Lucas Herbert eyes big second round to chase down leader Rory McIlroy

The 25-year-old Bendigo golfer had a blemish-free one-under front-nine on the Jumeirah Golf Estates Earth Course.

He knocked his tee shot on the par-three fourth close to the pin to set up an easy birdie putt and would go on to make the turn under-par.

Two missed approach shots on the par-four 10th and 11th holes put the pressure on Herbert's short game which led to back-to-back bogeys which moved him to one-over with seven holes still to play.

Moving forward there were no more bogeys on the back-nine and Herbert was able to bring his scorecard back to even with a birdie on the par-five 14th.

He hit a 280m drive to the right rough, followed by a 256m second shot which landed just shy of the green.

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After a nice chip to the flag, all that was left was a medium-range putt for birdie which found the bottom of the cup to move back to even-par.

He then put four more pars on the card to head into round two on Friday at even-par - seven shots behind leader Rory McIlroy.

With four birdies, one eagle and one bogey, McIlroy made the turn at five-under before a blemish free back nine with two birdies.

He takes a two-shot lead into round two, with Joachim B. Hansen, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Tapio Pulkkanen (-5) not far behind.

Herbert tees up in round two alongside Abraham Ancer (Even) at 2.12AM AEDT on Saturday morning

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