Rory McIlroy speaks out after breaking little-known rule at Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship

Rory McIlroy's Race to Dubai title hopes suffered a setback after he was given a two-stroke penalty for inadvertently improving his lie at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship, with the two-time Masters winner directly addressing the moment.

McIlroy started the week third in the season-long standings as he chases a record-equalling eighth Race to Dubai title and was initially six strokes behind leader Francesco Laporta at the Abu Dhabi event, having birdied three of his final five holes.

But the Northern Irishman was adjudged to have improved his lie at the par-four 12th and was handed a two-shot penalty post-round, seeing his double-bogey six into a quadruple-bogey eight as he finished on a two-under 70.

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Rory McIlroy speaks out after breaking little-known rule at Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship

At the Yas Links 12th hole, McIlroy found the rough with his approach, but then his pitch rolled back towards his feet into a divot. Before his second effort, the 37-year-old made what looked to be an incriminating practice swing in the fluffy rough.

The swing inadvertently pressed down the grass behind his ball and, while video footage of the incident was inconclusive, his infringement came under Rule 8.1b, "which permits a player to ground their club lightly right in front of or behind the ball.”

After spending around 15 minutes with senior DP World Tour referee Simon Higginbottom and his playing partners Patrick Reed and Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra, McIlroy was handed his punishment and he was quick to say he didn't mean to improve his lie.

"They showed me a video from 12,” the Northern Irishman explained. “I hit my first chip shot from down the bottom of the hill, didn’t get up, came back down and rolled into a divot, and then as I went to sort of just get a feel for the lie, the close-up on the camera, you can see like a little piece of grass around the divot sort of lies down as I put my club down behind the ball.

“I guess the grass doesn’t return back to its original position. Obviously there’s no intent. I play by the rules. I try to do everything that I can to never end up in these positions, but just by looking at the video, it doesn’t look very good.

“Obviously that wasn’t my intent, I’m just trying to get a feel for the lie, the ball’s at the bottom of a sandy divot, I’m trying to feel like if I can get a 54 degree on to the back of the ball, but in the process, this piece of grass is sort of laid down.

“I guess the technical term for the rule is if you press down on the piece, I don’t feel like I pressed down, but at the same time, I don’t want the perception of people thinking like I got away with something either, so I’m happy to take a two-shot penalty and move into tomorrow.”

McIlroy will tee off tomorrow two-under and eight behind leader Laporta, giving him a mountain to climb to make up ground as he hopes to retain his Race to Dubai title.

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DP World Tour release statement on Rory McIlroy incident

McIlroy's two-stroke punishment was similar to when Bryson DeChambeau was penalised for accidentally trampling down thick grass behind his ball while navigating the area at the 2026 Open in July.

The DP World Tour have since released a statement about the Northern Irishman's rule break, which read: “Having reviewed the footage, McIlroy was unable to say whether he had pressed the club on the ground or not.

"However, given his concern over perception of the footage, he was not comfortable proceeding without penalty. He therefore chose to apply a two stroke penalty.”

Chacarra, who is leading the Race to Dubai standings, was quick to defend the two-time Masters champion after being asked about his thoughts on the controversy.

"I don't think he [McIlroy] improves his lie," Chacarra said. "Obviously, the referee and him thought different. In the video, it doesn't look great, but we've been watching Rory for a long time and he's a class man and never tries to improve his lies."