xAustralia’s Marcus Fraser made a flying start to set the early pace in the first round of the £5.2million DP World Tour Championship in Dubai on Thursday. 

Fraser took advantage of ideal conditions to birdie four of the first seven holes on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates, moving to four under par and into a two-shot lead over Scotland’s Richie Ramsay.

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Ramsay, who birdied the first three holes in the opening round 12 months ago, had carded birdies at the second, fifth and sixth but dropped back to two under with his first bogey of the day on the eighth.

With the players going out in reverse order according to their positions on the Race to Dubai, world number three Rory McIlroy and England’s Danny Willett were in the final group at 12.40 local time (0840GMT).

 

 

McIlroy had the money list title wrapped up with an event to spare last year after four victories, including major titles in the Open at Royal Liverpool and US PGA Championship at Valhalla.

But after an injury-hit campaign which meant he was unable to defend his Open title at St Andrews and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the 26-year-old comes into the season finale with a lead of just 1,613 points over Willett in the Race to Dubai.

A total of seven players can still end the year as European number one, although McIlroy and Willett are more than 600,000 points clear of the chasing pack, meaning Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace need to finish second or better on Sunday, while Byeong Hun An has to win and hope other results go his way.

 

 

Fraser, who has recorded just two top-10 finishes on the European Tour this season, also birdied the 10th and 11th to reach six under par and briefly enjoy a four-shot lead.

That lead was reduced when former world number one Luke Donald birdied the first three holes, meaning two players not known for their length off the tee were top of the leaderboard on a course which has produced big-hitting winners like McIlroy, Henrik Stenson (twice), Alvaro Quiros and Robert Karlsson.