Heading into this week’s DP World Tour Championship, European Tour rookie Robert MacIntyre led fellow debutant Kurt Kitayama by just 91 points on the Race to Dubai as they sat in 11th and 12th place respectively.
That saw them drawn together in yesterday’s opening round and they both signed for matching 71s, which led to another tee time together for today’s second round.
The pair struggled for momentum in each other’s company second time around but it was MacIntyre who fared slightly better as he shot a 74 to sit on 1-over for the championship, one stroke ahead of Kitayama who carded a 75.
MacIntyre is bidding to become the first Scot to win the Rookie of the Year honour since Marc Warren in 2006 while Kitayama is looking to emulate fellow Americans Brooks Koepka and Peter Uhilein who clinched the award in 2014 and 2013 respectively.
Kitayama has won twice this season at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open and the Oman Open while MacIntyre has finished runner-up on three occasions and finished T6 on his Major Championship debut at The Open.
