Joost Luiten, the last man in and not a fan of world’s oldest whisky, leads in Dubai

“We’ve got nothing to lose, so let’s go for it,” declared Dutchman Luiten with a huge smile after carding a five-under-par 67 on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai in the first match out in the $10 million season finale and seeing that stand all day as the best score.

“It worked out so far,” added the six-time tour winner, who, on the back of his seven-birdie opening salvo, has jumped from 56th to fifth in the projected Race to Dubai Ranking after only getting into the 50-man field due to a handful of players, including defending champion Matthew Fitzpatrick and Scottish No 1 Bob MacIntyre, deciding to skip the event due to concerns about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Dane Jacob Skov Olesen, The R&A Amateur Championship winner in 2024, ended the day as Luiten’s closest challenger after finishing with a birdie for a 68, with a five-strong group one further back including three-time winner McIlroy and Edinburgh-based Frenchman Victor Perez, who made his strong start in the same group as the leader.

With all respect to the other 24 two-balls, all eyes were on McIlroy and young Spaniard Eugenio Chacarra as they headed out in the final group of the day in the Rolex Series event, which will decide the destiny of the Harry Vardon Trophy on Sunday night.

After hitting the longest drive of the day - a 320-yard blow - at the first then rolling an eight-footer for an opening birdie before setting up an eagle putt at the par-5 second with a majestic approach, it looked as though McIlroy was in the mood to lay down a marker for the week.

Having to settle for a par at the second, though, and missing some other opportunities as well meant that didn’t really happen while Chacarra, a three-time winner this season, didn’t fire on all cylinders either. He reeled off three birdies in a row to finish the back nine but had bogeys at three of the par-3s. Signing for a par-72, he sits joint-28th but still tops the points list in the projected standings.

“Yeah, proud of the fight,” said Chacarra, who is bidding to become just the third Spaniard after Seve Ballesteros and Jon Rahm to win the Race to Dubai. “I think I maybe made a couple of mistakes strategy-wise. But I'm making birdies and I'm playing good. I just need to clean up the card a little in the next couple of days.”

Chacarra enjoyed a slice of luck at the par-5 18th, where his tee shot looked destined for a stream that zig-zags its way up the fairway but hit some rocks at the side of it and propelled the ball forward on to dry ground. “I didn't see as it’s hard to see from the tee,” admitted McIlroy of that. ”I saw that the ball bounced, but I didn't know that it hit the rocks.”

In a play-off 12 months ago, McIlroy found the hazard with his drive as the three-time winner lost out to Ryder Cup team-mate Matthew Fitzpatrick. “Wonderful design by Greg Norman,” he said, smiling, of having had both good breaks and bad breaks on that hole over the years.

As for his day’s work, the world No 2 admitted: “I think it was a pretty fair score. I could probably stand here and argue that I could have been better, but I could probably stand here and argue that I could have been worse as well. So I hit the ball well for the most part.

“That's the most wind that we've played in here for quite a while and that makes it tricky. The course set up is a little more difficult than in previous years. And the greens are not Yas Links (venue for the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship) like last week. They're not absolutely perfect. So you've got to have your patience a little bit on them too. But yeah, overall, happy with the score.”

On his goal for the week, which is to equal Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight Race to Dubai crowns. the back-to-back Masters champion added: “Yeah, the old adage! You can't win it on the first day, but you can certainly lose it. I played nicely today, so there was never, didn't feel like there was ever any threat of me shooting a bad one. But it was possible today to go out there and shoot a couple over and feel like you were sort of out of the tournament. So to get off to a solid start was very important.”

American Patrick Reed, who came into the week sitting third in the Race to Dubai title battle, had a disappointing day as he signed for a three-over-par 75, with none of the others - nine in total came in here with a chance - still in the title battle doing anything to really shout about. Jon Rahm, last week’s Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship winner, signed for a 71, as did Kiwi Daniel Hillier.

That was also Calum Hill’s score, with the Scot needing to either win or finish second to secure one of the ten PGA Tour cards up for grabs next season. After being two under with eight to play, Grant Forrest had to settle for a 73, one better than Ewen Ferguson.

Leader Luiten has a huge Scotch Whisky Investments logo on the back of his golf shirt. “It’s a Dutch company that invests in barrels and bottles and they've been making me some profit and they've been sponsoring me pretty good, so, I'm quite happy with them,” he explained.

Is he a whisky man himself? “I tasted the oldest whisky in the world, the 85-year Gordon & MacPhail. Oh, yeah. It has been 85 years in the barrel and it still tastes like s***,” he said, laughing.

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