Abu Dhabi Championship: Tommy Fleetwood trails leader Aaron Ray by one shot after 54 holes

Fleetwood has been extremely impressive over the past few months, winning his first PGA Championship title at the Tour Championship in August before helping Europe beat the United States in the Ryder Cup in September.

last month. The world number five claimed his first DP World Tour title of the season in India.

“I’m playing very good golf at the moment and I’ve found myself in that position a lot throughout the summer, but I never take it for granted,” Fleetwood told the DP World Tour website.

“This is what you train for, this is the time of our lives and I enjoy it very much.”

Spaniard Nacho Elvira, who scored 65 points, is two shots away from the lead, while Englishman Andy Sullivan and New Zealander Daniel Hillier are tied for fourth place with 17 points under.

Rory McIlroy finished the day six shots off the pace with his round of 66, keeping him in first place to win the Race to Dubai title for the seventh time as the best golfer of the season on the DP World Tour.

The Abu Dhabi Championship is the first of two end-of-season playoff tournaments on the DP World Tour, with the top 70 players competing this week and the top 50 qualifying for next week’s final in Dubai.

With a total of 9,000 points to be shared between players this week (1,500 for the winner) and a further 12,000 next week (2,000 for the winner), the Harry Vardon Season Title Trophy is up for grabs.

Northern Irishman McIlroy, who is two points behind Colin Montgomerie’s eight-year record as number one on the Tour, leads the Race to Dubai standings by just under 500 points over Marco Bing, the Englishman who has won three times on the Tour this year.

Penge sits at 11 under par for this week’s tournament after having a 70 under on Saturday, finishing with a devastating double bogey after finding the water on the 18th.

Fleetwood is nearly 2,800 points behind McIlroy in the Race to Dubai standings, so to have any chance of a highly unlikely overall victory, he will need to win both playoff events and hope his Ryder Cup teammate stumbles.