The back nine holes at Abu Dhabi Golf Club again proved rewarding for Matt Wallace as he progressed up the leaderboard at the European Tour’s first big event of the year, but club-mate Callum Shinkwin’s opening event of 2018 has ended in disappointment.

Having birdied three of the last five holes yesterday to end the first round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on one-under-par, Wallace continued where he left off after teeing off from the 10th.

The Moor Park professional quickly moved to three-under after birdying the par five five 10th and par four 11th, and he repeated the back-to-back trick on the par three 15th and par 16th to go ‘out’ in a four-under par score of 32.

The sole blemish on Wallace’s second round card was to come with a bogey five at the first, but he retrieved that shot at the par four fifth to finish on five-under-par.

This left the Pinner-based professional in a share of 24th at the time of writing, alongside a number of players including world number one Dustin Johnson, who was 12 holes into his second round.

For playing partner and fellow Moor Park professional Shinkwin though, his tournament challenge was to end at the halfway stage.

Following a one-over-par 73 yesterday, the 24-year-old started with a birdie at 11, but then double bogeyed the par three 12th and dropped another shot with a five at the 14th to drop down to plus-three.

The two par fives, at 18 and 2, both yielded birdies as the Bushey golfer got his round moving in the right direction again, but he made a bogey five at six before finishing with a birdie three on the ninth to shoot an even-par 72.

This left last year’s Scottish Open runner-up in a tie for 101st on one-over, with the cut projected to come at two-under at the time of writing.

Belgian Thomas Pieters currently leads the event on 12-under, one shot clear of Spain's Jorge Campillo.