well become more of a battle of mind than body.
And that will suit him just fine because with six Ryder Cup appearances the Englishman possesses one of the greatest matchplay records in the modern game.
So there's little doubt that if he and McIlroy square up again head to head on Sunday in one of the final groupings, it will probably be another compelling duel which could have a longterm bearing not just on McIlroy's own career but also on the perceived success of this fledgling championship.
