On Thursday, Tommy Fleetwood was a bit surprised. He had just shot 10 under, which he learned as he began talking with reporters tied the course record at Yas Links in Abu Dhabi.
“Only equalling course record?” he said. “Who else has shot 10 under?”
Sami Valimaki, 12 months ago.
Tommy-lad would have to accept just a share of the record and an outright lead at the penultimate event on the 2024 DP World Tour schedule. But just one day later, even more acceptance is now required of Fleetwood, because the record is no longer his to share at all.
Paul Waring is a 39-year-old pro who hails from the same part of England as Fleetwood — Merseyside, in the greater Liverpool area, down the street from Hoylake. He’s much more journeyman than leading man, winning just once on the DP World Tour, back in 2018. It’s been years since he competed in a major championship, but he’s kicked around the European circuit with respectable results. And lately, he’s been making a lot of birdies.
“My caddie made the remark a few days ago,” Waring said Friday. “We played a little bit golf at Trump over in Dubai and we played the Fire Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates as well, and for those two rounds, I actually had 50 percent birdies. We were having a bit of a laugh yesterday because I had nine birdies yesterday. So that was 50 percent.
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“So he said today, Right, every round, you’ve got 50 percent birdies. So that was our goal, if you know what I mean. I was just trying to keep going and try to keep making as many birdies as I could. So I wasn’t even conscious of the score today.”
It’s not so wild for a top-level pro to make nine birdies or more in a round, because often they may sprinkle a bogey or two in there as well. Waring had done that as recently as Thursday, spoiling his nine birdies in the first round with a bogey on the par-5 2nd. Somehow, the same fate seemed to find him again Friday.
Waring followed three straight birdies on 3 thru 5 with an eagle on 6, cruising to five under. Then he followed three straight birdies on 10 thru 12 with another birdie on 13, reaching nine under, one off Fleetwood’s record. When he soon got level with Fleetwood’s record with a birdie on 16, all he needed was a simple 4 on the par-5 finishing hole
Easier said than done.
Waring pulled his tee ball on the 18th in the left rough, near the water hazard. He chopped it back out into the fairway, surely accepting that he had made his “50 percent birdies” and not needing anymore. Just get it in the house and enjoy your 36-hole lead. But then …
“That was the best shot I’ve ever hit in my life to be honest,” Waring said. “Yeah, had left myself 262, 265, something like that to the last.”
When a pro doesn’t know the exact yardage to the shot of their life, you know it came from a long way out.
“The tee shot on 18 was a little bit peculiar for me,” Waring continued, “because I had been hitting it great all day. So even over that 3-wood I felt like could I hit a solid shot into the part of the green and just hit a little draw. One of the best shots I’ve hit.”
Up and down from 249, according to the DP World Tour’s website, for an 11-under 61 and a course record all to himself. The best shot he’s ever hit, and now also one of the most important shots.
Waring is in the field this week because he ranks 48th in the season-long race to Dubai. The top 50 advance to that final stage, the top 25 of whom gain entry to the Open Championship next summer, and the top 10 of whom gain something much bigger: 2025 PGA Tour membership.
Waring’s dazzling birdie for that 61 pushed him into a five-shot lead at the halfway point. If he gets the job done this weekend, he’ll leap into 7th on the Race to Dubai standings. It would push him one-good-week shy of earning his PGA Tour card and making him a 39-year-old Tour rookie when the 2025 season kicks off in January.
Fifty percent birdies should get the job done.