Molinari sparkles as Sandhu, Sharma struggle in the wind at Hero Dubai Desert Classic

Dubai, Jan 22: Long before darkness forced an early end to day's play, Francesco Molinari sparkled with a stunning 7-under 65 to lead by two shots on a windy first day at the 2026 Hero Dubai Desert Classic.

The Italian, who has not won since taking The 147th Open Championship at Carnoustie in 2018, overcame the breezy conditions at Emirates Golf Club with eight birdies against one dropped shot.

Play was suspended at 5.50pm local time due to darkness, with nine players to complete their first rounds on Friday morning.

Defending champion Tyrrell Hatton carded 2-under 70, while four-time winner of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, Rory McIlroy had a roller coaster of a day with 1-over 73 that included three birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey and was eight shots behind the leader, Molinari.

It was patchy debut for India's Yuvraj Sandhu, who impressed and disappointed in equal measure. He had an early birdie on 13th, his fourth hole, but lost a ball on the 17th. He incurred two penalties on way to a triple bogey. Yet he seemed to have survived that as he birdied he 18th, first and second in a row to get back to 1-under in difficult conditions, Then came another disastrous stretch from fourth to the ninth and he bogeyed four times to finish 3-over. He will need a low round to get into the weekend.

He experienced Shubhankar Sharna, who like Sandhu is on the sponsor's exemption from Hero, was 2-over through 16 holes when play was suspended. He had three bogeys against one birdie.

Molinari has returned to form after an indifferent 2025 DP World Tour campaign with a top-ten finish at the Nedbank Golf Challenge before making the cut at last week's Dubai Invitational.

Molinari started birdie-birdie from the tenth and closed with three birdies in a row as he went past the then leader, Mikael Lindberg 67).

Molinari, a Rolex Series winner at the 2018 BMW PGA Championship, led by two.

"Not super unexpected, but I wasn't expecting a score like that," Molinari admitted. "Last week I felt very rusty, so I was hoping it would be very good prep for this week.

"Yeah, putter was the biggest difference to be honest. Made some nice putts. Kept the round going in the middle where I played a couple of iffy holes and made some good pars. Obviously very, very pleased with the start.

Lindberg went birdie-eagle-birdie from the second to surge into contention and led the way with another gain to start his back nine. His only dropped shot came at the 16th, but responded with birdie at the 18th to set the initial target before being overhauled.

South African J C Ritchie started with an eagle at the tenth before birdies at the 13th and 18th offset a bogey at the 15th. He moved to within one of Molinari with a hat-trick of birdies from the second, but double-bogeyed the sixth, his 16th hole, and finished at four under.

Girrbach opened with a bogey, but bounced back with an eagle and three birdies for his 68.