Donaldson outshines McIlroy, Woods

Jamie Donaldson ... is a shock first-round leader at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship. Source: Kamran Jebreili / AAP

Unheralded Jamie Donaldson outshone Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship by shooting an opening-round 5-under-par 67 for an early one-shot lead on Thursday.

McIlroy, playing with new clubs following his multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with Nike, finished with a 3-over 75 and risks missing the cut.

He repeatedly missed fairways including a shot on his 12th that hit a tree and ended up in a car park that led to one of his two double bogeys.

His other double bogey came when he muffed a chip in thick rough on his par-3 6th. He also putted poorly, missing a par putt on his 17th and a birdie putt on the 18th.

Mclroy insisted his difficulties had more to do with rusty strokes than the new equipment.

While he repeatedly slumped after a bad shot or frowned following a missed putt, the 2012 European Tour and US PGA Tour money winner seemed resigned to the fact that it would take time for him to adjust to the new Nike clubs.

"When you go out and you've got new stuff, you are going to be a little anxious and hopefully you play well," McIlroy said.

"But I guess I can learn from it and move on and go into tomorrow and try and play a bit better. It's about playing yourself into the weekend."

Woods, meanwhile, finished a rollercoaster round at even par after ``grinding it out.''

The 14-time major winner had four birdies to go along with four bogeys and ended his round by three-putting his 18th for a bogey when he hit the second putt too hard.

"I'm still right there," said Woods, who was five shots behind Donaldson.

"You know, if I two-putt that last hole I'm in I think 12th or 13th or something like that. There's not a lot of guys going low out there. These fairways are tiny to begin with, but there are a lot of crosswinds."

"I put something up there and lost it,'' Woods said of his bogeys on the back.

It was left to the 47th-ranked Donaldson to show how to master the narrow fairway and overcome the windy conditions. He had six birdies - including holing a bunker shot on his 12th - to go along with a bogey.

"Solid start, played some pretty good golf out there," said Donaldson, who was looking for his second European Tour victory.

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