McIlroy boosts Race to Dubai title chances as Laporta leads in Abu Dhabi with first-round 62

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Rory McIlroy fared the best of the three Race to Dubai contenders in a low-scoring first round of the Abu Dhabi Championship.

All were far behind Francesco Laporta.

The two-week postseason playoffs on golf's European tour began with the 224th-ranked Laporta shooting 10-under 62 to take a three-stroke lead over three players — including fellow Spaniard Jon Rahm — at Yas Links on Thursday.

“Everything was just going like a video game," said Laporta, who missed a 6-foot birdie putt at No. 18 for a 61 that would have tied the course record.

The big subplot in this next-to-last event of the 2026 season is the fight for the Race to Dubai title, which crowns the No. 1 player on the European tour each year. It looks to be down to McIlroy, Patrick Reed and standings leader Eugenio Chacarra, and all three are playing in the same group for the first two rounds.

McIlroy rebounded from a double-bogey 6 at No. 12 by making three straight birdies from No. 14 to shoot 68, leaving him six strokes off the lead.

Chacarra shot 70 and Reed had a frustrating day, making 15 pars and a closing double-bogey 7 in a 74 that saw him tied for 56th in the 70-man field.

McIlroy, the world No. 2, is seeking a fifth straight Race to Dubai title to move level on the all-time list on eight with Colin Montgomerie, who won the award when it was called the Order of Merit.

McIlroy is around 1,000 points behind Chacarra — a Spaniard playing his first full season on the European tour — and around 330 behind second-placed Reed, but the winner in Abu Dhabi this week will gain 1,500 points.

The season finishes in Dubai as usual next week, where 2,000 points are up for grabs for the winner.

Rahm, one of the many players who are leaving financially stricken LIV Golf, hadn't competed for seven weeks and was playing Yas Links for the first time.

It didn't show.

He was bogey free, making seven birdies thanks mainly to strong iron play and a dose of luck.

“A few bad swings that I got away with,” Rahm said. “But overall, yeah, I shot really nice today.”

The two-time major winner was tied with Bernd Wiesberger and Sam Bairstow in second place on 7 under.

Matthew Jordan and Adrian Meronk, a recent winner at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, were a further stroke behind after 66s.

See AP’s full golf coverage here

Eugenio Chacarra of Spain hits off the first tee during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Patrick Reed of the United States looks on after his second shot on the 11th hole during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks down the first fairway during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Francesco Laporta of Italy hits off the first tee during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland hits off the first tee during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

MILAN (AP) — Multiple flights in Europe were targeted by bomb threats on Thursday, forcing emergency landings, searches and in several cases military escorts, in fresh disruptions following hoax threats earlier this week.

More than a dozen flights from cities including Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Madrid, Milan and Warsaw were confirmed to have been targeted with bomb threats, most diverted to other airports for emergency landings while others landed safely at their destinations. So far inspections have not turned up hazardous or suspicious materials.

Such threats are not new, but the latest incidents come at a time of increased geopolitical tensions and other disruptions, including attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions in Europe and mysterious triggers to alert apps. Authorities have warned that hybrid threats abound.

A flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a military air base in western France because of a bomb threat, the French prime minister’s office said. The flight landed safely at the base in Evreux in Normandy, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office said.

All 151 passengers and six crew members were safe and military bomb disposal teams were examining the plane, the office said. The passengers aboard the Aer Lingus Dublin-Rome flight were questioned and checked in groups of 10 inside the airport, the prime minister's office said.

Hours later, the plane was sitting on the tarmac with a Red Cross vehicle nearby and explosives experts with dogs seen examining the aircraft.

Italian authorities alerted France’s government to the bomb threat on the Aer Lingus flight, and a French warplane escorted it to the Evreux base, the prime minister’s office said. An investigation was opened by French aviation security authorities.

Italian air force fighter jets escorted a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Rome after an email threat was received, according to an airport official with knowledge of the situation. It landed safely at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport at around 9:30 a.m., and no explosive materials were found during an inspection y police bomb disposal experts, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Finnair said that two of its flights, including the one that landed in Rome, “faced unfounded hoax bomb scares." Nothing was found aboard Finnair AY1761, and the plane was scheduled to depart for Helsinki.

The other flight, operated by Jettime, from Helsinki to Vienna landed safely at its destination, and was expected to return to service after an inspection was completed, Finnair said.

Czech police said searches of four other planes that landed in Prague after being targeted by bomb threats turned up no threats. They did not give details on where the flights originated, and said they took precautions despite not finding the threats credible.

A LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Brussels landed at its destination, where inspections found no hazardous or suspicious items, the airline said.

A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Bucharest landed safely in Bucharest following a bomb threat, airport spokesman Teo Postelnicu said. Checks turned up no threat, and air traffic was continuing on schedule.

A flight to Warsaw landed in Vienna following a mail to Polish authorities containing an abstract threat, said Stefan Loidl, a police spokesperson in Lower Austria province. Nothing was found and the plane continued to Warsaw.

He said there was also a vague threat to Vienna Airport concerning four other flights, which he declined to identify, but operations were not disrupted.

Polish authorities checked a LOT flight that was about to depart from Warsaw to Paris on Thursday morning after a threat was reported at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport, said airport spokesman Piotr Rudzki. No threat was ultimately identified. One runway at Chopin airport was temporarily closed while authorities carried out standard security procedures.

Three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, Bulgaria, had to make emergency landings because of bomb threats on board. Two of the flights, one from Copenhagen, Denmark, and the other from Madrid, landed safely at Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport, airport officials told reporters. The third Sofia-bound flight, from London’s Stansted Airport to Sofia, had been diverted and landed safely at the airport in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city, Plovdiv Airport CEO Krassimir Peshev said.

The three planes that made an emergency landing in Sofia and Plovdiv were escorted by fighter jets on air policing duty, the Ministry of Defense said.

Several flights across Europe received hoax bomb threats earlier this week that prompted searches, diversions and, in one case, an escort by the Italian air force until landing, officials said.

The flights included Polish airline LOT, Scandinavian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair. The hoax threats came after a plane headed for Bulgaria was diverted to Hungary after receiving a similar bomb threat while in the air. No one was injured.

——-

Charlton reported from Paris and Biller from Rome. Associated Press writers throughout Europe contributed to this report.

An Aer Lingus Airbus A320 aircraft is seen at Evreux military air base after a flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to France amid reports of bomb threats targeting multiple flights across Europe, in Evreux, France, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

An Aer Lingus Airbus A320 aircraft is seen at Evreux military air base after a flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to France amid reports of bomb threats targeting multiple flights across Europe, in Evreux, France, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)